SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

Information technology plays an important role in any organization. Some of the roles recognized to be instrumental to an organization that Information Technology assists with include communication, management of inventory and company data, information systems management, and the management of customer relations. Due to this invaluable contribution, a company with a well-defined Information System is more likely to be successful and in a better position to meet its objectives and ideals. With this in mind, Personal Trainer Inc. decided to engage an Information Technology consultant to assist in the creation of an Information System for the company, and the identification of how the new system will better serve the company. The IT consultant, Susan Park, will come up with an information system project that specifies the company requirements, the essential tasks towards the fulfillment of the project, timelines on the said tasks as well as the human resource implications and cost of the project implementation.

Personal Trainer Inc. is a fitness training operator based out of the Midwest. Personal Trainer Inc. is led by the Chief Executive Cassia Ummi who is also the founder. The mission of the organization is to provide health and fitness services to the community around them through holistic therapy that is founded on sound medical practice. The vision of the company is to become the top provider of health and fitness services in the Midwest, and nationally. With close to a dozen training facilities, and an ever expanding presence in the fitness market, Personal Trainer is geared towards capturing the entire Midwestern market before expanding to other regions. As part of their expansion strategy, the company has been considering opening a supercenter in the Toronto area. This is in line with the company vision of working into the entire Midwestern region. Central to this strategy has been the need to integrate an assessment on the contributions that information technology would play in this expansion. It is with this in mind that the company hired an IT consultant to help develop the project that will guide their expansion into the new market, specifically for the information system requirements.

Personal Trainer Inc. is comprised of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Manager, Human Resource Manager (HRM), fitness center managers, Trainers, account manager, supervisors, employees, and customers. The CEO is the founder of the company and owner of the business and is important in managing the operations of the business. Like most CEOs, he ensures that he is actively engaged in the operations at the company and that all the different departments of the company work in line with the company’s goals and objectives. The CEO also makes crucial decisions for the company after careful consultation with the managers and supervisors. The manager in the company is tasked with ensuring that the operations of the company are in line with the company’s mission. The manager acts as the CEO Representative when he is not available and is also tasked with developing new strategies that can be incorporated into the operations of the company. The manager also plans the operations of the company and also plays a significant role in analyzing the operational trend of the company (Davis & Davis 2011). The Human Resource Manager plays the role of hiring employees for the company. The HRM also ensures that all the employees understand their various roles and the company’s policies through training and induction (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst 2015). The HRM also ensures that the employees work in a conducive environment and allows them to report any incident that they are not comfortable with at the workplace. HRM also participate in resolving conflicts that may arise at the workplace between the employees (Machado & Melo 2014). Any conflict should be handled in time to prevent the issue from escalating. A conflict at the workplace will affect the performance of the employees, and this will also lead to the poor performance of the company.

The fitness managers play an important role in the company because they make sure that the gym equipment are fully functional. They also participate in the replacement of faulty equipment and purchase of new ones. Safety in the gym is important because it helps to prevent accidents that may involve the employees as well as the customers (Speegle 2013). The trainers are considered as among the most important people in the company. They interact with the customers and ensure that their needs are met. They play an important role in the wellbeing of the customers and communicate with them to know what they would like to be incorporated into the company. The interaction between the customers and the trainers determines whether they will keep visiting the company. If they are not comfortable with the services offered, they may move to another place. The account manager is responsible for the finances of the company and also plays a role in analyzing the business trend of the company. If there is a decrease of money obtained by the company, it is his role to inform the manager. This ensures that the manager can figure the cause of the decrease and implement the appropriate measures to avoid a recurrence. The employees of the company, in this case, consist of the cleaners, receptionist, secretaries, and interns. The customers are important for any business, and they are considered to be the backbone business operations. Without customers, businesses tend to collapse as they cannot sustain their operations without their contributions. Businesses should ensure that customer satisfaction is achieved. When customers are happy with the services or products offered, they will participate in marketing the company to their friends and family, and this means more business for the company. A negative experience by customers will lead them to shun the services offered by the company, and they will prefer those that are provided by the company’s competitor.

Interviews will be conducted for the CEO, fitness center managers, and the trainers. For the CEO, some the interview will be aimed at understanding how he selects the different strategies that are used in the company’s operations. The interview will also seek to understand the strategies that are considered as money-making by the CEO, and those that he thinks should not be implemented. The fitness managers will also be interviewed in a bid to understand how they perform their duties, and the various operation strategies that they feel need to be incorporated into the company’s operations. The fitness center managers will also be required to explain how they think the company can be improved to have a better position against the competitors. The fitness center managers will also be required to explain how the operations of the company can be improved. The trainers will be interviewed, and some of the questions that they will be required to answer include how important a good relationship with the customers is to the growth and development of the company. They will also be asked how they relate with the customers to ensure customer satisfaction, and how important safety of the gym is to the employees and customers. The trainers will also be requested to identify methods that can be used to make operations at the gym easier.

 The objectives for the CEO interview are the following:

1. To help understand how the CEO, together with the board, selects the different strategies that are used in the company’s operations.
2.  To understand the strategies that are considered as sound money-making procedures by the CEO, and those that he thinks should not be implemented.
3. To understand the CEO’s ideas on the role of the Information System in achieving business objectives.

The objectives of the fitness center managers will include the following:

1. To understand how they perform their duties, and the various operation strategies that they feel are essential for company’s operations.
2. To get the opinions of the fitness center managers on how the company can perform better against local competitors.
3. To gather how company operations can be improved and specifically on the role of the information system in instituting the change.

The objective of the fitness trainer interviews will be the following:

1. To identify the role of a good customer relations management strategy to the overall growth and development of the company and how to expand and improve the current system.
2. To identify strategies on how best to relate to customers in order to ensure customer satisfaction and the role of information technology in customer satisfaction.
3. To identify ways in which the health and safety of customers can be improved through the use of information technology.
4. To identify methods through which operations at the gym that directly involve customers can be made easier using information technology.

Task	Duration
Meeting with the fitness center managers at the different Personal Trainer Locations	5 days
Interviews	5 days
Review of company records	3 days
Observation of business operations	8 days
Analyzing Bumble Bee accounting software	2 days
Studying sales and billing transaction samples	2 days
Final report preparation	1 day

One of the dependent tasks for this project is the interviews. Before the interviews are conducted, a series of interview questions will have to be prepared. The questions help to ensure that the right and relevant information is gathered from the respondents (Silva 2012). Observation of business operations is also dependent and to complete the task efficiently, I will need someone to explain to me the various functions and operations. This will help to develop a clear understanding of the task and also contribute to the perfect completion of the task.

PERT/CPM Chart

This project will take a maximum of 26 days to be completed. This duration will ensure that the various aspects required to complete the project are carefully analyzed. It will also ensure that the final report presented to Susan will be correct without any errors.

Conclusion

The project has the ability to ensure that the company successfully expands and integrates into the new target market. The project will also ensure that the company reviews its customer relations management objectives as well as clarifies the role of information technology towards the success of the organization. Based on the interviews, the revelations are that IT plays a central role towards the ability of the company to engage its clientele and build mutually beneficial relationships with them. In addition, the company benefits from more streamlined operations and a more efficient workforce as a result of the institution of a sound information system framework. An analysis of the accounting software as well as the sales transactions reveal the company will benefit from an increased investment in it I.T. infrastructure.

References

Carolina, M., 2014. Effective Human Resources Management in Small and Medium Enterprises.

            IGI Global.

Davis, C & Davis, E., 2011. Managerial Accounting for Strategic Decision Making, Preliminary

            Decision. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

DeCenzo, D,Robbins, S, & Verhulst, S., 2015. Fundamental of Human Resource Management.

            New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Silva, C., Online Research Methods in Urban Planning Studies. Hershey, PA: Information

            Science Reference.

Speegle, M., 2013. Safety, Health, Environmental Concepts for the Process industry. 2^nd edn.

            USA: Delmar Cengage Learning.