The Current System Utilized by Tracksuits-N-Sportswear Company Limited - Case Study Example

Running head: Feasibility Report. Student name: Student number: Course title: Lecturer: Date: Cover Letter Your Address Name of recipient Recipients Address Dear Dr. Name: The reason for writing the feasibility report of the article is to provide an objective analysis and review of the current system utilized by Tracksuits-N-Sportswear Company Limited, in identifying the challenges of the system and recommends an appropriate new system. The feasibility study was done in the month of August, 2010 . The feasibility report provides a recap of the the current sytem within the context, and its purposed to offer impartial critique of the system The feasibility report is limited by the fact that the management has already identified the challenges of the current system, and outlined the expectations on the propose system. The report proposes the adotion of the new systems, so as to overcome the limitations of the current sytem, while taking advange of technological advanes, in order to gain strategic competitive advantage. Sincerely, Your Signature Your typed name Your title Executive Summary The report is unprejudiced analysis of the current system utilized by Tracksuits-N-Sportswear Company Limited, where feasibility study revealed that it is riddled with numerous challenges, this report was purposed to assist the management in decision making, on shifting to a new system. For the company to gain competitive advantage there is need to utilize Information Technology to offer information across diverse departments, facilitate managerial decision making and as well serve as an competent method for managing business processes. The report recommended that the management adopts a web based Enterprise Resource Planning tool, where all operations and data are centralized while automating several business operations. Table of contents 1.0 Introduction -the proposed system 1 2.0 Current System Summary 5 2.1 System Deficiencies 5 2.2 System Description 6 3.0 New System Constraints and Assumptions 7 3.1 New System Scope 7 3.1.1 Performance requirements 7 3.1.2 Hardware constraints 7 3.1.3 Software constraints 8 4.0 Project Management 8 4.1 Personnel Required 8 4.2 Preliminary project schedule 9 4.3 Resource requirements 9 4.4 Preliminary Project Development Cost 9 4.5 Anticipated System Evolution 10 5.0 Recommendation 10 References 11 Appendix I Assumptions 12 1.0 Introduction -the proposed system In consideration of the prevailing system, it is proposed that the new system be ERP based, in that in can integrate all the functionalities of the company. The system to be implemented should be an Enterprise wide system that facilitates integrated and real-time planning, production and customer response Olson, & Desheng (2008). The proposed system is envisioned to provide several advantages centralized access to data, automation of entire processes, improved customer satisfaction as well as reduced demands on the workforce, while overcoming the challenges related with the current system. The system shall be ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) based where all the processes shall be automated as on system, ranging from ordering, production up to billing. To attain the strategic objectives, the proposed system shall be structured into interacting set of related modules which are web based; these modules are Revenue module, Expenditure module, Production module, General Ledger and Reporting module, and the Human resources module, all the modules shall access a centralized database. The revenue module shall act as an interface for information exchange with the customers. The module shall serve persistent set of business activities in conjunction with and correlated information processing so as to enhance provision of goods to the clients as well as receiving payments from clients. To solve the problem of handling consumer credit, the system shall be connected with a credit reference bureau server such that credit appraisal can be automated and that the credit worthiness customers can be effectively established, without undergoing rigorous process. The module shall interact with other modules, to provide the right product at an optimal price – as and when needed. The module shall serve as providing and input for strategic decision making, this shall provide decision support in terms of what products to produce, how it should be customized, and the amount of inventory, credit worthiness determination, strategic pricing of the commodities and how to process payments. The revenue module shall be structured to deal with Sales order entry, shipping, billing and cash collection in one interface. Since the system shall be web based, the use of mobile computing shall be utilized so as to increase methodologies for taking customer orders to include order entries by mail, in the store, by phone, customers making orders directly on the company’s website or even by the marketing personnel in the field. The company can also adopt Electronic data interchange (EDI) to offer direct link with customers so as receive orders and manage the customer’s inventory as argued by Herbert,& Mogens (2005). The system implemented shall contain Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to offer customized service to customers as well as personalized feedback. In terms of billing customers, the proposed system is expected to automate billing depending on the products ordered, quantity ordered and discounts to reduce the need of entry of data on several sheets. The system shall automatically integrate Invoicing and updating accounts receivable, these reduce instances of redundant effort. The module is expected to manage Purchasing and Cash Disbursements, minimizing the total cost of acquiring and maintaining inventory, supplies, and services. The module shall manage and interlink all the business activities and data processing operations that are related with expenditure. This is intentioned to provide timely and up to date information to for strategic decision making on items that require expenditure, this is also utilized to mitigate against the risks and threats associated with expenditures. Since the entire system shall be web based, the expenditure module shall provide an interface for external exchange of information with suppliers while collecting information from the other modules such as revenue module, production module and inventory control module. The module also keeps track of inflow of goods and materials such as the recipients of the goods and the persons who ordered the gods. The module manages Ordering goods, supplies, and services, payments and receiving and storing the ordered commodities. The module is expected to offer a solution to replenishing inventory challenge, by utilizing Materials Requirements Planning (MRP), which attempts to decrease inventory levels by advancing the precision of forecasting techniques so as to schedule production and purchasing considering the forecasted level The proposed system integrates the production of T-shirts, tracksuit tops and pants as one module identified as the production module. This module interacts with other modules and accesses the centralized database. The module aids the management in decision making in answering pertinent questions such as the combination of items to be produced, e.g. the proportion of T-shirts , tracksuit tops and pants, the strategic price of the commodities, the proportional allocation of resources, determining how costs be managed and performance evaluated as well as decision on optimal utilization of raw materials. There are several activities related with production such as Product design, Cost accounting, Planning and scheduling and Production operations. In the product design, the system shall encompass designation of products that strikes the optimal balance of satisfying the customer needs in terms quality, durability, and functionality while minimizing production costs, the system should have simulation capabilities to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of product design. As regards Planning and scheduling, the system shall aim at developing an efficient a production plan to serve current orders and projected shorter-term demand while reducing inventories of completed products and both raw materials. In Production operations, the system shall involve use computer-integrated manufacturing. Cost Accounting plays a vital role in provision of information for appraising performance planning and controlling. General Ledger and reporting module deals with procedures to manage general ledger accounts and organization of reports that are crucial for the strategic survival of the organization. The module shall be linked to all the other modules in order to retrieve and organize information for strategic management. The module plays a crucial role in updating the general ledger, preparation of financial statements, posting of adjusting entries and production of managerial reports. The preparation of financial reports shall henceforth be automated such that important reports such as profit and loss accounts, trial balance, closing entries and income statement shall be available to all interested stakeholders of Tracksuits-N-Sportswear Company Limited at the click of a button. Moreover, the system shall offer ready reports such as budgets and projection to the management for quick decision making. The proposed system shall also have Human resources module, shall constitute of all activities and data processing functions connected with efficiently administrating the staff employed by the organization. The module shall assist the management in human resource management such as recruitment and hiring, work assignment, training, payroll management and performance evaluation. Apart from assisting the management in decision making, the module shall process transactional information and take care of organizations assets. 2.0 Current System Summary 2.1 System Deficiencies The system lacks preventive, detective, and corrective controls that are used to provide strategic information, moreover the system lacks enough security such as encryption as data in access and excel is in plaintext, but not as cipher text, Cecelia et al (2005). In Sales/Orders the company currently utilizes and a web page that is simply a static re-generation of the printed catalogue, the static page cannot process any content from the customers or the suppliers. The fact that order information is hand-written on a sales order form also introduces unnecessary additional paper work and duplication of available data hence resulting to redundant effort. The current system also lacks in inventory control, in that it is laboriously manual hence it hard to manage, more so the inventory control cannot provide just in time information. The system is also deficient in credit appraisal of customers; the system is subjective in offering credit facilities to customers with orders that exceed $500. The system also limits customer interaction, as it does not provide a way of communicating with the customers, furthermore, the current system does not provide effective method for customer payments. 2.2 System Description The current system utilized by Tracksuits-N-Sportswear involves twenty personnel, while the system in modularized into three components; sales/ orders, Distribution/Billing and purchasing. In Sales/Orders, annually updated catalogues which only capture data, but do not process are used. Diverse means of receiving orders exist; however, processing the order is a laborious procedural process, while billing is not automatically but manually generated from the orders. Moreover, the system is complicated by the need to regularly refer to MS. Access database to ascertain royalty fees and ascertaining the credit rating of the customer. In Distribution/Billing, the process utilizes the output of the previous step as an input; it involves distribution personnel manually ascertaining the availability of a product, while creating purchase notices for unavailable orders, while informing customers of the delay. Available orders are packed while referring to Ms. Word and Ms. Excel files to update order status. The Purchasing component involves obtaining quotes from prospective vendors, and entering the data in Microsoft Word and creating Accounts Payable in Microsoft Excel, this involves a lot of paperwork in terms of printouts and moving orders from purchase orders to completed orders, after which Purchase Order payments are processed while updating Accounts Payable section in MS. Excel. 3.0 New System Constraints and Assumptions 3.1 New System Scope 3.1.1 Performance requirements The system shall operate in a network environment, where the system modules relate together, whereas the modules are dedicated to departments, the systems requires network infrastructure, internet access, server, computer hardware and software to function. The server shall be located at a centralized position where the database shall be contained. The client computers shall run the modules depending on the department, The new system may be limited by the availability of personnel to effectively implement the new system, furthermore the time span of completing analysis is short therefore, some critical factors may be left out, there is also financial constrains where the budget is capped at $15,000.00, with only four computers. The personnel have also to remain the same, hence being a constraint. 3.1.2 Hardware constraints For optimal performance of the system, the available client computers have to be Dou Core processors, with at least 2.0 GHz Speed, 2GB Ram, 250 Gb Hard disk storage, 17’’ Thin Film Transistor (TFT) Video Display Unit VDU, with NIC, the server should have e-SATA port of added external storage connectivity, One Quad-Core Intel®  Xeon®  3400 series processor,500 Gb Hard disk, 4 Gb ECC Ram, all the computers should be connected to the intranet within the organization and to the internet. 3.1.3 Software constraints The client computers shall utilize Windows Vista/Live as the operating system, with Ms SQL 2005 (Structured Query Language) as the database. The ERP shall also be installed, client version on the client computers and the server version on the server. Microsoft®   Windows®   Small Business Server 2008 shall be installed on the server. 4.0 Project Management The project is envisioned to undergo several stages, project assessment stage which is according to Sheilds, (2001) is combined with initiation as the first phase and is concerned with delineating the business problem or opportunity, the planning phase is involves setting out the path for the project, design phase is a amalgamation and combination of several steps, which are further categorized as Preliminary design and Final design, the Project Execution phase involving constructing the deliverables, the Project Closing stage which is concerned with winding-down the project, the maintenance phase is required to ensure that the project is maintained in case of unforeseen challenges or changes Boar, (2010). 4.1 Personnel Required The project shall require the input of the management in terms of decision making. It shall also require a project manager to oversee the project, trainers to train the users on the new system, analyst to give an analytical approach on the development of the system, developers who shall do the development with coders, technical communicators for information exchange, testers to test the final product versus the requirements as well as the deployment team. 4.2 Preliminary Project Schedule (Gantt chart) 4.5 Resource requirements The success of the project requires several inputs such as technology requirements, personnel requirements, financial resources and external requirements which are products/services/technology required to be purchased outside company 4.6 Preliminary Project Development Cost COCOMO II (Constructive Cost Modeling II), shall be used to estimate the project development costs in terms of person hours. 4.5 Anticipated System Evolution Since the system utilizes the latest technical advances in the market, it is expected to be responsive to changing technological dynamics, and that it shall be regularly reviewed to ensure that it merges, with the developing technological environment. 6.0 Recommendation In consideration of the several feasibilities such as technical feasibility which mainly deals with available hardware, software and personal capability on supporting the new system. However, in Tracksuits-N-Sportswear Company Limited, the current hardware and software shall not be able to support the new system, therefore there is need to purchase the latest equipment in the market. Economic feasibility, shows that the benefits to be derived from the new system are worthy of time, money and other resources required to come up with system. The benefits established outweigh the cost for the system to be successful as regards Cost Benefit analysis. Considering operational feasibility shall perform the function of which it was designed, within the Tracksuits-N-Sportswear Company Limited and in consideration of interested stakeholders, such as suppliers. The system shall not conflict with the objectives of the company, but rather assist the company in attaining the objectives. The system shall be user friendly, increase the speed in output and input of data, save time, and generate accurate strategic business reports. Since the benefits of the systems outweigh the costs, it is recommended that the management adopts the new system. References Boar, Bernard 2010, The art of strategic planning for information technology. London: Wiley. Cecelia et al, 2005, SQL for Microsoft Access, Wordware Publishing, New York. Herbert, Kotzab & Mogens, Bjerre, 2005, Retailing in a SCM-perspective Copenhagen Business School Press DK, Copenhagen. Olson, David & Desheng Dash, 2008, Enterprise risk management, World Scientific, London. Sheilds, Mureell,2001, E-Business and ERP: Rapid Implementation and Project Planning, John Wiley and Son, New York. Appendix I Assumptions The assumptions made in the study were influenced by veracity and sensitivity. Veracity is the compliance to set facts, it is an opinion about the aptness of a theory, sensitivity is the perception or propensity to prevailing circumstances; the proposed solution has made several assumptions. It is assumed that the proposed solution shall meet all the requirements of the management. More so, it is assumed that the implemented solution shall be dynamic to the changing technology, the fact that the budget is limited to $15,000.00; it is assumed that the funds shall be enough to cover the entire project, within the stipulated time frame. Read More