Project to Improve the Operations - Business Plan Example

Project Management Project Management Introduction The implementation of an information system for inventory controls and management of business operations remains one of the most significant aspects that business trading online requires. Since the company has decided to implement a system to assist in the sales, it is essential to make a consideration of the various elements that are required to ensure successful implementation of a system. The potential benefits that can be gained by the business must be evaluated against the risks and other factors that may present negative elements once the systems has been implemented (Schwalbe, 2010). This will ensure that the company makes an assessment of the deliverables to determine the benefits of the system and make a decision on what to included and exclude for maximum benefits to be achieved Project Scope The fundamental aim of the project is to improve the business operations in order to ensure that customers are satisfied with the services and products that are being provided by the business. The achievement of this target is assumed to be able to enhance growth and expansion of the company implementing the information technology system. The focus of the systems is on the business operations aspects for the entire company. These range from the mode of transactions to the delivery and all the other activities involved, and that can be performed by a system. Improvement of the business operations is critical in the promotion of client satisfaction. The system being implemented will remain limited to the back office operations, which are essential in the support of the front office operations. Information such as the level of supplies, will be providing information to the customers regarding the availability of merchandise, despite this being back office content. The project will remain focused on supporting the back office business operations, which are critical in ensuring the successful functioning of the company. The provision of technological support for these operations will ensure that the business improves the internal processes that might result in delays experienced by customers while undertaking business deals. The system will be controlled and utilised by the employees of the company in the management of data that can aid in business operations. The focus on back office activities also ensures that the improvement begins for the back-end of the company. Since the information will be stored within the system once clients log in and provide their details, the system will be able to process information regarding three basic business functions, which will be the fundamental focus for the scope of function. These include order management, inventory and supply processing. 1. Order Management Information pertaining to the orders will be input by the sales teams or the customers directly using the website interface of the system. Once this has been received, progress made on the process of delivering the order will be updated on the system, after which customers can be able to access this information. The order management scope will be limited to order progress for the customers, while the employees will be able to monitor the process. This will be critical in eliminating and minimising delays. The efficiency of the business will be achieved easily through the order management element. 2. Inventory The movement of the available stock will be monitored using the system as the information about inventory will be updated in the sales and supplies sections of the business operations. This integration of the two departments will enable the system to provide information regarding the available inventory, a move that will ensure that the supplies department makes orders in time, and that the sales department does not sell items that are unavailable. The investor will be able to improve the business operation by enhancing sales operations. 3. Supply Processing The supply processing will be closely related to the inventory and the order management functions of the system. This will retrieve information from these other elements and provide results indicating the level of inventory that can be used in making decisions regarding supplies. Understanding these basic functions, which are essential for the system being implemented, will be critical to determining the types of security systems to be implemented. This will be in regard to the input of information rather than the output. The system will be concerned with controlling the input of the information. Once supplies have been received, the system will be updated to ensure that the level of inventory that is available within the organisation remains known. This input will only be undertaken by the sales people upon receipt of the merchandise, and not upon ordering. While the order is in process, the stock will be counted as available merchandise although it will not be available for sale. Replacements for sold stock will only be confirmed once merchandise has been sold and not when orders have been received. Risks and Constraints The project faces some potential risks and constraints that could affect the process of achieving the desired outcome in the implementation process. An analysis of these potential risks and their sources is necessary in the successful implementation of the system and in ensuring its functional capability. The following risks have been identified as having significant effects on the project; User involvement – the end users of the project must be identified before the project begins in order to ensure that the requirements of the user have been accurately defined. This will eliminate the potential resistance to change, which occurs when employees do not have an interest in a new system. Executive support – the management of the company must make an agreement for the system to be implemented once all the required elements within the implementation process have been considered. The roles of the executive in the project must be clearly defined before the project commences. Requirements inflation – while the project is being implemented, the needs and requirements might change as a result of uncontrollable factors outside the scope that might affect the business. This kind of inflation will create a risk of failure for the project since the allocated resources might be exhausted before the project is completed. This can mainly be as a result of failure to involve users in the planning stage and learn about their requirements later. Schedule flaws – this can occur from lack of proper understanding of the project deliverables that are involved within the project. Understanding the deliverables will enable the development of a proper schedule for work, using the Gantt chart. The schedule can be changed midway through the project as a result of certain occurrences that may not have been considered during the initial stage of the project implementation. Unrealistic expectations – these are factors that occur as the project implementation continues, and outside the scope. The scope of the project defines the limits and expectations, but as the implementation continues, new ideas might come up and raise the expectations of different stakeholders. Staff turnover – some employees within the organisation might opt to quit instead of having to work with a system that they might not like. While training related to the implementation might be undertaken, some dissatisfied employees might quit necessitating recruitment and training of new employees, a move that could be relatively costly and that can cause failure. Technological uncertainty – the technology within the current times remains one of the most changing elements within the business. The project must ensure that it adopts the latest technology in seeking to ensure that the changes being implemented are applicable within other systems. Such an assurance will be critical in ensuring that the system can be integrated with other existing systems and function properly. Incompatibility of technology can create difficulties for new systems and result into project failure. Specification breakdown – this is a risk associated with the failure to develop the specifications of the project clearly during the planning phase of the project. This normally occurs as a result of a misunderstanding which leads in the users providing wrong requirements. When this happens changes might become necessary at an advanced stage of the implementation process. Assumptions Various assumptions have been made in the project based on the need to achieve outcomes despite the unknown factors that cause risks to the implementation process. The implementation process will involve assumptions on the following perspectives. Resources – it is assumed that the required resources like human capital, computers and others will remain available to the project throughout the entire process of implementation. Delivery - Deliverables that have been requested for the project will be approved within the provided period of time in order to ensure that the led times do not change. Environment – no industrial action will be taken on the project and the organization of the project will remain unchanged until the completion and termination of the project. Budget – the statistics used in preparing the budget are accurate and will not result in changes to the financial resource requirements like inflation. Functionality – the scope of the project will remain limited to the back-end operations of the company. Integration with other Systems The implementation of the system seeks to enhance the delivery of B2B, B2C and business to government perspectives in undertaking the various functions of the system. It becomes critical to ensure that the system is able to integrate with the interfaces used by the end-users to enhance functionality and ensure success in achieving the deliverables from implementation of the system (Hallows, 2005). This will ensure the compatibility of the systems used by the customers with that being utilised by the company. The following integrations will be utilised 1. Point to Point System Integration This will be the integration that will be occurring within two different back end applications in seeking to ensure data accuracy. This will occur between the point of sale and the point of supply in meeting the inventory requirements for the organisation. The points that will be integrating will be connected through the company’s server, which contains the information being provided at these points. Functional capacity will be supported by the information provided at these points. 2. Multipoint System Integration This will involve a case where the system will be integrating with different levels and points of operation for the system. The systems will be communicating with each other and they will involve interactions with different points. This type of integration will include many point to point integrations. These integrations will enable different points to communicate at the same time and relay information to each other. The main points will be able to exchange messages through the business processes such as making orders for merchandise for customers. 3. Meta-data synchronization This will be the fundamental approach that will be used in achieving the operational functions with the back-end systems communicating directly to the external systems. This level of integration will be used in communicating and gathering information through the internet. The information collected will include information pertaining to trading partner data like name and other identification details. The application systems will be able to send business data to the various business platforms through the technology server. This integration remains limited to the exchange of data necessary for accomplishment of normal business processes like that related to input of the names of customers, address and other such information. Definition of Relevant Terms Back- end system – this is kind of system that is utilized in the running of back-office operations such as inventory, supplies and other activities which are support to the front office operations. Front-end system - this is a system used in managing frontline operations like making orders by company customers. Online backup – this is the creation of a backup data from the system in a remote server to provide security since information can be lost through the damage of physical system. Project Assumptions – these are things that the project implementation team does not know accurately, but can make guesses regarding their occurrence since they have a fundamental effect on the project execution. Project Risks – these are things that might derail a project and prevent it from being successfully completed. Project constraints – these are defined as limits or boundaries within which a project implementation process must work in attaining the deliverables determined during the planning stage. Gantt chart References Hallows, J. (2005). Information systems project management: How to deliver function and value in information technology projects. New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Schwalbe, K. (2010). Information technology project management (6th ed.). New York: Cengage Learning.  Read More