INTRODUCTION
You Can Fit In is a company that owns and operates fitness centres in various cities in
Victoria and NSW. The fitness centres have done well, and the company is planning an
expansion by opening a new “supercentre” on the Gold Coast, Queensland. Some people in
the company anticipate further expansion to other locations such as Brisbane, if all goes
well.
BACKGROUND
Adam Apple, CEO, heads You Can Fit In’s management team. Three managers’ report to him
at the firm’s Melbourne headquarters: Donald Dollars, manager of finance; Sally Molly,
manager of sales and marketing; and Chia Chen, manager, operations. The centre managers
who run the 13 existing centres all report to Chia. Adam wants the new supercentre in Gold
Coast to emphasis a wide variety of personal services and special programs for members. If
the supercentre approach is successful, it will become the model for You Can Fit In’s future
growth. Adam personally selected Mark Lewis, a manager with three years of fitness centre
experience, to run the new facility.
Each of the centres employs both full time and casual staffing for the day to day activities of
each centre. While the specifics vary across locations, the common jobs include front desk
welcoming and payments, shop attendant who also handles stocks and stores, cleaning,
instructors for classes such as aerobics and yoga, and for the centres that have a swimming
pool, a life guard who observes personal safety issues.
The new supercentre will feature a large exercise area with state-of-the-art equipment, a
swimming pool, a sporting goods shop, a health food store, and a snack bar – with healthy
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snacks, of course, including smoothies! In addition, the centre will offer child care with
special programs for various ages, and a computer café. Adam also wants members to have
online access to customised training programs and progress reports. For personal reasons
he also has been thinking about including swimming lessons as a possible service to include.
It is recognised that the Gold Coast is a major tourism location and it is envisioned that such
tourist visitors may provide a source of casual day customers, especially during periods of
poor weather.
The You Can Fit In business currently uses OnAllAccounts, a popular accounting package, to
manage its receivables, payables and general ledger. Membership lists and word processing
are handled with Microsoft Office products Excel and Word. Adam believes the new
supercentre will require additional data management capabilities, and he decided to hire
Gates to the Job, an IT consulting firm, to help You Can Fit In to develop an information
system for their new operation. The firm assigned Nina Stay, an experienced consultant, to
work with the You Can Fit In team. Nina’s first task was to learn more about business
operations intended for the new centre, so she requested a meeting with Mark. After
introducing themselves, there was a discussion about the new information system. The
transcript of their meeting is presented below.
TRANSCRIPT: Initial Discussion between Nina and Mark
Nina: Tell me about your plans for the new operation. I’m especially interested in what
kind of information management you’ll need.
Mark: Adam thinks that we will need more information support because of the size
and complexity of the new operation. To tell the truth, I’m not so sure. We have
had no problems with OnAllAccounts at the other centres and I don’t really want
to reinvent the wheel.
Nina: Maybe we should start by looking at the similarities – and the differences –
between the new centre and the existing ones
Mark: OK, let’s do that. First of all, we offer the same basic services everywhere. That
includes the exercise equipment, and in most centres, a pool and a snack bar.
Some centres also sell sporting goods, and one offers child care – but none offer
child-fitness programmes as intended for here.
It is true that we’ve never put all this together under one roof, and, I admit,
we’ve never offered online access. To be honest, I’m not absolutely sure what
Adam has in mind when he talks about 24/7 Web-based access. One more
feature – we plan to set up two levels of membership – let’s call them Basic and
Full for now. Basic members can use all the basic services, but will pay additional
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fees for some special programs, such as child fitness. Full members will have
unlimited use of all services.
Also, I understand that Adam thinks that being based here at the Gold Coast
offers potential to attract casual customers who attend on a pay-as-you-use
basis, just for single visits. I think that he is right, but we will need to work out a
way to advertise our existence and services to that cohort. Our other centres
also cater for such single use visits, but to be up front with you, they represent a
very small part of our business. Adam also made mention to some “special
features” that may attract visiting tourists such as a rock climbing wall, but we
do not actually have one, so I am not sure as to what he has in mind.
Nina: So the vision for the services and the customers is at least slightly different for
here at the Gold Coast compared to other locations?
Mark: Yes, but I do not really understand what Mark is envisioning. He seems to think
that there may be families that would visit us here in a way quite different to our
existing locations. He said something about wanting to make it a family
outing…but I am not sure if he was serious or joking.
Nina: So with all this going on, wouldn’t an overall system make your job easier?
Mark: Yes, but I don’t know where to start, and I am not really sure what would be
required to make that job easier.
Nina: Mark, that’s why I’m here. I will work with you and the rest of the team to come
up with a solution that supports your business.
Mark: Sounds good to me. When can we start?
Nina: Let’s get together first thing tomorrow. Bring along an organisation chart and
think about how you plan to run the new facility. We’ll try to build a model of
the new operation so we can identify the system capabilities and the business
benefits.
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ACTIVITY 1
- Use the background information to create a short summary (one short paragraph)
about the “You Can Fit In” business. - Create an organisation chart for the You Can Fit In business.
- Use the information above to describe the area of the organisation under study (i.e.
the business functions that will be handled by the new information system). - Add the background information, organisation chart, and business functions to your
Report document in Part A: Initial Investigation.
There are examples of each of the aspects listed above in the text. However,
make sure you do some other research. Use internet searches to find other
examples and to look for examples that you could use to help you construct
the things you need.
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CASE STUDY PART 2
At their initial meeting, Nina and Mark discussed some initial steps in planning an
information system for the new facility. The next morning, they worked together on a
business profile, and talked together about various types of information systems that would
provide the best support for the supercenters’ operations.
They also discussed the possibilities of incorporating personal wearable fitness devices that
capture and monitor parameters such as heart rate. They know that these have become
popular in the general community, especially for people who are keenly seeking to monitor
and improve their fitness. Although no firm decisions were made, they did discuss the
possibilities that such devices may offer to enhance their business offerings. It was observed
that there would even be the possibility of offering such devices for hire to their customers.
There were clearly possible benefits for using such devices, but it seemed a big step to
formally incorporate these into their information system.
Still, the idea had been raised and may be worth further consideration. They had each
wondered about the possible benefits that could flow from such devices, but acknowledged
that these were likely beyond their immediate needs.
Nina starts creating a System Vision Document for the new You Can Fit In system, so she can
use this to define a vision for the new system. She is not feeling well, and running a bit short
of time so has asked for your assistance.
ACTIVITY 2
- Either by yourself or with another class member, brainstorm all the functions that
the You Can Fit In system might fulfil. Keep it at a very high level. - Prepare a draft System Vision Document for the new You Can Fit In system. This
System Vision Document will be revised when you find out more about the
requirements for the system. An example System Vision Document can be seen in
Figure 1.8 of your textbook (Figure 1.5 in the 6 th ed). - Add your System Vision Document to your Report document in Part A: Initial
Investigation.
You have been given a little information about what is required but there are a
lot of gaps. You are expected to fill these gaps by working out some details.
Make sure that your system vision document presents critical information to
the organisation about the potential benefits.
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THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE OF PLAN
Nina is not able to continue with the project!
The IT consulting firm, Gates to the Job, is aware of your early work with Nina, and have
been advised by Mr. Lewis that he was impressed with your apparent professionalism at
earlier meetings. Even though you had not been directly involved in the discussions
between Mark and Nina the draft documents that you produced for them have gained you
support.
All parties acknowledge that to date only preliminary discussions have taken place. It is
determined that with you now taking over you should be given the opportunity to conduct
the next round of the discussion…this time, with the CEO, Adam Apple who has seen your
draft System Vision Document and is seeking to have some input to “modify” it.
You have been surprised at some of the information that Adam has been giving you. The
discussions never became heated, due to your professionalism, but you have been making
mental notes about how this compares and contrasts to the information that had been
provided by Mark. For the sake of space, we pick up the transcript of discussions