New E-Commerce System for Books R Us - Assignment Example

Title: A New e-commerce System for Books R Us’ Date: October 30, 2008. Introduction: The e-commerce Solutions Ltd (ESL) Company is providing customized E-commerce systems for medium to large organizations for their implementation through cost effective manner. A business report has been designed for its implementation on a new E-commerce system for ‘Books R Us’ with an objective that the project will be completed within the given duration as pointed out by the customer. Books R Us’ has its four outlets at Sunderland, Darlington, Newcastle and Durham. At each station there is approximately ten staff of the Company with its Managing Director in the Company’s headquarters at Newcastle. The report is consisting of total seventeen interconnected and interrelated tasks spreading over 104 days. These tasks have been grouped into four major categories and each category is starting depending on the critical requirements of the project (1). The report is ready for its consideration by the next board meeting. The managing director may like to submit the report to the next forth coming board meeting. Some basic facts about the report are as under: Name of the Report E-commerce system for ‘Books R Us’ Starting Date 15 March, 2006 Target Completion Date 15 June, 2006 Total cost 78666 pound Executive Summary: The project a new E-commerce system for ‘Books R Us’ is consisting of four major tasks and all these tasks are further including seventeen sub tasks in the report(2). All these tasks have been grouped into four major tasks including: (a) Needs assessment. (b) Selection of programming team. (c) Purchases (d) Installation and Final documentation. All these major activities are based on the project’s strategic requirements, overlapping and are interconnected in such a manner that elimination of any task or group of tasks may lead to unsatisfactory outputs and delivery so therefore timely execution of each tasks is pivotal for the success of the project(3). The project will be completed with a total cost of 78666 pound in duration of three months .Successful observance of the time schedule will guarantee the timely execution of the project(4). The said project will serve as a model for other similar companies for its replication in their businesses to confirm the sustainability of their business through the adoption of modern e business techniques (5). Tasks: (a) Needs assessment Need assessment is the initial tasks of the E-commerce system for the client, identification of the requirements including hardware and software, specification of the development environment, preparation of a development environment or the sub tasks including in this category of the major tasks(6). The sub tasks included in this category along with their duration in number of days, resources available, costs and the execution plan with full justification are as under: Serial No. Task Resources Available Cost In Pounds Starting Date Completion Date Justification 1 Specify development environment. SC, SS, SA 1062 16 March, 2006 16 March, 2006 Specification of development is the starting point for the project. 2 Identification of Hardware needs. C, SS 3492 17 March, 2006 24 March, 2006 The step is determining the hardware needs 3 The preparation of development environment. C, SA, SS 16440 27 March, 2006 21 April, 2006 The step will help in providing a skeleton for the overall project. 4 Negotiate final contract for Dev Environment SC,C 3288 24 April,2006 28 April,2006 Final contract will be negotiated with the stakeholders Sub Total 24282 b. Selection of programming team The programming team will serve as an input in the form of essential input for the project. The detail is as under Serial No. Task Resources Available Cost In Pounds Starting Date Completion Date Justification 1 Selection of program team SC,C 2160 27 April,2006 28 April,2006 The team selection will be completed for the project. 2 Train Program Team C, P 1260 1 May, 2006 2 May, 2006 The necessary training will be imparted to the selected team. 3 Train Operating Team. C, SS 3492 4 May, 2006 11 May, 2006 The training to the operating team will be imparted. Sub Total 6912 c. Purchases The purchases are essential for the execution of the planned activity. Following purchases will be made as per given schedule: Serial No. Task Resources Available Cost In Pounds Starting Date Completion Date Justification 1 Obtain Quotations C, SS 2910 21 April, 2006 28 April, 2006 Quotations will provide a data for taking a decision regarding purchases. 2 Purchase of hardware. SS,C 14550 1 May,2006 29 May,2006 The purchase of hardware as a backup support is essential for the project. 3 Installation of the hardware. C, SS 2328 30 May, 2006 2 June, 2006 The purchased hardware will be installed. 4 Develop software. P, SA, C 10440 2 June, 2006 15 June, 2006 Software for the program will be developed. 5 Test and Parallel Run. SC, P, C 3240 12 June, 2006 14 June, 2006 Test and Parallel Run will be completed on over time basis. Sub Total 33468 d. Installation and Final Documentation The activities included under this major category along with their costs and justification is as under: Serial No. Task Resources Available Cost In Pounds Starting Date Completion Date Justification 1 Installation of security and backup systems. C, SS, P 3960 30 May, 2006 5 June, 2006 Security system as a backup support is an essential input for the whole project. 2 Design File Structure. P, SA, C 2610 6 June,2006 8 June,2006 File structure will provide documentation mechanism for the project. 3 Commission System. C, P, SS 1584 9 June, 2006 12 June, 2006 Commission system will provide a blue print for the project. 4 Finalize Documentation. C, SC, P, SA, SS. 3900 14 June, 2006 15 June, 2006 Documentation will be completed as on overtime basis. 5 Review Project. C, SC, P, SA, SS. 1950 15 June, 2006 15 June, 2006 The project will be reviewed on overtime basis. Sub Total 14004 Grand total A+ b+ c+ d 78666 C= Consultant, SC= Senior Consultant, P=Programmer, SA= Systems Analyst, SS=Support Staff. Milestones A new E-commerce system for ‘Books R Us’, the project will have the following milestones (7). These milestones will monitor the progress of the project and will provide necessary input to the management team for taking necessary decisions in favor of the project (8). 1. The preparation of development environment starting from 27th March 2006 and ending on 21st April 2006 will serve as the first milestone(9) for the project and successful completion (10)of the task will indicate that the project is running smoothly(11). 2. Installation of the hardware will serve as the second and final milestone for the project. References: 1. Chaudhury, Abijit; Jean-Pierre Kuilboer ,2002. e-Business and e-Commerce Infrastructure. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-247875-6.  2. Frieden, Jonathan D.; Roche, Sean Patrick ,2006 "E-Commerce: Legal Issues of the Online Retailer in Virginia", Richmond Journal of Law & Technology 13(2), http://law.richmond.edu/jolt/v13i2/article5.pdf  3. Graham, Mark ,2008, "Warped Geographies of Development: The Internet and Theories of Economic Development", Geography Compass 2(3), http://geospace.co.uk/files/compass.pdf  4. Kessler, M. ,2003. More shoppers proceed to checkout online. 5. Nissanoff, Daniel ,2006. ISBN 1-59420-077-7.  6. Seybold, Pat ,2001. Customers.com. Crown Business Books (Random House). ISBN 0-609-60772-3.  7. Miller, Roger ,2002. ISBN 0-324-06188- 8. Beynon-Davies P, 2004. E-Business. Palgrave, Basingstoke. ISBN: 1-4039-1348-X 9. Paul Timmers, 2000, Electronic Commerce - strategies & models for business-to-business trading, pp.31, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, ISBN 0-471-72029-1 Read More