Analyzing Porpoise Swim School: A Business Computing Report (ISYS2056)

This report analyzes the business performance of Porpoise Swim School, focusing on its services, student enrollment, resource allocation, payment structure, and profitability. The analysis reveals insights into the popularity of different swimming classes, with Dolphin and Seahorse classes being the most successful. The report highlights issues in resource allocation, particularly concerning teacher utilization and payment discrepancies. Recommendations are provided to improve operational efficiency, including better teacher allocation and a revised payment structure to reflect experience and performance. The analysis also considers external factors like competitor analysis and the importance of state-of-the-art training facilities. The report concludes with recommendations for better planning and resource allocation to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage for the swim school.

Analysing a Spreadsheet and Presenting a Business
Report
By
Nanthanat Vongsuvanich
(s3637824)
Business Computing 1 (ISYS2056)
Prof Ian Searle
Workshop time: 8th September, Friday 10:30

Table of Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Services offered and enrollment of students 1
3. Resource allocation: operational efficiency 3
4. Payment structure and profitability 4
5. Other factors which can affect business 5
6. Conclusions and recommendations 5
Recommendations 5
References 7
Annexure i

List of Figures
Figure 1 Day wise break up of student’s enrollment.......................................................................2
Figure 2 Teacher wise breakup of classes.......................................................................................3

Analysing a Spreadsheet and Presenting a Business Report | Business Computing 1 (ISYS2056)
1. Introduction
Business Process Management (BPM) is a key enabler to improve an organization’s business
performance through constant improvement, management and control of business processes.
Resource allocation and planning is one of the key to success in business, it not only helps to
improve services delivered (Purce, 2014), but also plays critical role to improve business
productivity and revenue (Huang et al., 2011; Maglio et al., 2013). Operational competitiveness
is not very easy to be achieve due to unpredictable environment circumstances, such as demand,
and need of the customers (Hillier, 2012). Hence, it is important to make proper business strategy
with heighted operational efficiency and proper marketing strategy (Gunasekaran and Ngai,
2012; Takala et al., 2013; Yingbo, 2011). Particularly for small firms physical and organizational
resources tare more important than for financial resources (Greene et al.,2015). In this case
study, Porpoise Swim school’s main focus is to improve business productivity by improving
business process management with new business lines.
2. Services offered and enrollment of students
Porpoise Swim school’s main services offering are nine swimming classes i.e. Penguin, Starfish,
Tadpole, Turtle, Frog, Seahorse, Stingray, Seal, and Dolphin. They have recently added Penguin
and Dolphin in their business.
Nanthanat Vongsuvanich
Student ID: s3637824 1 | P a g e

Analysing a Spreadsheet and Presenting a Business Report | Business Computing 1 (ISYS2056)
In term three there were 371 students enrolled for the different classes. Dolphin and Seahorse
were most popular among these nine classes. Annexure 5 shows the class wise break up of
students.
Penguin could not attract many students, only 19 students were enrolled for this class, so the
strategy of introduction Penguin class does not look to be successful one. Whereas, introduction
of Dolphin seems to be perfect strategy, and it can be a very profitable service for the swim
school. According to customers’ requirement, focus should be one Dolphin, Sea horse, Stingray,
Turtle and Frog, as these are the top 5 service lines according to customer’s requirement. Most
students have been enrolled for Monday (72) and Friday (69), on both day Rachael, had no
classes in Term 3, who seems to be the best resource for the swim school. To provide better
services, plan should be to put her on both the days, as with her greater experience she can
manage the students and provide better quality of services. Day wise break up of student’s
enrollment has been provided below in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Day wise break up of student’s enrollment
Nanthanat Vongsuvanich
Student ID: s3637824 2 | P a g e

Analysing a Spreadsheet and Presenting a Business Report | Business Computing 1 (ISYS2056)
3. Resource allocation: operational efficiency
Resource allocation seems to be a problematic area for the swim school, all the resources were
not properly allocated according to their rates, and experiences. For example, Rachael, who is the
most experiences swimming teacher got less classes and students, she got only 10 classes (2nd
lowest), to improve better services experiences better teacher can be more productive. Teacher
wise break up has been provided below in Annexure 3.
There are few teachers who are not being properly utilized like Maryanne, the better planned
usage i.e. mix of low and high paid resources can increase profitability of business. Claire is only
utilized for 3 days, Joanne is for 2 days, Maryanne is for 2 days, schedule should be planned in
the manner which will improve the efficiency as well as productivity of business. Teacher wise
break up of classes have been shown below in Figure 1.
Figure 2 Teacher wise breakup of classes
Teachers with better experience and better payment manage less students, hence the service
quality can be affected. Rachael is managing only 26 students, another well paid teacher Joanne
is managing 46 students. Most students are being managed by Tom i.e. 86. Hence, problem
Nanthanat Vongsuvanich
Student ID: s3637824 3 | P a g e

Analysing a Spreadsheet and Presenting a Business Report | Business Computing 1 (ISYS2056)
exists in resource optimization and resource allocation. Teacher wise managed students have
been shown below in Annexure 6.
4. Payment structure and profitability
Total payment received from the students were $ 59,172.75. Total Payment made to the teachers
and Receptionist was $ 1939. Payment of receptionist can be made weekly, it can be more
profitable for the business. Total profit for the third term has come out to be $ 57233.75. Total
breakup of the instructor payment has been provided in Annexure 2. There is also a little flaw in
the payment structure due to problem in resource allocation, Rachael should be highly paid due
to her experience and knowledge. Maryanne, Claire and Jamie have equal rate of payment, and
in terms teacher wise total payment received from students, Maryanne was managing more
account, due to imbalanced resource allocation Maryanne’s total payment was half of Claire and
58% of Jamie, and Maryanne was lowest paid resource. Highly paid and experienced resources
should manage higher number of accounts, hence resource allocation and payment structure both
need to be revised. It would increase profitability of business and service quality.
Seahorse class has received the highest payment from the students i.e. $ 10333.75, Dolphin has
also come out to be equally profitable. Penguin, Seal, Starfish were less profitable in term 3.
Annexure 4 shows class wise break up of payments received from the student.
Nanthanat Vongsuvanich
Student ID: s3637824 4 | P a g e

Analysing a Spreadsheet and Presenting a Business Report | Business Computing 1 (ISYS2056)
5. Other factors which can affect business
Competitors offering and unique swimming environment can also be very critical for business
success. Competitors pricing and services analysis are very essential, to determine whether the
services offered are in line with the industry. State of the art training facilities attract more
customers and a desired gathering location for kids, parents and swimmers of all age.
6. Conclusions and recommendations
Better planning and resource allocation can play major role for the swim school’s success. The
Porpoise Swim school’s strategy should be to understand the required framework to understand
priorities of services and to utilize resources to gain a sustainable competitive advantage in the
market. Competitiveness for their business would their ability and performance to offer different
services(classes) that can meet customers’ needs and requirements.
Recommendations
1. In services sector, experiences with the point of contacts persons are key enablers to
heightened customers’ perception for the organization and to develop customers loyalty,
particularly in swimming training competences and experiences of teachers matter most,
hence to develop business experienced and competent teacher should be provided more
responsibilities.
2. Day wise allocation of teachers should be properly planned, there are few teachers who are
over utilized, and few teachers are being less utilized, it would improve profitability and
Nanthanat Vongsuvanich
Student ID: s3637824 5 | P a g e

Analysing a Spreadsheet and Presenting a Business Report | Business Computing 1 (ISYS2056)
business performance. On a particular day, there should be mix of highly paid experienced
teacher and low paid inexperience teacher.
Nanthanat Vongsuvanich
Student ID: s3637824 6 | P a g e

Analysing a Spreadsheet and Presenting a Business Report | Business Computing 1 (ISYS2056)
References
Greene, P.G., Brush, C.G. and Brown, T.E., 2015. Resources in small firms: an exploratory
study. Journal of Small Business Strategy, 8(2), pp.25-40.
Gunasekaran, A. and Ngai, E.W., 2012. The future of operations management: an outlook and
analysis. International Journal of Production Economics, 135(2), pp.687-701.
Hillier, F.S., 2012. Introduction to operations research. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Huang, Z., van der Aalst, W.M., Lu, X. and Duan, H., 2011. Reinforcement learning based
resource allocation in business process management. Data & Knowledge Engineering, 70(1),
pp.127-145.
Maglio, P.P. and Spohrer, J., 2013. A service science perspective on business model innovation.
Industrial Marketing Management, 42(5), pp.665-670.
Purce, J., 2014. The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New
Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.
Takala, J., Shylina, D., Forss, T. and Malmi, J., 2013. Study on resource allocations for
sustainable competitive advantage. Management and Production Engineering Review, 4(3),
pp.65-75.
Yingbo, L., Li, Z. and Jianmin, W., 2011. Mining workflow event log to facilitate parallel work
item sharing among human resources. International Journal of Computer Integrated
Manufacturing, 24(9), pp.864-877.
Nanthanat Vongsuvanich
Student ID: s3637824 7 | P a g e

Analysing a Spreadsheet and Presenting a Business Report | Business Computing 1 (ISYS2056)
Annexure
Annexure 1 Teacher vs Classes
Count of Class
Enrolled
Column
Labels
Row Labels Dolphin Fro
g
Pengui
n
Seahors
e
Sea
l
Starfis
h
Stingra
y
Tadpol
e
Turtl
e
Grand
Total
Claire 1 4 2 1 1 4 3 16
Jamie 2 3 1 1 2 3 12
Joanne 2 1 1 1 3 1 4 13
Maryanne 3 1 2 2 8
Rachael 1 2 3 4 10
Regina 1 1 2 1 2 1 8
Steven 1 1 4 5 1 3 1 16
Tom 3 5 3 1 2 2 2 18
Grand Total 10 9 11 14 7 10 11 15 14 101
Annexure 2 Teacher wise payment details
Teacher
Techer wise total
payments received from
students in $
Total payments made to
the teachers in $
Rate
(per
session)
in $
Rachael 4599 198 22
Joanne 7420 187 17
Steven 8926.75 221 17
Tom 13790 288 16
Claire 8785 168 12
Jamie 5386.5 144 12
Maryanne 6221.25 84 12
Regina 4044.25 0 NA
Grand
Total 59172.75 1290 NA
Annexure 3 Teacher wise weekly break up all classes.
Teacher Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Grand
Total
Claire 4 7 5 16
Jamie 5 2 1 4 12
Joanne 7 6 13
Nanthanat Vongsuvanich
Student ID: s3637824 i | P a g e

Analysing a Spreadsheet and Presenting a Business Report | Business Computing 1 (ISYS2056)
Maryanne 3 5 8
Rachael 4 2 4 10
Regina 1 2 1 4 8
Steven 6 7 2 1 16
Tom 2 7 3 6 18
Grand
Total
21 21 13 14 19 13 101
Annexure 4 Class wise payment details
Classes
Total
Payments
Received Percentage
Dolphin 10123.75 17%
Frog 6798.75 11%
Penguin 2429 4%
Seahorse 10333.75 17%
Seal 3657.5 6%
Starfish 5328.75 9%
stingray 7446.25 13%
Tadpole 5950 10%
Turtle 7105 12%
Grand
Total 59172.75 100%
Annexure 5Class wise breakup of students
Classes
Count of
Students Percentage
Dolphin 64 17%
Frog 42 11%
Penguin 19 5%
Seahorse 64 17%
Seal 23 6%
Starfish 33 9%
stingray 46 12%
Tadpole 37 10%
Turtle 43 12%
Grand
Total 371 100%
Nanthanat Vongsuvanich
Student ID: s3637824 ii | P a g e