Business Maths and Computer Application Coursework | Dublin City University

Coursework

Company Background  

GreenTech Renewables Ltd is a Dublin-based renewable energy technology firm (founded 2008) that designs and manufactures small-scale solar arrays and smart battery storage systems for homes, farms, and SMEs across Ireland and the UK. Following steady growth, the company plans to expand into continental Europe and invest in next-generation storage R&D. Recent pressures include higher component prices, supply chain variability, and currency risk on USDdenominated imports. GreenTech seeks robust, data-driven financial planning to support a sustainable growth strategy.

You are engaged as an analyst to prepare a comprehensive assessment covering financing options, investments, foreign-exchange impacts, statistical analysis of performance data (2010–2025, semi-annual), and probability & risk. All monetary amounts are in euro (€).

General Instructions  

Submit four files: (1) a Word report on findings from part 1 with explanations, charts and references; (2) an Excel workbook containing all calculations and data tables; (3) a PowerPoint presentation summarising key findings from part 2 and 3. Use clear labels, show formulas in Excel, and keep a clean, professional style with a sustainability theme. 4) a 10 minute screencast explain your findings from each of the tasks

Where appropriate, justify assumptions, cite any external sources used for current lending rates or fees, and interpret results for management. 2

Part 1 — Financial Functions & Time Value of Money (Word + Excel) (35%)

A. Financing Options & Amortisation 

Using a required funding of €250,000 over 5 years, complete the following tasks:

1) Identify at least five potential financing sources, including:

• One commercial bank (e.g., AIB or Bank of Ireland).
• One peer-to-peer/fintech lender (e.g., Linked Finance).
• One government/EU-backed facility (e.g., SBCI / Enterprise Ireland partner).
• One green or sustainability-linked loan option.
• One credit union or venture/alternative finance option.

2) For each option, compute and compare:

• Monthly payment (PMT), total interest, total repayment.
• APR (including fees) and the annual interest rate; discuss di
• Impact of compounding frequency: monthly vs quarterly.

3) Build full amortisation tables for two selected loans (monthly and quarterly).

4) Create a sensitivity data table for one loan showing:

• Interest rate variation: ±0.25 percentage points in 0.05 steps.
• Term variation: ±3 years around the base term in yearly steps 3

B. Investment Appraisal 

Calculate the PV of a 4 year equipment lease for GreenTech with an annual interest rate of 6%. The lease has a €20000 cost paid at the end of each year and a residual cost of €10000 paid at the end of the final year.

1 GreenTech can invest €2,000 per month. Evaluate the following: Future Value (FV) of monthly investments at 10, 15, and 20 years for three alternatives: Renewable ETF (6% nominal).

1 R&D project (8% expected).

1 Green bond (4.5% nominal).

For each horizon, compute FV for both end-of-period and beginning-of-period contributions.

Use Goal Seek to determine: The number of years for the ETF investment to reach €140237.76 where the payment is at the beginning of the period.

The approximate number of months for the green bond’s FV to reach €500,000.

C. FX (Foreign Exchange) Impact 

• For a $300,000 component order, calculate the euro cost across EUR/USD rates from 1.05 to 1.20 (inclusive).
• Represent this as a suitable visualisation.

D. Decision Summary 

in a Word document summarise the recommended financing choice (lowest real cost), preferred investment strategy (highest value at acceptable risk), and whether to use or preserve any cash reserves. Support with quantitative evidence from your Excel model. Ensure your Word document has a professional look and feel. 4

Part 2 — Central Tendency, Dispersion & Data Visualisation (Excel + PowerPoint) (35%) 

Use the semi-annual dataset (2010–2025) with variables: Revenue (€m), Costs (€m), Export Share (%), R&D (€m), Energy Output (MWh). This data is available in the Assessment2Data spreadsheet on Moodle.

A. Descriptive Analytics 

1) Compute mean, median, variance, and standard deviation across:

• 2010–2014 • 2015–2019 • 2020–2025

2) Build 5-year (10-period) moving averages and moving standard deviations for Revenue and discuss stability.

3) Create suitable visualisations based on the above.

4) Correlate R&D and Revenue; Identify the likely Revenue if 1 million was spent on R&D, fit a simple linear regression (Chart), report coe icients and R².

B. Frequency & Distribution 

1)  Using the 5-year moving averages, construct frequency tables for Revenue in €2m bins (up to €20m): absolute, relative, and cumulative

2) Add a pivot chart comparing frequency of Revenue vs Costs intervals.

Part 3 — Probability & Risk (Excel + PowerPoint) (20%)

1. Sales Conversion Probability

TUS Electronics Ltd receives an average of 120 online inquiries per week. Based on past data, 25% of inquiries result in a sale. a. What is the probability that exactly 30 inquiries lead to sales in a week? b. What is the expected number of sales per week?

2. Product Defect Rate

A factory producing LED bulbs for McKenna Lighting has a defect rate of 2%. A quality inspector randomly selects 10 bulbs from a large batch. a. What is the probability that exactly 1 bulb is defective? b. What is the probability that none are defective? 5

3. Supplier Reliability

A retailer sources items from three suppliers:

• Supplier A provides 40% of the stock and has a 3% defect rate.
  Supplier B provides 35% of the stock and has a 2% defect rate.
• Supplier C provides 25% of the stock and has a 5% defect rate.

If a randomly chosen item is found to be defective, what is the probability it came from Supplier C?

4. Marketing Campaign Success

A marketing team runs two types of ads — online and print.

• The probability that an online ad reaches the target audience is 0.7.
• The probability that a print ad reaches the target audience is 0.4.
• 60% of the ads are online.

If an ad reaches the target audience, what is the probability it was online?

5. Stock Delivery Delays

TUS Electronics has two distribution centres:

• Centre X delivers 65% of orders, with a 10% chance of delay.
• Centre Y delivers 35% of orders, with a 6% chance of delay.
• What is the overall probability that an order is delayed?
• If an order is delayed, what is the probability it came from Centre X?

Represent your findings from part 2 and 3 in PowerPoint with at least 15 slides, apply animations to bullet slides, use a suitable design on each slide, auto-advance after 10 seconds and loop continuously.

Create a 10 minute screencast in MP4 format to explain all of your formula. Use Stream or similar software for this. (10%) 6

Formatting Guidance 

• Use headers/footers with page numbers and a clean sustainability theme.
• Ensure all Excel sheets are clearly named; show formulas where appropriate