Savage Motors (Software Training)

Savage Motors sells and leases commercial automobiles, vans, and trucks to customers in southern California. Most of the company’s administrative staff works in the main office.

The company has been in business for 35 years, but only in the last 10 years has the company begun to recognize the benefits of computer training for its employees.

The company president, Arline Savage, is thinking about hiring a training company to give onsite classes. To pursue this option, the company would set up a temporary ‘‘computer laboratory’’ in one of the meeting rooms, and the trainers would spend all day teaching one or more particular types of software. You have been hired as a consultant to recommend what type of training would best meet the firm’s needs.

You begin your task by surveying the three primary corporate departments: sales, operations, and accounting. You find that most employees use their personal computers for only five types of software: (1) word processing, (2) spreadsheets, (3) database, (4) presentations, and (5) accounting. The accompanying table shows your estimates of the total number of hours per week used by each department on each type of software.

Departments(number of employees)	Â	Hour per week	Â	Â	Â
Â	Word processing	Spreadsheet	Database	Presentation	Accounting
Sales(112)	1150	750	900	500	700
Operations(82)	320	2450	650	100	500
Accounting(55)	750	3600	820	250	2500

Requirements

1. Create a spreadsheet illustrating each department’s average use of each application per employee, rounding all averages to one decimal point. For example, the average hours of word processing for the Sales department is 1,150/112 = 10.3 hours.

2. Suppose there were only enough training funds for each department to train employees on only one type of application. What training would you recommend for each department?

3. What is the average number of hours of use of each application for all the employees in the company? What training would you recommend if funds were limited to only training one type of application for the entire company?

4. Using spreadsheet tools, create graphs that illustrate your findings in parts 1 and 2.

Do you think that your graphs or your numbers better ‘‘tell your story?’’

5. What alternatives are there to onsite training? Suggest at least two alternatives and discuss which of your three possibilities you prefer.