An advocacy group has hired an IS developer company to develop an information system to support operations of a bike sharing system. See the business...

An advocacy group has hired an IS developer company to develop an information system to support operations of a bike sharing system.

See the business case for detailed description. First, the developer company analyzed operational business processes of the bike sharing systems (bike renting, user management and billing) to produce a summary of those processes, and describe how the information system will be able to automate them.

Submit a two-page summary with the description of each business process. This summary will include:

• A brief description of what or who (hardware or user) will initiate it;
• What the process should do.
• An explanation of the role of the information system to support this process.

THE OVERALL CASE:

COURSE PROJECT OVERVIEW The course project consists of a series of interconnected weekly assignments that culminates in a final project submission (Unit 7) and a presentation (Unit 8). Students will use the business case scenario below to complete the project and follow the deliverable schedule included at the end of this document.

BUSINESS CASE A healthy lifestyle advocacy group is aiming to build a bike sharing system within a medium size metropolitan area. The group has signed a contract with a company to provide the bike sharing technology and hardware (bike stations, bikes, network equipment, a server, and bike sharing software that automates the process of checking out and returning bicycles, and billing customers).

DOCKING STATIONS & BIKES Image source The docking station provides a limited number of bike parking spots, and is characterized by its location, bike capacity, and by real time number of bikes parked. Docking stations have computers running on them, credit card reader, and a networking module which allows it to be connected to the Internet. The fleet of bikes has also been purchased.

FUNCTIONING OF THE SYSTEM There are two ways a user can get access to the system: 1) Using her annual subscription ($70) 2) Buying day pass ($5) Every ride under 30 minutes is free. User is charged $1 dollar for a ride between 30 and 1 hour, 3 dollars for rides between 1 hour and 2 hours and a flat rate of 7 dollars for any ride over 2 hours. The users who haven't returned a bike within 10 hours are billed with a $50 fine.

REGISTRATION PROCESS A user can register online or purchase a day pass at the station.