Bonanza Mining Corporation – Two offices in the US: Philadelphia HQ and San Francisco Sales Offices
IT_LabWorks offers scenario-based case studies that transpire within a fictional company, the Bonanza Mining Corporation, with headquarters in Philadelphia and sales offices in San Francisco. The company, though imaginary, comes complete with its own history, management team and co-workers who work “alongside” the students. All of the imaginary employees have their own email accounts at the company’s real-life website (www.bonanza-mining.com). Below is the floor plan of the Philadelphia corporate head quarters:
Students adopt the persona of an avatar to carry out the virtual labs: Paul Robertson, the Senior Support Technician at the company’s headquarters in Philadelphia. Paul’s email address is paul.robertson@bonanza-mining.com. Paul mostly works out of the Philadelphia office but does, on occasion, fill in at the San Francisco office as well. Paul’s boss is Victor Sanchez who is the IT Director. Victor’s email address is victor.sanchez@bonanza-mining.com and his bio is available at www.bonanza-mining.com/management.
Paul is called upon by Victor, but also by some of the other executives to solve various problems. He performs various configurations, setups, troubleshooting and other tasks that arise from the business needs of the company. Paul finds his requests or queries in the Case Study scenario window or in his inbox.
Thus, the virtual company mimics the real-world work environment students will encounter once they are certified and in the worforce.
Company background
This is the company background as presented to the student:
The Bonanza Mining Corporation is a mining equipment provider founded in 1849 in the western Utah Territory, which today is the state of Nevada. It has come a long way since its modest start outside Virginia City and it now has its headquarters in Philadelphia and a sales office in San Francisco.
The company manufactures and sells top quality underground mobile mining and tunneling equipment to mining operations around the globe. The product line includes but is not limited to:
Jumbo Drill Rigs LHD’s Underground Loaders
Scissor Lifts Flatbed Boom Trucks
Fuel & Lube Trucks Bolting Jumbos
Underground Trucks Narrow Vein & Custom Equipment
Used and Remanufactured Equipment and Parts
The company has been publicly traded on the NYSE since its hugely successful IPO in 2003. Because of the compliance requirements that come with being a publicly traded company and the sheer growth in sales volume, the IT Support function has grown from a fully outsourced function just a couple of years ago to being completely handled in-house today.
You are Paul Robertson, the Senior Support technician at the Philadelphia headquarters. Your office is the IT Admin & Training Department and your boss is Victor Sanchez, the longstanding IT Director for the company. You can view his executive bio at the company website under the “About us” tab.
DISCLAIMER (as seen at the bottom of each page of the BMC website):
“This site features a fictional company created solely for educational purposes in support of case studies. Any resemblance with an actual company or any actual executives would be purely accidental. Copyright 2023, All rights reserved dti Publishing Corporation.”
