Knowledge Management System: Case Study Essay

Margaret House, CEO of Bounce fitness and the Board of Directors are keen to have the four Centres registered with fitness Australia (www.fitness.org.au). They feel that standards required to be met as a registered fitness centres would not only ensure the credibility of the organization in the eyes of the public but provide goals for the Centre Managers and Teams. Registration will require meeting the code of conduct for the state in which each Centre is located and ensuring that all trainers meet, or immediately undertake training to meet, certain standards, and information about the registration can be obtained by going to the Fitness Australia website and clicking on the Register Your Fitness Business tab. The Codes of conduct for each State are also linked here if you scroll down the page. The minimal educational qualification required by Bounce Fitness for all Trainers is the Certificate III in Fitness Instructing and all the trainers must hold this to continue to work as a tra iner of classes and individual clients. At this point in time, this has not been consistently applied. In Cairns all are qualified, in Brisbane two (2) need the basic training, two (2) also in Brisbane and in Melbourne there is one (1). It is intended under the change management initiative that all trainers, once they have completed the basic training will continue to pursue further training, The Certificate IV and Diploma, annually as personal development. Bounce fitness will pay for the training fees and other incidentals such as text book requirements and provide one (1) paid hour per week for study leave. Bounce Fitness will also reimburse travel and accommodation for compulsory study attendance sessions. You can get more information on this at Fitness Australia website under the Fitness Careers/Get qualified tab. It is expected that the change management process will be fairly smooth if adequate measures are taken and the processes is well managed. The major resistance will come from the five (5) trainers who do not have this qualification and have learnt through experience. That is why they do not have it now. They will also not want to participate in the further training initiative. If the whole standardisation process is not managed carefully, there is potential for dissatisfaction and all Centres may not comply with the standardised procedures. This is a major concern for the Executive;  hence your recommendations are crucial. You have been asked to investigate the feasibility, benefits and practicality of entering into such a relationship with Fitness and make recommendations. Prepare a report for submission to the CEO and Board. Task 1 – Practical: Obtain Information Task 1 requires you to gain background information. On your own paper, address the following points to ensure you have all the necessary information: 1.1 Review the information in the Case Study; examine the information on the bounce fitness Website. 1.2 Identify, define and analyse the business problems and issues. 1.3 Identify what information you will require to provide to the CEO and Board of Directors to allow them to make a decision. 1.4 Investigate the information on the Fitness Australia website. How do you know that the information you are gathering is reliable. 1.5 Check the information and ensure that the information you select to use is not contradictory or ambiguous. 1.6 How will you obtain anecdotal and other information not held in formal networks from the Centres? Print and include any documents you use from the Bounce Fitness website and reference any other information for your assessor. The following activity has been designed for all learners to complete.Task 2 2.1Why is it important to research stakeholder requirements for an information or knowledge management system? Give examples of how you might collect information from internal and external stakeholders. 2.2Consider a system that provides information to external stakeholders; for example, allowing suppliers to provide quote information or customers to make purchases. 2.3Describe the main objectives of this system. 2.4Develop a strategy for training the external users of this system. Include information about the method of training, how it will be contextualised for the external users and what resources may be required. 2.5How would you assess success of the training activity? 2.6Describe how you would promote the system to the external users. 2.7Describe how you would protect the system integrity while providing  access to external users. 2.8Suggest strategies for resolving the following information management system problems: 2.9You want to summarise sales information by customer type but the report does not exist in the customer management system. 3.0Your computer is crashing regularly, causing you to lose data. 3.1Select a component of an information or knowledge management system that you are familiar with. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of that system. 3.2Describe SWOT analysis. Give examples of how it may be used to measure the effectiveness of an information management system. 3.3Select a component of an information or knowledge management system that you are familiar with. 3.4Assess the effectiveness of this system, explaining how you collected the information to complete the assessment. 3.5Identify possible improvements that could be made to the system. 3.6Suggest other employees who may be involved in assessing the system and designing improvements. 3.7Write a report summarising your assessment and possible improvements. Task 3 Read the case study, and then complete the questions that follow. Smart Sports sells a range of sporting equipment at retail stores throughout Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. The head office produces most marketing material but allows the stores to conduct their own direct marketing activities to their own customers. Each week, the store manager places an order to the warehouse for additional stock. The manager also provides a report to head office about the hours each employee has worked, so head office can process the pay. 1.Describe the information or knowledge management systems that may exist at the following locations: a)a Smart Sports store b)the warehouse c)Smart Sports head office. 2.What measures might be used to assess effectiveness of each of these systems? 3.What legislative requirements may apply to the systems at each Smart Sports location? 4.Imagine you are conducting a review of the warehouse system at Smart Sports. a)How might you measure the effectiveness of this review? b)What challenges might you expect when implementing the upgrade to this system? c)How might you resolve these challenges? Case study (cont’d) Ngoc is a graduate marketing analyst for Smart Sports. One of her key responsibilities is summarising sales results for each store, and developing comparisons between stores, regions, and competitors. Ngoc develops reports on these figures, which she presents to monthly management meetings. Ngoc’s supervisor, Andreas, feels that she is struggling with these regular reports and decides he needs to organise some training. 5.Develop a report for Andreas to submit for approval of Ngoc’s training. The report should include: a)a summary of the skills and knowledge she may require b)suggested methods for this training c)resources required for the training d)how success will be measured.