Purpose of this assignment

The aim of this assignment is to give learners the opportunity to develop techniques for data gathering and storage, an
understanding of the tools available to create and present useful information, in order to make business decisions
Scenario
You have recently assumed the position of a business development manager at a medium-sized British company, ABC
Ltd. A major part of your role is the responsibility for making appropriate decisions for the smooth operations of the
companys business. And this requires occasional data gathering, analysis and presentation to your departmental staff,
and especially senior management team (SMT) as part of ABC Ltd.s management information and decision support
systems for the organisation.
Your company has invested in decision-making software and ICT applications to support efficient decision- making, and
you are given the following tasks to complete:
Task 1 (LO1: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3)
1.1
As the new business development manager, you have been tasked to expand the ABC Ltd business operations in the UK.
To provide the right information, you need relevant information to be presented to your senior management team (SMT) to
enable them make the right decisions as to whether to expand in these two countries.
You are required to create a plan for the collection of primary and secondary data for the expansion project.
1.2
Following your plan above, present the survey methodology and sampling frame used in your research.
1.3
Since you taking the role, there was general complaining about the poor level of customer service, and you noticed this
has been having impact on sales figures and forecast profit. You have therefore decided to get to the bottom of the
problem by carrying out a customer survey to enable you address the customers concern.

You have been requested to:

(a)State general rules to observe when designing questionnaire;
(b)Design a questionnaire to help you address the customer service problem within the organisation.
Task 2 (LO2: 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4)
2.1 Twenty five sales staff from the sales and marketing department of your department took course in basic Excel
spreadsheet. The test at the end of the course and marks obtained by the staff shown in the table below. The marks were
out of 50 and the pass mark was 20 out 50.

12

19

21

32

25

34

22

30

20

43

21

16

45

32

27

38

39

21

18

33

11

28

26

27

You have been asked to process this data so that the Marketing Director can make decisions based on the results. Use
representative values to summarise this data and create information to help with the decision making.

2.2The Production manager is concerned about the number of rejects computers produced by
ABC Ltd and requested you, as part of management information for decision making, to carry out some data analysis from
the table about number of rejects computer for past 10 weeks.

13

17

17

22

30

28

23

24

19

23

25

24

15

23

16

18

27

27

11

21

24

22

33

22

13

23

28

28

19

21

24

22

24

29

26

26

22

23

12

20

26

31

20

25

27

(a)Construct an ungrouped frequency distribution from the data

(b)Construct a grouped frequency distribution from the data using seven class intervals of equal with.
(c)Analyse the results to draw valid conclusions in a business context
2.3 The normal distribution curve shows profit for a business in the year 2013.
A

Business profits

Thousands {000}
i. Given that the standard deviation is 1000, calculate the values within three standard deviations of the mean
andanalyse data using measures of dispersion to inform this given business scenario

10

2.4 Explain briefly the importance of quartiles, percentiles and the correlation coefficient and as a tool for business
decision making.
Task 3 (LO3: 3.1, 3.2, 3.3)
3.1
The following sales figures were extracted from ABC Ltd annual accounts from the period2002-2006. You have been
asked to use spreadsheet software technique to draw multiple bar charts and provide comments on the figures provided
on the graph.
Sales (m)
2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Product X

12

15

10

20

15

10

15

15

15

10

15

10

25

3.2 You are given the following forecast data relating to ABC Ltd monthly sales and delivery cost. You are being asked to
establish delivery cost against sales to examine the way in which delivery cost changed with sales revenue by using trend
lines graph.
This information will assist to establish the relationship between delivery cost and sales revenue in future.

SALES AND DELIVERY COSTS

Months

Budgeted

Delivery Cost

Sales

(000s)

July

50

340

August

150

400

September

550

700

October

560

650

November

650

760

December

710

750

January

750

800

February

900

900

March

470

600

April

350

450

May

250

500

June

80

330

3.3 In addition to the above information, you are also provided with the ACTUAL sales figures for the same periods. You
are required to present this information on trends lines graphs to show the relationship between budget sales, actual sales
and delivery costs.
SALES AND DELIVERY COSTS

Months

Budgeted

Delivery Cost

Actual Sales

Sales

(000s)

(000s

July

50

340

70

August

150

400

120

September

550

700

600

October

560

650

560

November

650

760

600

December

710

750

740

January

750

800

720

February

900

900

800

March

470

600

550

April

350

450

450

May

250

500

240

June

80

330

100

3.4 Produce a formal business report.

Use the above sales and delivery cost information provided in task 3.3 above, and present a brief formal business report
to your line manager, Operations and Business Development Director, and identify 4 key points you observed on the
graphs or the table. You should also calculate and highlight in your report the arithmetic mean, median and mode for
budgeted and actual sales as well as delivery cost.

Task 4 (LO4: 4.1, 4.2, 4.3)

4.1 (a) I identify, and discuss at least the four qualities of management information should have whether at operational,
tactical or strategic levels for decision-making within an organisation.
(b) Information systems design to support decision making within an organisation can be classified under operational,
tactical and strategic levels. Explain with examples the following information systems, which are designed to support
decision-making at operational, tactical and strategic levels:

i.Transaction processing systems (TPS)

ii.Management Information Systems (MIS)

iii.Decision Support Systems (DSS)

iv.Executive Information Systems (EIS)

4.2(a) Discuss briefly the use of the following tools used in project management:
i.Critical Path Analysis
ii.Gant Charts
iii.Pert (Project Evaluation Review Techniques) Chart
4.2(b) The following project data in the dependency table was provided by ABC Ltd IT manager; it relates to a new
ICT project to be undertaken.
Activity

Duration (Days)

Preceding Activities

B, E

D, F

H, G, J

You are required to:

(i)To draw the network flow diagram.

(ii)The Critical path and its duration.


(iii)Draw a Gantt chart to illustrate the project.
4.3At the beginning of the year 2014, ABC Ltd board of directors are considering making investment decisions in ONE of
the two new products, A, & B to be developed from next year 2015. The Accounts Department has provided the following
data and relevant information to assist you, and using relevant financial tools, as stated below, to help the board make the
right investment decision.
Barclays Bank has agreed to lend ABC Ltd initial investment of 20,000 for a 5-year period for the development of either
Products A or B. The interest rate to be charged on the loan is 8%.
The forecast cash flows for the 5-year period provided by accounts department is as follows:

Products

Year 2015

7,000

8,500

2016

8,500

8,900

2017

9,800

9,600

2018

9,500

9,700

2015

15,500

13,500

Calculate:

(a)The Net Present Value (NPV) for products A & B and recommend to the board which product to invest in.

(b)Internal Rate of Return (IRR) for products A & B and recommend to the board which product to invest in.