Sample Business Studies Case study Assignment on Team Briefing

Team Briefing
As the only Business Analyst in the consultancy team assigned to the Scott Direct project your boss
turns to you. He asks you to take a first look at the Excel data sets provided by the Scott Direct sales
and supply planners. Before he prepares the scoping study report he wants to know about the size
and shape of the PPE product portfolio, the supply base and the customer base. Discussions with the
company so far suggest there is an opportunity to rationalise both the product range and the supply
base, but first the size of that opportunity needs to be assessed. Likewise concerning Scott Direct
customer accounts, perhaps the company needs to know which customers represent the lion’s share
of contribution to the business and which represent very little. You jump to the challenge and set
about planning what analyses you need to carry out. Aware that the data sets provided are probably
a bit ‘messy’, you are prepared to deal with this and make reasonable assumptions if needed, afterall
that is the reality of working with real business data!
Your Report
Produce a concise report of no more than 1200 words clearly presenting your findings to your
employer (NOT Scott Direct). Please refer to the Report template example which you may wish to
use. Your report should include:
• Title page: Your company name, Project title, prepared by you, date, (see template)
• Executive Summary: A short summary of the whole report including key findings and next steps.
• Introduction: A brief introduction clearly telling the reader (your boss) the purpose of the report
and what is included in the report
• Background: A brief background to provide context and to demonstrate your understanding of
the overall project
• Methodology: Explain your approach to the task, what methods, tools, techniques did you use to
analyse the data and WHY. What data did you use.
• Results: Present and discuss your results. Use appropriate graphical and/or tabular output that
best illustrates what you have uncovered in the data. Each figure and table must be discussed,
explaining the relevance and importance of the findings. Ensure axis labels are correct.
• Conclusions: Clearly state what can be concluded from the analyses you have carried out. Each
conclusion must be substantiated.
• Next steps: What do you suggest should happen next? What further analyses do you recommend
and why? What additional data should the team request from Scott Direct?