Executive Summary
Conclusion
A research on Jupiter Fitness Center revealed the opportunity for implementing a corporate portal solution that will satisfy the needs of customers as well as the organization. Corporate portal is a suitable solution to integrate different business processes into a single interface, improving the communication between customers, employees, and suppliers.
Business Opportunity
The portal will provide the customers of the company more value for the services received, which is expected to contribute to their retention and give the company a competitive advantage. Such advantage can be represented through improved cash flow and increased revenues, and an opportunity for expanding the business.
Business Environment
The industry of fitness center has an enormous potential and it experiences growth in the last decade. The environment is competitive on the national and the regional level which implies searching for a competitive advantage to retain customers. There is a need to analyze the trends current in the exercise industry to maintain clients.
Solutions
The solution identified is to develop a web portal that will provide the opportunity for customers to personalize their membership, manage their membership transactions, receive diet consultation, and purchase fitness supplements online. The portal will also integrate the accounting processes managed by the company.
Analysis
Cost
The costs of developing a web portal can be divided between several aspects. First of all, there are the costs of technology. Such costs will include the costs of the hardware, i.e. a web server, personal computers (the number is dependent on the number of employees needed), and network infrastructure. The costs of the software should be added to the latter, including an operating system, and server management software.
The use of an open-source software might reduce the costs of implementation, but likely to increase the costs of training personnel. Broadband connection to the internet is also required (Abdul, 2009). The costs of the consultancy and technological development can be integrated into a single team, who will work on the, identifying the requirements and developing the website (Abdul, 2009).
Accordingly, the costs of training personnel to sue the new portal might be added to the expenditures of development, which will depend on the types of software used. In that regard, such training might occur simultaneously with the testing of the portal (Abdul, 2009).
Schedule
The development will take a period of 13 weeks or 89 days, which will be divided in accordance to the established tasks and their durations. The tasks involved in the development of a web portal are composed of the following:
- Identifying needs and objectives.
- Interpreting objectives into the main functions of the website.
- Designing the layout of the project and identifying the requirements.
- Developing the website.
- Testing and training of personnel.
- Improvements and modifications.
- Launching the portal.
The schedule of implementation and durations can be seen through Table 1.
Best Solution
A corporate portal can be seen as a suitable solution that will provide an organization an integrated approach toward managing their activities. In that regard, a portal can be seen as an approach which is sufficiently flexible and at the same time scalable to address any needs of the organization. An initial investigation of the Jupiter Fitness Center, located in Jupiter, Florida, outlined several needs , all of which can be targeted through the development of a simple, yet professional portal that will provide the company a competitive advantage and retain their customers. A portal will influence the way company collaborate with employees, customers, and suppliers (Terra, n.d.).
According to the priority put in each type of communication the portal will be developed and operated. In that regard, the decision to implement a corporate portal can be seen as a strategic decision that will allow the company to leverage its capabilities and integrate their processes into a single infrastructure that can be expanded and replicated (Terra, n.d.).
Interest to Students
The integration of internet can be apparent in every aspect of our lives, and business is no different in that matter. The portal solution can be seen interesting as it provides a good alternative to the network infrastructure, integrating several processes into a single interface. Thus, depending to permission provided to a group of users, e.g. employees, customers, or suppliers, different options will be available all of which can be managed for a single point of entry. At the same time portals is a good knowledge management tool. Currently, employers try to integrate social network capabilities into the workplace, so information exchange which occurs within such medium remain within the company.
Portals, in that regard, is a good alternative, where transactions, employees activities, employees services, and others, all remain within one place. A good example, specific to the business cases provided within this report, i.e. a fitness center, can be seen through a scenario in which diet consultation is provided to the members of the center, with all information being based on the expertise and the knowledge of the instructor. The termination of the contract of the instructor will imply losing such information, and spending time and efforts for the new instructor to learn about customers. With portal such cases are avoided.
Work
An extensive research was conducted, specifically to identify a sphere of business in which a problem might exist, and which can be resolved through an Information Technology (IT) solution. The criteria were a small company in the sphere of services. The fitness center was identified as a field in which IT solutions have not been integrated to a full extent, where Jupiter Fitness Center was chosen because of the website’s poor capabilities, i.e. it served merely for marketing purposes. Thus, a research was followed on corporate portals and the fitness industry according to which the needs of the company and the capabilities of portals were identified.
Comprehensive Solution
Problem
Jupiter Fitness Center, is a family gym located Jupiter, Florida (Jupiter Fitness Center, 2011). The center has a simple website, through which the visitors can obtain information on the gym, its contacts, directions, and equipment. The company’s website main aim is attracting new customers, while none of the information on the website is used to retain existing customers and provide them with other advantages through internet.
The company has the potential to expand the gym into other areas through opening a chain, an opportunity, which, if utilized, might need a reconsideration of the company’s information system. The current implementation of the company’s information can be assumed to be reflected through the company’s website and separate applications for managing accounting and users’ memberships. Additionally, the company plans to open an e- shop which is currently under construction.
Considering the capabilities of the website, it might be assumed that shop will operate as a showcase for the gym’s inventory, indicating the specifications of the goods, while the purchase process will be processed offline. Thus, there is an opportunity for Jupiter Fitness Center to enhance its operations, gain an advantage over competitors, providing more value to retain members, members, and integrate the processes of the organization, which will accordingly provide a foundation for future expansion.
Business Background
The prevalence of obesity as a problem in the United States implies that the trends of exercising will not lose demand or popularity. In that regard, the demand for fitness centers is still experiencing growth; see Fig.1 (Center for Economic Vitality, 2010). It should be noted that the growth in the number of centers lead to a competition between the participants of the industry. Taking such aspect to Jupiter, Florida, the number of fitness centers surpasses 82 (Health Club Directory, 2011).
Those are only listed online on a single website, where it is expected that their number is much more. Among the challenges identified for industry there is the fact that approximately “35 to 40 percent of clients do not renew their gym membership each year” (Center for Economic Vitality, 2010). For a gym of 20,000 square feet size, such as Jupiter, it is expected to have about 2400 members, considering that a typical 25,000 square feet gym has 3,000 members (Center for Economic Vitality, 2010).
Thus, according to such statistic, the company has to find at least 850 new members each year, which requires spending significant time and energy. In light of increased competition, retaining the existing members will be a feasible option, through providing them with extra benefits for their money. One of exercise trends can be seen through providing diet counseling, which can be seen as one of the value adding activities that might provide benefits to customers.
The solution proposed in this report is through integrating the following business functions into a single portal-like webpage. The portal will have the following functions:
- Personalized diet Program, which will provide diet suggestions based on entered information.
- Personalization options for members, i.e. renewing membership, changing membership plan, making an appointment with the instructor, etc. The latter will include managing electronic transactions, providing the opportunity to sign-up with the club online.
- E-shop which will provide the possibility for purchasing supplements online, integrating with a delivery service that will deliver the goods. The option will not be restricted to the members of the club, allowing the e-commerce section of the company to operate independently.
- Calendar and reminders of scheduled training integrated into popular social services, e.g. twitter, Facebook, etc.
- Integrating accounting software into the portal.
Alternate Solutions
The alternatives that might exist to increase the efficiency of integrating information technology solution can e seen through manual labor. The company can provide diet counseling in the gym, which considering the number of club members, might require extra staff to manage such task. The same can be seen through selling fitness supplements on site, while being promoted online. In such case, the alternative will be only feasible when the demand is low, eliminating the need for the center to be concerned about inventory, and managing suppliers. The company’s attempt at retaining their existing members can be seen through having a group on the social networking website Facebook. The number of members participating in the group and the dates on the discussion parts indicates that such group serves merely as an announcement board and an alternative for newsletters.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
The benefits that the proposed solution will provide can be seen through retaining the existing members of the gym, and saving the costs, the time, and the efforts, that will be sued to attract new customers. Additionally, the e-shop of the portal will allow increasing the revenue of the company through differentiating the processes of the company. In that regard, as of 2008, the fitness supplements are a $2.7 billion industry, which in the case of Jupiter Gym has an established clientele (ROOSEVELT, 2010).
Additionally, the integration of the main process in the organization will allow increasing the efficiency of managing the finances of the organization, and saving the cost of the personnel. Accordingly, the implementation of the portal can be seen as a knowledge management initiative which will allow reducing the impacts of employees’ turnover. All of the latter can be summarized through improved cash flow and increased revenue for the company. The costs are represented through the costs of development and the personnel that will manage and update the portal. Being considered as long-term investment, it is expected that the investment will occupy itself in a period of two years.
Tables and Graphs
Bibliography
Abdul, R. (2009). Feasibility Study for your new eCommerce Web Site. E-commerce Expert. Web.
Center for Economic Vitality. (2010). Fitness Centers: A Guide for Business Owners. Center for Economic Vitality. Web.
Health Club Directory. (2011). Health Clubs, Fitness Centers & Gyms | Jupiter, FL. HealthClubDirectory. Web.
Jupiter Fitness Center. (2011). Jupiter Fitness Center – Homepage. Jupiter Fitness Center. Web.
ROOSEVELT, M. (2010). When the Gym Isn’t Enough. The New York Times. Web.
Terra, J. C. (n.d.). Developing a Business Case for Corporate Portals. Terra Forum. Web.