Distribution Enterprise Rent-A-Car - Assignment Example

 Distribution: Enterprise Rent-A-Car Appendix: This project plan’s purpose is to document all the managerial aspects of a training project by the name Organization of national training, whichis to be executed by Enterprise Rent-A-Car, an international company created in the year 1957 and offers a range of car leasing, van pooling, replacement rentals and car renting services in the United States of America (USA), Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Spain. The managerial aspects of the project that shall be focused upon are those that shall be required for the successful execution of the project and within the projects constraints. Introduction Project Organization of national training is meant to equip the employees of Enterprise Rent-A-Car with knowledge required for the day to day activities in the international organization. The organization employs over 4500 peoplein the United Kingdom alone and all of them are liable to benefit from its implementation through training (Kerzner, 2013). It’s a new initiative carried out by the organization that is meant to spear ahead good or some of the best observable practices across its branches, regions and potentially countries. Project implementation in the United Kingdom is not the only case, the same project likely to be approved by the organization’s head office in the United States of America (USA), whose support is very forthcoming. This implies that employees of the organization in the United States of America will also benefit from the project (Binder, 2007). 200,000 Euros have been allocated for the project and costs would guarantee the employment of a project manager for at least a year as well as settling bills and any other expenses associated to the project (Kurtz & Boone, 2009). The organization shall not list the time spent by the employees in the training as costs and no costs shall be incurred for the use of regional training centers. This however, does leave out the exception or possibility that additional premises for training might be needed. This may apply in case all the employees are commissioned for re-training (Kurtz & Boone, 2009). The project shall introduce a simple e-learning package to all employees and the United Kingdom head office shall investigate the potential it has if employees take it before the tackle the other stages of the training and development scheme of the project. Business Case Project Organization of national training has been an ongoing project in the organization. Employees have been receiving training through the project and have over the years used the knowledge acquired to improve the various core business areas of the organization. These core business areas include the following; customer services that constitutes 82% of the company’s net revenue earnings, development that constitutes a total of 78%, fleet growth that constitutes 12%, and profits that assumed to a total 26 million Euros in the business year 2012- 2013. The expected project benefits are the employees of the organization and the organization itself. For the employees, the knowledge would help build their capacities to handle different challenges in both work avenues and other life scenarios. In this year’s project, the employees are to be given a brief e-learning course before they are taken through the other employee training schedules (Binder, 2007). For the organization, having a well abled and competent staff is very beneficial. Thiswill help the organization in achieving the intended goals and limits set in any given business year. Additionally, the project is aimed at training new staff with new techniques and re-training the old staff with the same new techniques, hence, the organization shall be able to build a well abled competent team that’s armed with some of the newest techniques of work.200,000 Euros have been set aside for the project andthis budget allocation shall cater for all the expenses that shall be incurred during the project (Kurtz & Boone, 2009). Project objectives The project is intended to meet a whole range of objectives for the organization. All of which shall reflect improved performance of employees and the organization in general. The projects include the following; 1. Business objectives The project is aimed at making sure the business operations are transformed to better suite a preferred time of response to clients, time to market, and at the same time reducing operational costs (Olson, 2008). This can be done by the adoption of new forms of communication, for example, computer based ICT systems that would require all staff to get trained on ways of handling and operating them, compared to conventional phone calls, computer based ICT systems like company websites are faster in response, and are cheaper in maintenance and operations as compared to telephone communication (Berkun & Berkun, 2008). 2. Technological objectives The project is aimed at making sure that the employees are well trained in the use of modern equipment of work that the organization might incorporate in its system. For example, as companies continue to grow, they adopt new technologies, and for this organization to have competitive advantage in the market, it has to also incorporate new technologies in its system, however, the employees have to be trained on how to use these systems with ease and competence (Plunkett 2006) 3. Quality objectives One of the projects main objectives is to improve the quality of services the organization offers. This can easily be achieved by making sure that the quality of services the employees give to customers is of good quality. Employees can achieve this by through training and various capacity building activities all intended to be covered in the project. 4. Other objectives The other objectives of the project include issues of usability and profitability. Will the projects influence have long term profitability for the organization? Will it work and will it be accepted by the employees? The project is supposed to be centered on the employees and all the training should wholly involve the employees (Binder, 2007). This shall ensure that the new techniques are learned by the employees within the scope of the daily challenges and obstacles of work they themselves face, this is also referred to as the bottom up approach, where the training is done by incorporating ideas from the employees themselves and combining them with the ideas of the top management Stakeholder analysis There are various stake holders in this project and these include the relevant government authorities, the organizations to executives, the employees, families of the employees, the clients, prospective clients, the organizations shareholders, new prospective employees, the general public, trade associations and even the press. All the above named stakeholders have a degree of power and influence to the projects outcome. It is important that the influence and power that each of the above stake holders have be put into consideration because their support can be very influential to reaching the projects objectives or goals (Olson, 2008). The financial or emotional interests of the above identified stake holders should be identified, it’s should also be easy to tell what motivates this different stakeholders, their opinions on the project should also be taken into account and what or who generally influences the opinions they have about the project. Therefore, the second major step after identifying the stakeholders is talking to them this can be done through interviews, focused group discussions, or by the use of questioners. This is one of the best and major ways of creating a successful relationship that will benefit the project. Performance Measurement The performance of the employees shall be evaluated through a series of analysis that shall be conducted within the sole purpose of determining the impact of the training on the employees on their work productivity. This shall be done by analyzing the profits that shall be attained in the next business year, additionally, customer or client feedback shall prove very beneficial in these analyses that shall be undertaken (Berkun & Berkun, 2008). Better customer and client feedback will indicate improvements in employee response as well as care services. On the other hand, another performance measurement is the critical analysis of costs of operations, after the project, the cost of operations should reduce at a margin, additionally, the intended targets of the organization should easily be met, since the whole team of 4500 employees shall be well equipped and trained in new methods of executing the same service they were. Resources to be used Among the resources that shall be required for the proper implementation of the project is premises for training. Though no additional expenses shall be spent on getting or hiring training premises, those owned and controlled by the organization itself shall be enough to cater for the current training demand. Training equipment shall be required for the proper running of the training programs (Olson, 2008). Not to forget to mention that time is the most valuable resource, the organization has capitalized that it shall not quantify the time spent by employees on the training as costs, and however, the time spent by the employees on the training program is a very important resource for the organization. 200,000 Euros have been set aside to facilitate the project, this shall cater for any monetary needs that the project might need to settle, for example, the hiring of a project manager for at least a year, the duration the project is set to run through. Constraints and Risks There are various constraints that might impede the smooth running of the training program these constraints may include limited resources, for example, finance. Finance has always never been enough, from project implementation by governments, non-governmental organizations, and even individual companies, the problem of shortage of finances is always experienced, and therefore, it’s important that some finances be put aside to come in hand incase the finances allocated in the main budget fail to push the project to conclusion (Olson, 2008). Adverse weather is also another factor to consider, particular staff in the project will have to receive outdoor training services, whose effectiveness might be greatly affected by adverse or extreme weather conditions, this too might have an overall effect on time and the projects 1year time duration might not be enough. The other constraint that needs to be put into consideration is cultural differences of the various stakeholders, this greatly influences the outcome of the project, in addition, the organizational culture plays a very great part in ensuring all the employees as well as their seniors get along fine for the wellbeing of the organization and this in turn might affect the smooth running of the project (Plunkett, 2006). Management Quality The quality of management for the project should ensure that the intended goals and objectives are meat. The project manager intended to be hired should be competent and demonstrate ideal quality representation and advocacy to ensure the smooth running of the project and above all the acquisition of the intended goals and objectives (Binder, 2007). To facilitate this, the project manager should have assistant managers; this will help in better coordination during project implementation. Each assistant manager should be in charge of one of the key business areas also referred to as the business core areas which include customer service, development, fleet growth, and profits. It is important to note that management quality is not only usually focused on service and product quality, however it’s a means and tool to achieving quality. It combines various techniques such as specialization like in the above example of having assistant managers each in charge of the four core business areas of the organization to achieve more consistent quality for activities i.e. projects. Communications to be used Projects referrer to activities that require a lot of team work, hence, members need to communicate with each other for a variety of reasons during the project and this can be done through various means (Berkun & Berkun, 2008). Available technology should prove very helpful in communication between the key stakeholders of the project, the head office and project coordinators, and the beneficiaries of the project. The communication technologies intended for use in this project include the use of email services, short message services also referred to as sms, video conferencing tools, and desktop software tools (Olson, 2008). Desktop software shall include the use of Microsoft office, visual design software, for example, Blasamiq, and the use of project management software, for example, open project and Microsoft project. However, the best combination of communication techniques to be used should be derived or gotten from the needs of the project. Simple projects require less and simple forms of communication, in this project case, the use of project management software is enough for effective communication, however, if the project had been initiated in an international scope or level, then more forms of communication may be employed to ensure the smooth and successful running of the project. Possible failures One of the possible failures is the project might not be fully implemented within the intended 1 year time period. This can greatly be attributed by challenges that might arise during project implementation, for example, congestion, 4500 employees to receive training and re-training within a time periodof one year is quite a large number. Another failure is the lack of proper training, this might result from the lack of proper and adequate training material for project implementation due to lack of enough finances (Kerzner, 2013). The other failure is lack of coordination during project implementation. This might be attributed to poor organizational culture. Enterprise Rent-A-Car should have a good organizational culture. This greatly assists in the formation of a good working environment and better communication among the employees and the top management, hence, proper running of the project at hand. The other possible challenged is poor employee morale. To avoid this, the project should wholly involve the employees. It should show the employee the possibilities of benefitting from the training both within the organization and outside the organization. Therefore the training should not be solely based on the benefit of the company alone but on the development of the employee holistically and across different avenues, an assurance that they shall be able to portray competence even outside the organization, for example, when they get new employers or get jobs in different organizations. Considerations for future operations Future implementations of the project in the years to come should put considerations on security. With this, project information should be categorized with regards to the degree of confidentiality, availability, and integrity. It should also be done in accordance to Enterprise Rent-A-Car security directives. Specific actions required for security, for example, security agreements with key stake holders like the government, project team members, company shareholders, and other key stake holders should be taken to fulfill security measures of information (Meredith & Mantel, 2012). Additionally, information distribution should be critically evaluated, information about the project should only reach those intended to and when authorized to. Security incidents should also be keenly monitored to ensure that information not intended to get out to external competitors doesn’t Another future consideration should be on finance allocation and time span of project implementation. Finance is usually hardly enough; hence, it is crucial that a specific amount of money is set aside to help in the continuation of the project in case the budgeted allocation doesn’t push the budget to completion. More time for project implementation should be put into consideration. Yes projects run under set plans and well stipulated time tables, however, more time should be allocated. This is because various challenges are going to be experienced during project implementation and may alter the timetable already set. References: Top of Form Berkun, S., & Berkun, S. (2008). Making things happen: Mastering project management. Beijing: O'Reilly. Top of Form Binder, J. (2007). Global project management: Communication, collaboration and management across borders. Aldershot: Gower. Bottom of Form Top of Form Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Top of Form Top of Form Kurtz, D. L., & Boone, L. E. (2009). Contemporary business. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Meredith, J. R., & Mantel, S. J. (2012). Project management: A managerial approach. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Top of Form Olson, D. (2008). England for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Pub. Top of Form Plunkett, J. W. (2006). Plunkett's automobile industry almanac 2007. Houston, TX: Plunkett Research. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More