INF10009 Business Information Systems: Analysis On Book Lovers Paradise Assessment Answer

INF10009 Introduction to Business Information Systems

Aim 

The two primary aims of this assessment is • To analyse the operational information of Book Lovers Paradise and provide an assessment on how well the business is doing. • To assess the competitive landscape of Book Lovers Paradise as well as how technology has affected them over time.

Each student is required to use MS Excel to perform an analysis of the state of Book Lovers Paradise’ business. You are then expected to write a report that refers to specific analytical charts which you have created in MS Excel to assess Book Lovers Paradise’ business. Describing the data content of each chart is insufficient, you need to analyse the information that the chart provides.

Note that Book Lovers Paradise is a fictitious company.

Each student is expected to undertake research of the book industry and use the information gathered to analyse the competitive landscape of Book Lovers Paradise using Porter’s Five Forces Model. The application of technology in Book Lovers Paradise and the book industry also need to be examined. You are expected to apply the concepts (not just define the theory) to Book Lovers Paradise. If necessary, you can make assumptions to support your argument. These assumptions must be stated clearly. Clear application of theory will demonstrate your understanding of these concepts. Students need to write simply. The sentences need to flow and be easily understood by the reader. Use of complex jargon and difficult words should be the exception rather than the norm. Your ability to communicate well and concisely will be assessed. The assessment is to be done by each individual student on their own. Discussion on concepts and expectations on the assessment can be done in class with teacher, but the deliverables must be completed individually. Students who submit duplicate assessments will be disqualified, irrespective of who copied from who.

Background

Book Lovers Paradise is a bookstore chain in Australia. It has 4 shops in Australia in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. It sells non-educational books. Book Lovers Paradise has been in business since 2007. It has noted a considerable decline in its sales across all stores since 2013. Due to that, a website was launched in 2018 to promote their operations in an effort to reach more customers via the internet. Their website provides a comprehensive catalogue of their products, and customers can call or visit relevant store to put in their orders, which can be picked up or delivered. Book Lovers Paradise suspects that they need to revamp their book collection in order to generate higher interest. A part of the management team has strongly advocated to drop the sales of all product categories except for the top 2 categories. Senior management is leaning towards closing all stores except one. You have been given some basic data on the total sales revenues of Book Lovers Paradise over the last 2 years. Your objective is to analyse the data and provide your assessment.

Deliverables

You are expected to complete and submit (a) MS Excel Analysis Document (b) Business Analysis Report

A. MS Excel Analysis Document

i. Use MS Excel to populate the following sales data into 1st worksheet called “Sales Analysis (Student Name)”

Ensure that the coloured cells are filled in with the right data. You MUST use a relevant predefined function to do this. Use the relevant function add up the vertical totals and to count the number of product categories. Please ensure that the formatting of cells and numbers is done per the table shown above. You need to calculate the annual sales growth (or decline) for the cells above. For example, the sales growth (or decline) is calculated by taking the difference between the sales for 2019 and 2018. The sales growth (or decline) percentage is calculated by dividing sales growth (or decline) over the sale in 2018. A positive figure represents growth and a negative figure represents decline. The Gross profit for 2018 is 10% of the Sales for 2018 for all products. The Gross profit for 2019 is 30% of Sales for 2019 for first 4 categories and for the rest it is 5% of 2019 Sales. The reason for this is the suppliers for the respective products have changed their unit costs for the books. The status column should be derived from the middle table using the VLOOKUP function. Use Sales growth or sales growth percentage as the lookup value.

The Number of categories should be calculated using relevant function to show how many product categories are sold. Total Declined Sales 2019 and Total Increased Sales 2019 should respectively be an addition of the 2019 sales for when the 2019 product sales show a decline or growth. Net sales Growth is the addition of total declined sales and total increased sales.

Please ensure that the formatting of cells and numbers is done per the table shown above, in terms of grid lines, colours and decimal places. ii. Create a 2nd worksheet, which should be named “Sales Chart (Student Name)”. Create the following 2 charts with appropriate chart title, axis labels, legends and colours.

a. A Clustered Bar chart showing Annual Sales 2018-2019 for each product category. The vertical axis should be labelled as Category while the horizontal axis should be AUD$. The Legend should be on the right.

Chart title should be “Book Lovers Paradise Sales 2018-2019 (Student Name)

Students are expected to • use absolute addressing, SUM function, SUMIF, COUNTA and VLOOKUP function, where appropriate. Students are expected to research SUMIF function in more detail, as this assessment requires students to specify all 3 elements in SUMIF. • to create the charts as described in the assessment (Student Name) is expected to be replaced by the student’s name. For example, if the student’s name is Scarlet Johansen, then it should be (Scarlet Johansen) in the MS Excel worksheet names and titles, as demonstrated in one of the charts above.

B. Business Review Report

The report will have the sections as per the table below.

The assessment requires you to apply the concepts you have learnt from INF10009 in the analysis and argument about BookLoversParadise. Therefore, pure definitions from the recommended textbook or lecture material should not be used. Explain the concepts in your own words (paraphrase) and at the same time making reference to the material which you referred to. Quotations will only be given minimal marks. Students are also expected to paraphrase the background of Book Lovers Paradise.

Section Description 

Title Page 

Table of Contents 

1. Introduction Brief background of Book Lovers Paradise and purpose of report. 

2. Business Performance Review Using the charts from MS Excel, present your analysis on how the business is performing. Do research on Amazon Australia Best sellers to help in your analysis. (Tip: You should not only describe the chart but to analyse it. Your explanation of why this has happened, and what the business should do) Provide your recommendation on whether BookLoversParadise should close all stores except one. (Hint: Importance of information) 

3. Competitive and Technological Analysis Based on the background information provided in the assessment, and the current book retail industry that you gather from research, examine the following concepts in relation to BookLoversParadise, and their importance in gaining competitive advantage • Using Porters 5 forces model, provide an analysis of the competitive intelligence of BookLoversParadise with focus on Competitive Rivalry and Threat of new entrant and threat of substitute. • Discuss on the state of the book industry and explain how sustaining and disruptive technology can help decrease buyer power in book industry • Discuss and contrast Borders bookstore chain (A real organisation) and lessons that can be learnt by BookLoversParadise 

4. Conclusion Summary of BookLoversParadise business (from section 2 and 3) 

5. Appendix Reference Lists

Students are expected to insert the figures/charts in MS Excel and use it to support your analysis of BookLoversParadise business performance. At least 3 references must be provided to support section 3 of the report. Assessment marks will also be allocated to correct referencing (Harvard System). There is a guide freely available at: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lib/researchhelp/harvard_system.htm. Students should refrain from quoting and should paraphrase (rewrite in your own words) what you have found from the research.