Up-gradation of Our E-Mail System - Research Proposal Example

REPORT TO STAKEHOLDERS BACKGROUND: This paper deals with a project proposal for up-gradation of our e-mail system. (Sample Project Proposal, 2003-04). Our organization has been growing and expanding as planned and hence we need to implement new technology to keep up with the additional demands that our employees will now face. One area of priority is the up-gradation of our e-mail communication system that we have employed currently. It has been brought to my notice by the sales, consulting and IT departments that the current email system is causing significant business interruptions and needs to be upgraded. The current system is a mix of five different e-mail systems being used across twelve departments. This has been found to be inadequate to meet the present and future demands of effective and uninterrupted communication. This proposal is aimed at integrating different systems into a single system by powering and installing a comprehensive communication package. LONG TERM OBJECTIVES: The objective of the project is to implement an integrated e-mail system by replacing the existing fragmented system that is currently being used. Once implemented, the new system will be capable of handling a comprehensive range of communication needs to support our growth. It is estimated that this system will be geared to handle all our future needs for a period of ten years. IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVES: Purchase of a communication package Replacing obsolete hardware like modems, switches and routers. All computers that are incompatible with the new software will also have to be replaced. Backup of all exiting communication received and sent so far. This will require training of our personnel in all the twelve departments. Comprehensive training to IT staff to understand and maintain the new system. Comprehensive training to skeleton staff for immediate use of the system. Installation of new communication hardware including computers Replacing old software with the new package. Real time implementation of the new system. Training to all concerned employees to understand and operate the new system. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION: Expected Project results: All problems we had with the old e-mail system will be eliminated with the new software and hardware. The whole project will take ten days to implement and to become operative PROJECT SCHEDULE AND WORK PLAN: The project plan is given here in detail. The project costs and a Gantt chart is reproduced at the end. Till the process of the implementation of the project is over, the required staff will be required to work on all days including weekends. The following tasks are required for completion. a. Purchase of new software package: Five vendors were identified and a comprehensive review of their product and services had been done with the help of the IT department. It has been decided that the package sold by Company X will be most suitable for our situation. The company is willing to customize the whole software to our specifications. The review report will be made available to the stakeholders and the board of directors for final approval. Once approved, the contract can be signed in three days. b. Replacing obsolete hardware like modems, switches and routers. Our IT staff on the direction of the software vendor, has estimated that all communication hardware will have to be changed. Fifteen incompatible computers will have to be replaced. An additional ten nodes are also required to be purchased. Suitable vendors have been identified and are awaiting approval of the board of directors after review by the stakeholders. The whole process would take seven days to complete including installation. The old system will run concurrently till the new one becomes functional. c. Backup of all exiting communication received and sent so far: The new package has been designed to read the backup files of all existing communication stored in our systems. The backup will be done by our IT staff and it will take two days to complete. It will not seriously affect our day to day operations. d. Comprehensive training to IT staff to understand and maintain the new system: This will be done as soon as the approval of the project comes goes through. The whole task can be completed within five days and will not affect the work schedule of project implementation as all these would be done concurrently. The training will be conducted at vendor site on their systems which will simulate our software environment. e. Comprehensive training of skeleton staff: This will go on concurrently with IT staff training. It is proposed to depute three staff, one each from sales, stores and administration for this purpose. It will take two days to train the staff. They will have to act as backup operators once the system is running until all other staff have been trained. It should be noted that the entire training for both IT and non-IT staff will have the matrix structure in project management, i.e. they will be working under their respective department heads and also along with the project manager. (Project Management Course). f. Installation of new communication hardware including computers: All hardware for communication like routers, modems, switches etc will have to be installed. It is possible to continue with our existing server and hence it need not be replaced. The new computer systems will also have to be installed. The process will take three days to complete. Until full installation is done, the old system will remain in place. Switching over to the new hardware will disrupt office communication for a working day at the most. g. Replacing old software with the new package: The old e-mail system has to be uninstalled and the new one put in its place. This process will take only one working day to complete. This phase will result in work disruption to a certain extent. h. Real time implementation of the new system. The system will now be ready for real time implementation. This will also cause a disruption in communication for three to four hours only. But for calculations sake, one working day will be taken. i. Training to all concerned employees: All the remaining employees who are yet to undergo training will be done now. Training will be done with the help of the vendor, IT staff and the employees who were trained earlier. This process will be done in a phased manner so as not to disrupt regular office work. It is expected that this phase can be completed in ten days. PROJECT BUDGET: Sl No Item Cost (USD) 1. Software Package 4,500 2. Hardware (Communication equipment) 5,500 3. Computers (25 nos. - 15 to be replaced and ten new systems) 22,500 4 Training expenditure 3,750 5 Travelling expenditure (to vendor's place) 1,250 6 Allowance to staff 1,200 7 Miscellaneous expenditure 1,100 TOTAL 39,800 Project Cost control: It is essential that cost of project should not exceed project budget. The following steps will be taken in order to achieve project cost control. All requirements for the project has been worked out and given preciously in this report. The project will be monitored at every stage with reference to equipment, material, scheduling and expenditure incurred. In doing so actual costs and planned costs will be compared and variances will be noted. If it is found that any variance has taken place, strict control of future costs will be ensured. In unavoidable instances, a reforecast of the scheduling and costs will be done. It is expected that since all requirements have been planned before hand, no such variances will take place and the project cost control will be effective and according to plan. (Wideman, 2005). Benefits: It has been reported that communication process using the current e-mail software gets disrupted very often due to incompatibility. We are currently using five different e-mail systems and these disruptions that occur due to this will affect all the departments of the company. Inter-departmental communication is also affected to a large extent. It is estimated that time loss due such happening is at least five hours per week on an average. Apart from losing time, response to customer queries and complaints are also affected. It has bee found that we have been losing customers because of this. Total loss due to both these factors is estimated at $2,000 per month. Yearly loss will be $24,000. The implementation of the new system will definitely cut this disruption and resulting loss of time and business to zero. Moreover, if the new system is not implemented it is estimated that more and more customers will be dissatisfied and leave to become clients of our competitors. The total budget for this project is only $39,800 and this expenditure can be recouped in twenty months time. Case Study: The project is technology up-gradation for the Queensland Police Department in Australia to improve the process of collecting outstanding warrants thereby increasing revenue for the city council. The main sponsor for the project is the city Police Department. Telstra and Citec were the project management consultants and the project manager was Mr Paul Summergreene. The following are the project success factors. (Project management 1 - Assignment 2, 2001). The study sourced from the paper titled 'IT Project Case Studies' (Project management 1 - Assignment 2, 2001). It appears that the project was not handled in a very efficient manner. Planning, execution and controlling were poorly done. But the consultants had done their part well. The technology needed was not available ready made and had to be developed by the consultants. Moreover the police officers were not familiar with it and had to be trained. The following lessons are clear from this poorly executed project. There should be effective and constant communication among all stakeholders. Thinking should not be limited to technology available and should have an open outlook. A common aim and goal should exist between all parties concerned. Finally resources for handling integrated data if available will be very advantageous to the clients. Reference Sample project proposal. (2003-04). United Nations - Enable. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/spdproj1.htm Project management course: Weak matrix. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.project-management-course.info/matrix-organizational-structure-history-and-styles/ Wideman, R. Max. (2005, December 21). Project cost control: The way it works. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/cost_control/cost_control.pdf Project management 1 - Assignment 2. (2001, April 23). IT Project Case Studies. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from http://www.acs.org.au/Certification/Documents/PMgt/2001PM1-ITProjectCaseStudies.pdf Read More