Case description: Maintenance Expense

The ISDS department is in the process of deciding whether to purchase a maintenance contract
for its new multi-function printer. The department chair feels that maintenance expense should
be related to usage, and they collected the following information on weekly usage (hours) and
annual maintenance expense (in dollars). The Case Data file
(Printer_Maintenace_Expense.xlsx) has the sample data.

The ISDS department would like you (hired as student assistant and business analyst) to use this
sample data and answer the following questions:

Is there a relationship between weekly usage and annual maintenance expenses?

The ISDS faculty expects to use the new printer 31 hours per week. If the maintenance contract
costs $3000 per year, would you recommend purchasing it? Why or why not? How much the
department is expected to gain or suffer loss if the department decides not to purchase the
contract?

Phase 1 (Initial Report): Please complete the following tasks for this phase:
a) Introduction and problem background
b) Describe the data and the variables included in the case
c) Use appropriate statistics, including (Descriptive Statistics and Histograms) and (Five-
Number Summaries and Boxplots) to explore and summarize the data. Are there any
outlier values? Can outlier expense values (without a maintenance contract) create
problems for the department budget? Remember to interpret the findings accurately
and present them in a clear and coherent way.

Phase 2 (Final report): Please complete the following tasks for this phase:
a) Introduction and problem background
b) Describe the data and variables included in the case. Identify the dependent variable.
c) Initial Data exploration
d) Apply the statistical methods to test your hypothesis
Follow all steps required to conduct a complete analysis
e) Final conclusions, decision-making and recommendations based on the results to the
ISDS department.

Important note: Please follow the grading rubric carefully while preparing your proposal and
your final report. Remember to focus on the writing as well – grammar, typos, flow and
organization are key components.