Assignment:

The case study Personal Trainer was selected from the Shelly & Rosenblatt (2014) textbook, but it was copied below for convenience. There is no need to look for the textbook, as the assignment and questions are given here. The Case is about analyzing part of the systems design phase to implement an ERP or cloud system for the Personal Trainer company. It is important to remember that the purpose of selecting an application system is to ensure that this system is intended to provide the best solution for the company.

Personal Trainer, Inc.

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, Carol Cassie, 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 the user interface, input, and output design. They developed a user-centered design that would be easy to learn and use. At this point, Susan turned her attention to the architecture for the new system.

Susan wanted to consider Enterprise Resource Planning, total cost of ownership, scalability, web integration, legacy systems, processing methods, and security issues. 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.

Assignment Questions

1. Would an ERP strategy work well for Personal Trainer? Investigate ERP strategies and products available from Internet vendors and submit a recommendation based on your research.

2. If Susan chooses cloud architecture, what issues must she consider? Prepare a checklist for her that includes the main topics and issues she should consider. You can look into cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure or any cloud vendor of choice.

3. What would be the benefits of using a wireless network at the fitness center? What would be the drawbacks?
 
• A written MS Word paper consisting of 2-4 pages answering the questions, excluding cover page and references.