Business systems: an introductory management perspective – resit
Combined honours students only. This is the resit whether you failed the Excel or written or both parts of the original assignment.

Software for the local golf club
A local golf club have recently acquired a computer and now need some software to run on it. The Club Chairman has heard about “Office” suites of software, which contain several different types of program. He wants you to recommend a suitable office suite of software to do the tasks below.

Club membership renewals
The club has been maintaining membership details on a card index. Now the membership has increased substantially and the system needs to be computerised so that each member is sent a letter asking them to renew their membership. Each member pays an annual subscription, which is due in January of each year.

Special events
Members of the club’s committee have also raised some specific questions about what other facilities the office suite will have. As well as golf, the club also holds specials events such as a summer ball and Christmas dinner. The special events secretary says it would be useful if the office suite could be used to produce posters to advertise these events.

Finances
The treasurer asks if the office suite would be useful for budget planning. He needs to know how much money the club has now and how much it will have in several months time. He explains that, as well as having to manage the income from membership fees; the club has a bar to sell food and drink. Typical income for the club consists of: subscriptions, sales of food and drink at the bar, sales of special event tickets, and income from non-members who wish to use the golf course. Typical expenses for the club consist of: bar staff wages, cost of food and drink sold at the bar, postage, telephone, golf course maintenance, gas and electricity, stationery, and printing.

Newsletter
As well as managing subscriptions, the membership secretary says that he thinks it would be good if the club could send out a monthly newsletter. This might contain articles about golf competitions, and details of forthcoming events, etc.

What you have to do
• Write a report to the committee of the club where you recommend a particular office suite of software.
• The report must have:
o An introduction where you explain the typical features of an office suite of programs.
o A main section where you explain which office suite of software you have chosen and which programs in the office suite will be useful for the different tasks identified above. Cross-reference this to your appendix (see below) and explain the advantages and features of the software.
o A conclusion where you summarise why the office suite you have chosen will be suitable.
o An appendix where you make up an example of the following for the golf club to show them what an office suite will do:
? A membership renewal letter for the golf club
? A newsletter (makeup some suitable news – forthcoming events, tournaments, or anything else you can think of)
? A budget (make up some figures – suitable categories of income and expenditure are given above)
? An poster advertising a special event at the golf club (make up a suitable special event to advertise)
The appendix does not contribute toward the word count
o A references section where you list the source of quotations
• The report excluding the appendix and references section must be a minimum of 900 words and a maximum of 1200 words.

Instructions for including quotations
Anything that is a quotation and is not your own words must be surrounded by quotation marks (“”) followed by the author or publishers name and the date in brackets. An example of an acceptable quotation in the main part of your work:

“Dixons quit the high street this week. If this trend continues and more stores leave what will become of the high street and will we miss it?” (If the internet kills the high street, will we miss it – AOL discussion forum, 2006)

Quotations like the one above must only make up a maximum of 100 words of your total word count. Put a full reference to each quotation in the references section at the end of your work. Anything in the appendix and references sections does not count towards the total number of words. For example, for the quotation above, an acceptable way to give the full reference in the references section would be:

“If the internet kills the high street, will we miss it” – AOL discussion forum http://discuss.aol.co.uk/article.aspx?id_Content=3080&page=1&. Accessed Friday 17 July 2006

WARNING
You must use your own ideas. Your report must specifically address the needs of the golf club. General descriptions of Office Suites as you might find on the Internet are not acceptable, as they do not address the golf club’s needs. You will be failed if your report does not relate to the scenario given.

Submission details
• At the end of your assignment, include the word count excluding the appendix and references sections. To do this, highlight all your work excluding the appendix and references sections and in Microsoft Word 2007, choose the Review ribbon and the Word Count button. In older versions of Word, from the menus choose Tools, Word Count
• Make sure your work includes you name and student number
• You must submit a printed copy
• You must also submit a copy of your work on USB disk