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
During data and process modeling, Susan Park developed a logical model of the proposed system. She drew an entity-relationship diagram and constructed a set of leveled and balanced DFDs. Now Susan is ready to consider various development strategies for the new system. She will investigate traditional and Web-based approaches and weigh the pros and cons of in-house development versus other alternatives.
Susan wants to prepare a presentation that will calculate the total cost of ownership for the system.
What financial analysis tools are available to her, and what are the advantages (and possible disadvantages) of each tool?
Answer:
The answer is below
Explanation:
The financial tools available to her,
NPV: Net Present Value
1. It is the total value benefit minus the total value of the costs.
2. It adjusts the value of future costs and benefits to account for the time value of money.
3. The systems can be compared more accurately and consistently.
ROI: Return On Investment.
Advanatge
1. It is a % rate that compares total net benefits received from a project to the total costs of the project.
2. Companies set a minimum ROI that all projects must match or exceed.
3. Disadvantage of this tool is that it expresses only an overall average rate of the return. It is not accurate for a given time period
PAY BACK ANALYSIS
1. It determines the time it takes for an information system to pay for itself.
2. Total development and operating costs are compared with total benefits.
3. Disadvantage of this method is that pay back analyzes on costs and benefits incurred at the beginning of a system’s useful life.
