Reference no: EM132407224 , Length: word count:1000

Mini Case Assignment -

Purpose of Assignment - The purpose of this assignment is to give you the chance to solve a realistic business problem, using business productivity software and knowledge that you would have learned from the course. There are two scenarios for solving the problem: Scenario A: Low Rigor Level and Scenario B: High Rigor Level.

Your submission will require:

1) A word document that contains the steps (elaborated) you took to solve the problem (Analysis Steps) and the final decision based on your analysis (for scenarios A and B).

2) An Excel file that contains the data set and the analysis steps you followed including the manipulation of the data in the data set (for scenarios A and B).

3) An Access file (for Scenario B).

4) A PowerPoint file that contains a short explanation of your work (for Scenario B).

Mini Case -

Business Case Background - You have a new job working at a consulting company (ExpertCon Inc.) that help solve a wide range of business problems and challenges that your clients may have. Clients range from small business to individuals seeking help in analyzing their data. The data may be captured from different sources and in different format - in other words the data may not be complete or clean. Your first week was a full week of training. The training mainly focused on how to resolve analytical problems using Excel, and how to create a database in Access to manage and capture future data.

During your second week, your manager Maria see's that you are learning fast and thinks you are ready to handle your first client. He gives you a briefing of the client's company background, then he sends you an email cc'ing the client, informing them that you will be the focal point who will handle the company's portfolio.

Problem Description - In the email, you find the following problem description of your client:

Dear John,

We are happy that you will be our portfolio manager and excited to work with you on a number of business-related problems that will help our managers and executives make more data- supported decisions for the continued growth of our company and satisfaction of our clients. We have a large amount of data that we continue to capture and which we are interested in analyzing.

Professor Duberrie is a new lecture for University du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM). Due to his PHD thesis, he has lost track of time and forgot to submit his student final grades to the department. He heard about our consulting company that specialized in data analytics through a colleague and decided to see if we can help him. He asked the chair of his department for an extension for the grades submission and contacted us right away.

To submit the final grades, he needs:

1) all his student grades to be sorted in alphabetical order,

2) compute the weighted total for each student,

3) compute the grade of each student as follows:

4) He also asked if you could provide a statistical distribution of the student grades for his class.

Portfolio background -

After speaking to your client Prof. Duberrie, you discover that the data set he provided you is the results for the assignments, the mid-term and the final exam that are worth 20%, 35% and 45% respectively. He thanks you for your quick response and is eager to hear from you soon.

Requirements - The problem presented here can have two levels of complexity in terms of analysis and presentation. In other words, the criteria identified below will determine the effort put and the quality and rigor it takes to complete the assignment.

Guidelines -

From your training, you remember that the solution procedure for each client will not be straight forward with a set of steps to follow as each of their problems will be different. However, you remember the basic guidelines your trainer taught you when looking for a solution:

1) Type the data in Excel

2) Organize your data with titles

3) Add tables, charts and functions if needed

4) Add columns and rows when needed to help your analysis (sums, averages, etc)

5) Structure your analysis so your client can understand how you came to the solution

6) Highlight the cell which contains the answer(s) to your client's problem(s)

For Scenario B:

You were also trained on Access to create a database that will help your client better capture, integrate and analyze future data sets. You remember that your trainer also gave you some guidelines for creating an Access database:

1) Identify all fields needed in the data set (columns)

2) Start by creating your tables (database)

3) Create forms to help capture the data

4) Create relevant reports for your clients

Analysis Steps - Your manager made it clear and explicit that you need to document (with brief explanation) the steps you took in order to solve your client's business problem (you can keep the steps short and basic, you do not need a paragraph for each step).

Decision - You will need to explain to your client the solution you found for their problem (what was your logic, the premise of your decision, your alternative solutions, the recommended solution and why you recommended that solution). Your manager also asked if you could create a short PowerPoint slide to help explain your decision to your client.

Note - There is scenario A and B but only need to do A.

Attachment:- Mini Case Assignment File.rar