Write and essay for each question!
BIS 155 Data Analysis
1. Fact Pattern: Question 1:
You currently work for an automotive parts supply store. Your company is growing, and is considering expansion. The company currently has three locations (North, South, and Central) in one state, and wants to consider expanding within the same state. You have been presented with the sales figures for the last three years for each of your locations. Based on this information, you're tasked with analyzing current sales.
You have decided to compare the performance of the three stores to get a better idea of where expansion might be most beneficial. Respond fully to the following questions regarding this task.
A - (TCO 9) The data has been provided to you in one .csv file showing weekly sales for all three stores for the last three years. Explain the tasks you must complete in preparing the data for your analysis.
B - (TCO 2) Explain, based on material covered in this class, your approach to setting up your worksheet and organizing the data. Remember that you have only weekly sales totals for each store in the data.
C - (TCO 3) Explain how you will visually represent the comparison of the total annual sales at the individual stores for each of the three years. Describe methods to make your strongest performer (the North store) stand out.
D - (TCO 7) Once you have finished the above tasks, your Excel workbook will be placed on your company server so that all of the managers can view it. You know that they may have questions regarding your work, and want them to know that you created the workbook so that they can contact you. Describe how you will convey the information regarding worksheet creation. (Points: 40)
2. Fact Pattern: Question 2:
You own your own small party supply and rental business. You maintain an Excel list of potential customers and clients who have rented or purchased from you in the past two years. The list includes both physical mailing addresses and e-mail addresses for each person listed. You have a "category" code to show whether the contact is a client. If they have done business with you, they show a code of "CUST" for customer. If they are potential customers who have not yet purchased or rented from you, they are coded as "PROS" for prospect.
You want to grow your business, and feel the best way to do this is to solicit business from your prospects who have physical addresses in the same zip code as your business location. Respond fully to the following questions regarding this task:
A - (TCO 4) Explain how you will use Excel to find in your list the people you are targeting for new business. Be specific.
B - (TCO 8) You have used your computer skills to develop and print a beautiful flyer, and you intend to mail it to your prospects. However, you dread hand addressing the envelopes. Explain how you might use Excel to make this go faster.
C - (TCO 7) If you get the results you expect to get from contacting your prospects, you want to be able to do this every month. Explain how you might use Excel to automate the process of separating your list as you did in Part A.
D - (TCO 6) Your list is extensive, and mailing letters is expensive. Cost is $15 for every 50 letters mailed. You want to gauge the impact on your income statement of mailing 50, 100, 200, and 400 letters. Explain how you might evaluate this using your Excel tools.
3. Fact Pattern: Question 3:
Your company is planning a party for employees, and you have been asked to set up a spreadsheet to track the attendees and to calculate the associated cost. Each employee is allowed to bring one guest to the party. There are 50 employees in your company. The spreadsheet needs to be set up when the invitations are distributed so that you can begin recording the reservations as soon as they come in.
The costs of the party are the same for every attendee. When the employees respond, you want to add their names to the list. If they are not coming, you want this recorded. If they are coming alone, the cost is $45. If they are bringing a guest, the cost is $45 X 2. Respond fully to the following questions regarding this task:
A - (TCO 1) Explain how you will structure your worksheet, including the titles, column headings, the formulas to calculate the cost for each employee (which may include cost for a guest), and to calculate the total cost of the party.
B - (TCO 2) The facility where the party is to be held will give the company a reduction in price if more than 75 people attend. The price per person will then be $40. Describe how you will set up your worksheet to reflect a change when the total number of attendees hits 75.
C - (TCO 4) You want the employees who are going to attend to show up on the list with a yellow background. Explain the method you would use to have this automatically occur when you indicate the employee's response.
D - (TCO 4) You know your management team will want to periodically check to see who is attending. They are not concerned with those who have responded but are not attending. Explain how you might generate this list as requested using your knowledge of Excel.
4. Fact Pattern: Question 4:
You've just joined the staff of the XYZ Manufacturing Company (XYZ, for short). XYZ manufactures only one product-the gizmo. It comes in two sizes, the mini-gizmo and the magna-gizmo. Both are difficult to manufacture, and consequently, the company closely monitors rejected units. The company has three locations each of which produces both the mini and the magna-gizmos. You are automating the weekly production reports so that you can easily calculate total production for the entire company each week.
The mini-gizmo is priced at $5 per unit. The magna-gizmo is priced at $8 per unit. The unit cost for a reject mini-gizmo is $2. The cost for a reject magna-gizmo is $3. Respond fully to the following questions regarding this task:
A - (TCO 1) You have decided to develop a worksheet for each manufacturing facility manager to submit each week. It should show total production and revenue, and total scrap and cost for each product for the week. If a facility drops below 5,000 units of production on the mini-gizmo, the production number should be highlighted in yellow. Explain how you will set this up so that the managers enter only the number of units for each product's production and rejects.
B - (TCO 5) The managers will e-mail their weekly reports to you on Monday of the following week. You will then produce the summary report. Explain the process for doing this. Give a sample formula to total the number of magna-gizmos produced for the entire company for the week.
C - (TCO 5) Each week, you will present the combined report to your boss, who wants to see both the summary and the individual sheets for each location. You want to add a custom footer with the date and the company name to each page. What is the easiest way to do this? Explain the process.
D - (TCO 3) Describe the graph that you would create to accompany the report in Part C. Include formatting considerations to make important facts stand out.
5. Fact Pattern: Question 5:
Congratulations on your new position as loan officer at the Commercial Bank and Trust Company. You are dedicated to building long-term relationships with your clients, and you want to be able to answer their questions quickly if they call after obtaining a loan. The bank's system is a little slow, so you have started your own list of information frequently needed by your client. You are aware that it is extremely important that the customer's information be protected.
You process home mortgage loans for the bank's customers. The interest rate varies depending on the term of the note. The bank writes mortgages for 10, 15, 20, and 30 years. Once you know the term, you use the associated rate to calculate the loan payment. You then store the customer's information including the payment date and the payment amount in your list for quick reference. Respond fully to the following questions regarding this task:
A - (TCO 2) You have set up an Excel worksheet to determine the loan payment. It is set up so that you enter the term of the note, and it finds and returns the correct interest rate. Then, you enter the interest rate and other required information to get the actual payment. Describe the Excel tools used for these tasks, and the information required to obtain the payment.
B - (TCO 10) You know that your list of information on the loans will quickly become very long. As these are long-term loans, the information will not change a lot, but it is important that it remain confidential. You want to be able to pull up an individual record by street address and zip code, or by phone number. A friend has suggested that you build your list in Access. What would be the benefit of doing this, particularly in the banking environment? Would this meet your needs?
C - (TCO 10) You want to use the Access form wizard to create an input form for your list. Describe the process of creating the form, and the special tools you might use to make it easier to use and less prone to errors.
D - (TCO 10) You have decided that you would like to be able to pull a list of your clients with high interest rates if the rates fall enough to make refinancing attractive. Explain how you would obtain a list of loans with interest rates greater than a specific percentage, and then print the information for your use in making these calls. Be specific!