Question

Systems analysis project 10: can you answer the 4 questions at the task section, thank you.
Personal Trainer, Inc. owns and operates fitness centers in a dozen Midwestern cities. The centers have done well, and the company is planning an international expansion by opening a new “supercenter” in the Toronto area. Personal Trainer’s president, Cassia Umi, hired an IT consultant, Susan Park, to help develop an information system for the new facility. During the project, Susan will work closely with Gray Lewis, who will manage the new operation.
Background
Susan and Gray finished their work on user interface, input, and output design. They developed a user-centered design that would be flexible and easy to learn. Now Susan turned her attention to the architecture for the new system. Susan wanted to consider their own organization and culture, enterprise resource planning, total cost of ownership, scalability, Web integration, legacy systems, processing methods, security issues, and corporate portal. She also needed to select a network plan, or topology, that would dictate the physical cabling and network connections, or consider a wireless network. When all these tasks were completed, she would submit a system design specification for approval.
Tasks:
1. What would be the advantages of selecting an Internet-based architecture for the Personal Trainer’s system?

2. If Personal Trainer wants to increase its Internet marketing efforts, what advice could you offer? Perform research to find out more about the topic of Web-based marketing before you answer Gray.

3. What software and hardware infrastructure will be necessary to ensure Personal Trainer can process point of sale transactions?

4. Prepare an outline for a system design specification and describe the contents of each section

Answer 1

1. Internet has become very popular these days mainly because if the faster and vast communication system. Because of this feature, it has become possible to reach globally to the potential clients for any organization.

For the problem specified in this assignment, it comes under in house internet based architecture.

For the personal trainer system,cut might be little critical because this approach will require financial resources and management attention. But an in house strategy can provide the following benefits,

• It can have a unique website.
• A scalable structure.
• Complete control over the organization of site.
• Potential for more savings by integrating other information service.
• Better customer serviceable might be some security issues, if contains payroll data.

2. We need to follow some strategies to increase internet marketing. It includes, superior product or service. A superior service gives the best results in marketing and selling. Your service must be better than the competitors. For example FedEx, it filled the void of the competition and is dominating the package shipping market.

Second important factor is the WORDS THAT SELL, the most successful marketers know their market and how to sell them. They must understand their customers

I.e. who the customers are, what are the common needs and goals they possess and off course the psychology of why they buy the service. Use this information to optimize your marketing and website to SPEAK and give them what they want.

You can also send the email newsletters, this is a very powerful way to stay in touch with customers. A quality newsletter is the best customer retention tool.

Next comes Public Relations. So you can hire a public relations agency to boost your business, they will get pulled luxury for you by getting your news, press releases, articles and blogs etc.

The next very important factor is search engine optimization. Most of the users nowadays look for services by using search engines and online directories. You have to ensure that your site is ranked prominently for keyword phrases related to your services. Optimize your web pages with keywords in the page titles, meta tags, headlines,URLs etc.

You can also opt for Pay-per-Click(PPC),it is the most targeted advertising. Your campaign can be launched on Google AdWords and you can see results fast. It also gives you more control over which landing page you send to your visitors. So you can give them the l8st targeted message.

You can use social networking and web intelligence . Social networking on the internet is the great way to get in front of audience. It is becoming the most powerful way of marketing. You can use easy to use and affordable Web Intelligence Tools. These will automatically scan the net daily and provide you with a list of these social networking opportunities.

You can also go for referral marketing. Referral generated customers are the least expensive and most profitable and loyal source of new business You can get.

Th a last is you can go for Web Analytics. It is a tracking tool which will show you a glance of what is working a d what is not.

3. You need to purchase POS systems, that may include appointment making capabilities as well as transaction handling features.the POS software that you choose needs to be compatible with the type of business that you have. After identifying software, start looking for the scanners, printers and other hardware compatible with your chosen software.

Some systems are designed to be used at a single cash register , while others link together multiple terminals. Some POS systems run from a central hub while others are hosted online. ECR is the m9st basic type of system configuration.

Which configuration is right for your business depends on your specific needs, smaller business like personal trainer mentioned , with multiple locations need more advanced solution.

POS softwRe is either hosted ( web based) or purchased as a package from POS dealer. Advantages of using web based system is third party data backup. It allows you to remote access and easier, cost free software updates.

Purchased software is a popular choice for business that want a high level of customization .

Customer management, inventory management, reporting, automated purchasing, employee tracking the are are the features needed for the personal trainer system as a POS software.

For hardware, you may need terminal/PC with I reheated touch screen and card readers. Receipt printer, cash drawer, MSR/Payment terminal, bar code scanner . These hardwRe components may be need as part of POS system for the personal trainer.