Analysis of the Background of the Project and Its Narrative - Coca-Cola Company - Case Study Example

Term Project Name Course Name and Code Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Part I: Building of the Project Plan 3 Analysis of the Background of the Project and its Narrative 3 Part II 3 Overview of the Company’s products 3 Objectives of the Project 4 The role of the General Management Approach 5 Possible Constraints 5 Resources required for the Implementation of the Project 5 The Work Breakdown Structure 6 The Responsibility Assignment Matrix 7 Part Three: Assessment of Risk 8 Qualitative Risk Assessment 9 Quantitative Risk Assessment 10 The Risk Mitigation Strategies 10 Part IV: Cost Estimates and Budget 11 Part V: Development of a Project Schedule 11 The Activity Network and Schedule 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Part I: Building of the Project Plan Analysis of the Background of the Project and its Narrative The Coca-Cola Company is a multinational company, which is based in various countries all over the world. The company is known to employ a high number of employees in its numerous locations of operation and it has several outlets in almost every country in the world. Coca-Cola as a company is highly recognized as a market leader in various brands of soft drinks. Almost all consumers in the world know the company’s products. Working as a team will greatly enhance the chances of success for the project and therefore it is essential that all the members in the company fully cooperate for the achievement of this noble goal. The risk factors should also be ascertained earlier so that corrective action can be taken to alleviate any possible problems, which may emerge during the running of the project. By so doing, all the risks may be minimized or totally be avoided to make the entire project to become a success (Gatti, 2013). Part II Overview of the Company’s products Coca-Cola as a company can be deemed very successful and indeed, it can be asserted that it is one of the most established companies in the world. Given the fact that the company is very well established, it should now come up with various strategies aimed at increasing its sales. It is common fact that almost each person in the world actually knows that Coca-Cola has physical markets, which are located in various buildings. However, with the advent of Information Technology, it is now very easy for the company to establish online websites where its clients are capable of purchasing the company’s products without necessary going to purchase them physically. In addition to that, the Coca-Cola Company can as well enhance its services by ensuring that such products are delivered to the residential places of their clients. The use of e-marketing has been adopted by various companies all over the world and thus it will be prudent if the coca-cola company also adopted its use in all the physical locations that the company operates in. The Coca-Cola Company will thus develop a website that will have a range of products, which the company offers in its stores and how individuals can buy such products using online platforms. The development of such a system will not make Coca-Cola as a company to become the first in initiating such developments. This is because other companies have already adopted and implemented the use of such systems in their day today business operations. The adoption and subsequent adoption of such a system will not only increase business efficiency for Coca-Cola Company but it will also lead to an increase in sales for the company as well. This is because it will be pretty easy for clients to order the products that they need from the comforts of their time without necessarily physically travelling to the outlets and encountering unnecessary delays. Objectives of the Project Required Goals Required Targets The development of a website having all the products that the Coca-Cola Company has Excellent= It was finished in 7 months Good: It was finished in one year Acceptable: It was finished in more than 1 year Completion of the project in the same amount of budgetary allocation Excellent: a 15% increase in budget Good: a 20% increase in the total budget Acceptable: A 25% increase in the budget. Increase the sales from the website during the first year of the business operations Excellent: When more than $10 million sales are derived from sales of the website. Good: When more than $ 7 million sales are derived from the website. Acceptable: When $5 Million sales are derived from the website. The role of the General Management Approach The aim of using the “General Management Approach” will be to develop a website quickly, which will be capable of using a secure Credit Card Payment system. The company should therefore ensure that it is capable of developing a very secure and efficient website, which can be trusted by the clients especially when they are using their credit cards. The website should therefore be very first and should present the company’s clients with a user friendly interface and experience as well. The company management should also ensure that the developed website is not only designed professionally but also ensure that that the rates are always automatically updated. Possible Constraints The major problems or constraints that may be encountered in the implementation of this particular project are making it to become fully effective and stable. It is therefore the wish of the Coca-Cola Company that the developed website should not only be stable but safe as well. Another constraint is that hackers with ill-motives may also want to hack into the company’s system with a view of obtaining vita business information and given the importance of the website, this should not actually be left to occur. This is because the occurrence of such problems might lead to incurrence of heavy losses by the firm. Resources required for the Implementation of the Project In order to ensure that this company project is successfully completed, then the Coca-Cola Company has to insist on having relevant people who are well qualified with both computer and technical skills that will see the completion of this project to the end and design a good website. Apart from that, the company must also ensure that it has the appropriate or relevant types of computers having the necessary specifications that are required to design the website. A special office should also be allocated within the organization to accommodate the personnel who will be working on this particular project right from the start t its completion. This particular office must be well furnished and ensure that all the needed equipments are available and in good working conditions. The Work Breakdown Structure Product Introduction Project 1000 Deliverable I Feasibility Study of the project 1010 Work Package 1 Building of a Project Plan 1011 Work Package 2 Doing of a Sales Forecast and doing ROI Analysis to ascertain if it is a nice investment opportunity 1012 Work Package 3 Getting approval from the company management to initiate the project 1013 Deliverable II Selection of Vendor 1020 Work Package 1 Request Companies to submit their quotations for developing the company website 1021 Work Package 2 Comparing quotations and selecting the best one 1022 Work Package 3 Presentation of quotations and details towards the company management and getting approval 1023 Work Package 4 Holding a meeting with the company management’s website developer in order to sign a contract 1024 Work Package 5 Getting a quotation for the delivery vans and trucks Work Package 6 Getting a quotation that is approved for delivery vehicles and purchase vehicles by management Deliverable 3 Developing of the website 1030 Work Package 1 Meeting the teams of experts in order to discuss the site’s details 1031 Work package 2 Presenting the developer of the website with all the relevant information needed for them to design the website he website 1032 Work package 3 Doing a fellow up with the company dealing with the website development 1033 Work package 5 Doing a better testing of the website and also conduct a full process of online sales 1034 Deliverable 4 Hiring of staff 1040 Work package 1 Making arrangements with both the Master card and the Visa companies to facilitate online payment systems 1041 Work Package 2 Hiring of support staff and delivery drivers for website office 1042 Work package 3 Train staff and do immigration processing 1043 Deliverable 4 Launching of the website 1050 Work package 1 Preparing of the launch events of the company website 1051 Work package 2 Launching of the website in a special event 1052 Work package 3 Making a follow up on the website’s success with the clients 1053 The Responsibility Assignment Matrix Name of the Task Product Manager Project Manager Civil Engineer Technical Expert Manager Accountant HRM Building of the project plan R A S Doing a ROI analysis and sales forecast to ascertain if it is a viable investment option S A R Getting approval from the company management to begin the project R A Requesting numerous companies to submit their quotations for designing of the website A R Comparing quotations and selecting the best one A R Presenting the quotation and details to top management and getting approval R A Holding a meeting with the website’s management developer so as to sign a contract S R S A S S Meeting a team of experts of the supplier in order to discuss details regarding the site S A R Presenting the website developer with relevant information needed to develop the website R A S Getting the quotation for delivery vans and trucks A R Getting the quotation approved for both the purchase and delivery of vehicles by management R A Setting up of separate offices for the management of the website in the company’s head office A R S Doing a follow up with the website developer organization A Making agreements with the Master card and Visa companies regarding the online payment system R A Hiring of support staff and delivery drivers for the office of the website A A R Training of staff and doing the immigration processing S A A R Doing of beta testing of the website and total online sales processing A A S Preparing the launch event of the website event A R R S Launching of the website in a special event R S S A Following up with the clients on the website’s success R A Part Three: Assessment of Risk The company will be faced by numerous potential threats and risks in its endeavour to implement the project. Some of the potential threats and risks are named below: It will be difficult in getting permission from the Ministry of Business to begin the online business. There may be lack of essential online platforms to address the issue of online payments that can make the clients to feel that the method is safe and secure. There may be difficulty in obtaining approval since the project may eventual not get the approval from the relevant Ministry of education and the government to operate. The costs of developing this particular project like the instructors’ costs and even software cannot be affordable for the company and thus the cut in this project may be trimmed in the process of the development life cycle. There may be a possibility of a key team member withdrawing from the project. Being unavailable to work will for key personnel like the Project Manager and the IT Engineer may make the whole project to become grounded. Due to the perceived lack of safety of the internet, clients might actually get worried of using their credit cards to make the online payments for the company products. Due to some technical factors, the new process designs may not be feasible and thus the project engineers may discover that indeed, the project may not completely wok and it will be difficult to achieve the set objectives and goals. Individuals or clients in specific might become afraid of paying online and thus prefer to physically come to the company store to purchase the products. The company website might be hacked and thus making sensitive company information to be stolen and used for destructive purposes. Due to accidents on the road, this will make the delivery of the products to the clients to delay. Wrong products may be delivered to the clients or the product may be defective and the client may want to either return them or exchange them. Qualitative Risk Assessment PROBABILITY LOW MEDIUM HIGH HIGH 1,3 2 5 MEDIUM 4 LOW Quantitative Risk Assessment The probability of failure Maturity/Moderate= ½ Quality/Moderate = ½ Impacts of Failure Reliability/Minor =0.3 Significant cost =0.7 The Risk Mitigation Strategies High Risk Mitigation strategies Due to accidents on the road, the delivery of the company products to the clients will delay. The company drivers must be well trained and given skills to ensure that, they have the best driving skills. May be a wrong item will be delivered to the client or there will be a problem in the product and the client may want to return or exchange them. Mechanisms should be developed to ensure that the products are checked numerous times and also ensure that the correct product is given to the clients. MODERATE RISK It will be so difficult to attain permission from the Ministry of Business to initiate the online business The organization should first consult with the government to ascertain if there will be any complications or problems. This should actually be done before the start o f the online business. The company’s website may be hacked and sensitive customer information stolen. There should be antivirus software and firewalls software for all the computers in the company. LOW RISK Individuals might get afraid of using online payment systems and thus prefer to physically come to the store. Newspaper advertisements and marketing should be carried out in order to inform clients why paying through using the online systems is safe and secure and that there are no risks, which are associated with this method. This is quite important since clients will feel very comfortable. Part IV: Cost Estimates and Budget The initiation of an in-depth cost estimate aimed at supporting the initial scope statement and project proposal is presented in some part of the report. The monthly total costs for the project are also depicted below while the employees’ salaries are based on a forty hours weekly work. Personnel Level Rate Loaded Rate ($) Labour weeks required Total cost Project Manager SENIOR 25 35 20 28000 Product Manager SENIOR 15 22 10 8800 Technical Expert JUNIOR 10 12 10 4800 Civil Engineer JUNIOR 10 18 10 7200 Manager SENIOR 15 22 10 8800 Accountant ACCOUNTANT 10 12 10 4800 HR Manager SENIOR 15 10 10 8800 Overhead Cost QAR Office Rent 15000 Subscription fees for the web servers 1000 Marketing 30000 Drivers and staff accommodation 20000 Cost of equipment 50000 Utilities 5000 Extra Costs 10000 Total 131000 Part V: Development of a Project Schedule The table below depicts the activity duration schedule Duration in Days No Activity Optimistic Likely Pessimistic Est. Duration 1. Development of a project plan 5 8 10 8 2. Getting Government and Ministry Approval 5 8 9 7 3. Getting quotations from the websites designers 3 6 10 6 4. Selecting and approving quotations 1 4 6 4 5. Meeting the suppliers and developing the website 14 17 19 17 6. Getting quotations for the delivery services 3 6 9 6 7. Selecting and approving quotations 1 4 6 4 8. Taking delivery of delivery vehicles 5 8 10 8 9. Setting up the office for maintenance of the website 10 13 15 13 10. Hiring staff to run the website 7 10 14 10 11. Setting up of online payment and security system 3 6 8 6 12. Beta testing for the website 5 8 12 8 13. Launching of the website 2 5 8 5 The Activity Network and Schedule Tasks Duration in days Building of a project plan 5 Doing sales forecast and the ROI analysis to ascertain if it is a wise investment option 3 Getting approval from the company management to begin the project 1 Requesting the companies to sent in their quotations of designing the website 1 Comparing quotations and choosing the best 1 Presenting quotations and details to the management and getting approval 1 Holding a meeting with the top management of the developer of the website in order to sign the contract 4 Meeting a team of experts from the supplier and discussing the site’s details 2 Presenting the developer of the website with the relevant information needed in order to develop the website 4 Getting the quotation for the delivery of the vans and trucks 1 Getting the quotations approved for the delivery of vehicles by the management and purchasing of the vehicles 2 Setting up of separate office for the website management in the company’s head office 12 Making a follow up with the company’s website developer 2 Making agreements with the relevant Master card and Visa Companies to facilitate online payments 3 Hiring support staff and delivery drivers for the website office 12 Training staff and doing immigration processing 13 Doing beta testing of the website and conducting total online sales processes 27 Preparing for the launch of the launching of the website 4 Launching of the website in a special event 1 Doing follow up with the clients regarding the success of the website 4 Conclusion It should be noted by all and sundry that indeed, the success of this particular project is not the responsibility of one individual alone; rather, it is a collective responsibility of all the stakeholders in the company. Working as a team will greatly enhance the chances of success for the project and therefore it is essential that all the members in the company fully cooperate for the achievement of this noble goal. The risk factors should also be ascertained earlier so that corrective action can be taken to alleviate any possible problems, which may emerge during the running of the project. By so doing, all the risks may be minimized or totally be avoided so as to make the entire project to become a success. It is the responsibility of the company’s top management to ensure that all the departments in the company are functioning effectively towards the achievement of this particular project. This will make it possible for the clients to not only trust the operation of the company but also trust its online operations as well. References Gatti, S. (2013). Project Finance in Theory and Practice. New York: John Willey & Sons. Read More