Building a business case: Additional Implementation Issues Hello. This is a continuation assignment there I need to identify three implementation issues no
Building a business case: Additional Implementation Issues Hello. This is a continuation assignment there I need to identify three implementation issues not already covered in the business case. the official assignment is below:
The purpose of this section is to identify any implementation issues not already covered in the previous sections of the business case.Identify and explain three issue areas and how they will be handled in the implementation of the proposed system.The issues identified could come from any aspect of the system; the following questions may be considered, but issues do not have to be limited to these areas:
What else should the organization consider?
What things should the project team keep in mind?
Are there any ethical or cultural considerations?
What impact will there be to the employees if processes and/or systems are changed?
What impact will there be on the workplace?
Approach to Developing this Section
Consider the system being proposed and the organization in the case study, and identify three issues that have not previously been discussed in the business case.Consider the questions above, as needed, to assist in the analysis.For each of the three:
Identify the issue
Explain why it is an issue
Describe how it should be handled during the implementation of the proposed system. Trusty Carpets Business Case:
I.
Background and Environmental Analysis
4
Background
4
Business Vision, Strategy or Objectives
5
Business Processes
5
Competitor Products
5
New Technology Trends
6
Commercial Trends
6
Statutory, Legislative, or Other Environmental Requirements
7
II.
Problem & Opportunity Analysis
7
Summary
7
Business Strategy Alignment
7
Timeframe
8
Positive Impact
8
Problem/Opportunity Selection
8
III.
Proposed Solution
9
IV.
Expected Improvements
9
Centralized Customer Management
9
Centralized Accounting
10
Centralized Inventory and Accounting
10
Scheduling
10
Business Strategy Alignment
10
Financial benefits
10
Non-financial benefits
11
V.
Alternatives Analysis
12
Status Quo
12
RFMS
13
Different IT Solution
15
Business Process Reengineering
16
Comparing the four alternatives
18
VI.
Feasibility Analysis
20
Economic/Financial Feasibility
20
Organizational/Operational Feasibility
20
2
Technical Feasibility
VII.
Requirements Checklist
20
22
Functional requirements
22
Data requirements
22
Technical requirements
23
Security requirements
23
VIII.
IX.
Context Diagram
24
Project Management
24
Introduction
24
Project Scope
24
Time and Schedule plan
25
Cost
26
Quality
27
Communications
27
Stakeholders
27
X.
Acquisition Strategy
28
Software
28
Hardware
28
Services
28
XI.
Risk Management
XII.
Security
XIII.
Additional Implementation Issues
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References
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Appendices A
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Appendices B
33
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Trusty Carpets Business Case
I.
Background and Environmental Analysis
Background
Trusty Carpets has been in the carpet sales business and operating out of the same
location for the last 20 years. The business has seen recent growth in the market with the
construction of many new homes. The local government is focusing on creating an up-scale
community that is also environmentally conscious. The business is run by the proprietor, Jerry
Montgomery and his sales team, which consists of his daughter and another employee. The
company subcontracts all installation work to a third party.
The company has been focused on growing its customer base by keeping its prices low
by primarily selling mid-grade carpet. Current total profit margins are 8.3% on $1.2 million in
sales. While profit margins are below industry standards, it has driven sales volume up to
250,000 square feet of carpet per year.
The business has recently acquired an additional and larger storefront through the
acquisition of another carpet business across town. Last year, the previous business’ profit was
12% on $3 million dollars in sales. The difference can be attributed to the previous business’s
ability to sell more top-of-the-line carpets, which may be due to having a dedicated showroom
for the more premium brands.
With the addition of the new location, Trusty Carpets is shifting its direction from growth
to increasing profit margins. In order to accomplish this goal, the company wants to reach more
customers through online and in-home sales, while creating a network of second party referrers
by building partnerships with builders and interior designers.
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Business Vision, Strategy or Objectives
Trusty Carpets is behind in their technical processes as well as the environmental
requirements to meet competitive standards. For Trusty Carpets to excel, they will need to adopt
a plan of action and process to encompass the local requirements to be a green company.
Consumers seek companies that recognize the importance of being environmentally friendly.
Trusty Carpets desires to be a pillar in the community by being environmentally conscious and
recycling their products. Utilizing the Waste Reduction Model, they can build their processes to
support green growth in their community.
Current technology within the company is subpar. Recognizing that they have an inferior
Information Technology Infrastructure will allow them to grow not only through commerce, but
through marketing and sales. Updating the infrastructure to allow for online sales, virtual
measurements and order processing will free up workload and streamline the current sales
processes, thus allowing for greater profitability in the business.
Business Processes
With the increase of technological advances leading to a decrease in print viewership,
more readers are using mobile devices. This is influencing publishers’ decisions on a wide range
of editorial and advertising strategies (Yu, 2015). Using local newspapers, and in some cases,
television for advertising is ill-advised as they are practically obsolete and nowhere near as
useful as other means. Much of todays society spends more time on mobile devices, tablets, and
laptops and doesnt gather information from newspapers like they used to. The primary source
for people nowadays is digital news outlets and social media as a replacement for traditional
sources of news and advertising.
It is highly recommended for Trusty Carpets to create media utilizing both a website and
social media page for customer interaction and advertising for the business. Also, the previous
owner of the new location used a manual filing methodology to keep track of business records.
The lack of information technology in place means that customer records and carpet inventory
are currently in recorded handwritten ledgers. This practice is inefficient and leads to multiple
opportunities for human error in record keeping which can adversely affect Trusty Carpets net
profits.
Competitor Products
The carpet industry is a competitive industry and for Trusty Carpets to continue to
expand the company will have to ensure the company is properly marketing and branding itself.
The problem is the competitors are using many different avenues to keep up their competitive
edge by providing discounts, user friendly sites, and ensuring their products stay with current
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trends. Additionally, many companies are offering in home consultations and the distribution of
samples. By performing this function their sales teams can perform measurements on-site and
provide a total cost of material and insulation on-the-spot to the customer. This might be a
service that Trusty Carpets will want to provide in the future.
To help improve the business process they need to create a technology solution that will
interface with all aspects of the company and create an improvement strategy that works with the
companys organization strategy. This strategy should include what steps in the process are
broken, why and how they should be improved and any financial and resource implications.
Answering how the process can be improved is a springboard to create improvement objectives
(Explorance, 2019). This will help link both stores together providing real time information to
help ensure that the company remains organized.
New Technology Trends
Some of the technology trends that will that will have an influence on business are the
accumulation and accessibility of data like social media content to purchasing history, will drive
the development of machine learning in business development software (Council, 2018).
Another important trend is customer scheduling. Giving the customer options on how they
interact is the way to go. This will allow customers to pick the date, time, mode and even topics
they wish to discuss on sales calls (Council, 2018). Voice recognition is another big trend. With
Google Assistant and Amazons Alexa just to name few, small businesses can capitalize on voice
recognition by thinking about how to make business voice search-ready. And think about how
people are interacting with their digital assistants (Council, 2018).
Commercial Trends
Current trends in the floors sales industry has seen a shift in consumers preference from
primarily wall-to-wall carpet to larger and custom sized rugs that meet specific design aesthetics
(Ryan, 2017). This is due the current trend of using solid flooring with open-floor plans.
According to Floor Covering News, “For the third year in a row, the U.S. rug business will
outperform carpet. FCNews research puts area rugs sales at $2.5 billion in 2016, up an estimated
3.5% from the year-ago period” (Ryan, 2017).
While this trend may be a problem for traditional carpet sales companies. It may also
present an opportunity by aligning with Trusty Carpets desire to partner with home builders and
interior designers. The carpet industry today is essentially the domain of a few large firms, led
by Shaw Industries and another company (Patton, 2006)). Many carpet dealers today are
expanding their product line to include custom carpets through Shaw industries Cutting Edge
program. Which allows customers to create custom designed area rugs (Ryan, 2017). By
building partners with home builders and interior designers, retailers may not only expand their
sales of traditional carpet sales, but also add an additional revenue stream through custom area
rugs.
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Statutory, Legislative, or Other Environmental Requirements
WARM or Waste Reduction Model is a model that was established by the Environmental
Protection Agency. This model was designed to streamline the recycling effects and decrease
greenhouse emissions from excess or carpet waste. Adopting this strategic model will allow for
Trusty Carpets to not only be environmentally friendly but allow consumers to reuse products
that would otherwise be taken to a landfill. Trusty Carpets can establish this baseline process
and be at the forefront of competitors. Becoming a green partner and utilizing this as a selling
point to customers will attract attention and produce revenue.
II.
Problem & Opportunity Analysis
Summary
With the addition of the new storefront and addition of the installation service, Trusty
Carpets is positioned to meet its business strategies if it takes the initiative to address or
implement key functions and services. This analysis was developed by evaluating the current
business processes of the original Trusty Carpets location as well as the processes of the old
Metro Carpets location. Additionally, it factors in current market trends in the home construction
and flooring business, while also considering current applicable laws and ordinances.
Previous to acquiring the new location, Trustys infrastructure and processes were
sufficiently able to handle the amount of business. However, in order to manage customers,
inventory, sales, and installations at two different locations, Trusty must implement a solution
that synchronizes the business functions and operations of two locations into one business.
While the main goal is to synchronize both locations, there are several
opportunities that can be seized upon during this transition that will accelerate Trustys main
goal of increasing profits. These opportunities consist of:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Enabling Online Sales
Creating an Environmentally Friendly Image
In-home Sales & Measurement Capability
Partnering with Builders & Interior Designers
Business Strategy Alignment
The addition of the new storefront previously known as Metro Carpets has increased
Trusty Carpets number of employees, customers, floor space, inventory, and accounting of sales.
Multiple processes, accounting, and information technology (IT) systems are not conducive to a
profitable business model. Metro Carpets did not use an IT solution to manage these functions
and instead relied upon hand-written ledgers to track inventory, customers, and sales. Sales
personnel must be able to check status of orders, inventory status, and coordinate installations
independent of their respective location. This problem must be addressed in order to create a
single integrated business.
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Timeframe
Trusty Carpets has a limited timeframe to solve the greater problem of integrating the
business functions of both locations. Disjointed processes can lead to confusion, delays in
ordering, status updates, and installations. The sooner this problem is addressed, the sooner
Trusty can build Trust with its customers. Other opportunities also have a limited realization
window in order to be maximized. Currently new home and apartment construction is booming
but this will not always be the case. However, the sooner the better. The timeframe for each new
home is ten to sixteen months for upscale homes and four to six months for production home.
(Kale, 2019) Additionally, proposed city ordinances are scheduled to take effect in early 2020
that will mandate businesses to be more environmentally friendly.
Positive Impact
Trusty Carpets primary strategy is to increase its profits. Solving the problem of
integrating the processes of both stores is the core problem to be solved. Digitizing customer
records and maintaining a database of customers can cut cost and increase functionality in the
sales department, while having a reliable inventory management system will give the sales team
a better view of products on hand.
However, it is important that the solution also supports opportunities needed to further
Trustys business strategy. The ability to engage with customers on-line and interact with
customers at their home will exponentially increase the number of engagement points with
potential customers. Providing in-home consultations will allow sales persons to measure, offer
samples and provide accurate estimates to potential customers. Enabling all of these will
streamline the process and boost sales. Finally, Trusty Carpets can significantly enhance its
image as a socially conscious business by being the first to follow the new environmental
ordinances.
Problem/Opportunity Selection
While there are multiple problems and opportunities identified from the analysis,
these were selected as they were the most suitable to be solved from a common information
technology (IT) solution. The implementation of the right IT solution could streamline sales and
inventory management, while setting the baseline to implement future opportunities that align
with Trusty Carpets strategy.
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III.
Proposed Solution
A cloud hosted business management solution from RFMS is the proposed solution to the
business problem which allows Trusty Carpets to focus on increasing profits by streamlining
productivity, building relationships with suppliers, efficiently managing resources, expanding its
customer service base and implementing current IT infrastructure. RFMS is recognized as
leaders in software for the floor covering industry. RFMS management software is a scalable
software solution that can be hosted locally or in the cloud. RFMS offers multiple different
software modules to address a variety of processes within the retail flooring industry. Modules
can be purchased as needed to address the following functions: Business Operations,
Accounting, Sales. Additionally, RFMS has built in Business to Business (B2B) capabilities by
having its sales and inventory management modules integrated into the leading manufacturers of
carpet within the United States. RFMS software provides an award-winning user experience with
tools that will be a great solution to Trusty Carpets opportunities.
RFMS enables efficient operations by providing scalability and systems integration,
accounting features that address specific accounting inventory and sales features that include:
accounts receivable, financial reporting, billing, order entry job estimating quotes, sales analysis
and many other core features. These features reduce technical maintenance expenses,
increases visibility and agility across the digital supply chain and develop industry-specific
functionality. In addition, RFMS software allows access to business data and information while
off-site, and its e-commerce solution provides additional support for online business growth.
RFMS award-winning software addresses each of the operational business concerns
listed in the previous section by enabling better-informed business decisions which align with the
organization’s vision, core goals, and strategic direction. RFMS completes a picture of operations
and use customer insights to help increase sales, stay current on RFMS enhancements and
ensures data accuracy.
IV.
Expected Improvements
The implementation of a Cloud based Enterprise Resource Planning solution from RFMS
will bring many expected improvements. The ERP solution will result in streamlined business
operations due to RFMS being an industry leader in operations and management software for the
flooring industry. Having the solution hosted in the cloud rather than on-site will not only allow
for administrative and operations across multiple locations to be synchronized to a central data
repository, it also provides other intangible benefits.
Centralized Customer Management
RFMS will allow both store locations to share a common database of customers &
potential customers. This will enable a customer to call or visit any location and all their
information will be available from all departments. Representatives will be able to view
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customer notes, sales data, e-mail exchanges and service history. Empowering employees with
this information will build help build trust and confidence with customers and future customers.
Centralized Accounting
The RFMS Accounting module will synchronize valuable business data across several
functions and locations. This will present Trusty Carpets owners with key accounting data to
make future business decisions. Examples of accounting functions RFMS can track are: The
general ledger, accounts payable, Human Resources, accounts receivable, banking, commissions
and sales analysis reporting. Additionally, a built-in management report can combine these
critical accounting areas for instant, up-to-date decision making.
Centralized Inventory and Accounting
The Inventory and Purchase Order modules are interfaced with Order Entry, Accounts
Payable and the General Ledger which ensures consistency in physical counts as well as
financial data. Inventory may be transferred between stores or locations. According to current
businesses that use RFMS, one its advantages are its ability to help forecasts inventory
requirements and reduce costs (Dickhaus, n.d.)
Scheduling
RFMS Scheduling module will maximize the new installation function of Trusty
Carpets. Since all the various modules of the RFMS solution have the capability to be
interlinked, sales and order entry functions can immediately see the availability of the installation
teams. This will ultimately provide for increased productivity, better scheduling, and improved
service.
Business Strategy Alignment
One of Trusty Carpets strategies to increase sales and profits is to provide the ability
conduct in-home sales and measurements as well as provide online sales. RFMS can enable this
strategy through its RFMS Mobile & E-commerce capability. Through this function sales
personnel can perform in home sales and measurements and input the orders directly back to
Trusty employees. This will allow them immediately check available carpet inventory and place
orders with manufacturers if needed. Additionally, through its E-commerce function, RFMS can
receive and generate orders via the web. Through this function orders can be transmitted and
confirmed within minutes.
Financial benefits
Currently, Trusty Carpets has a bare bones IT solution at its main location and no IT
capability and its new location. In order to manage a much larger operation and provide the
capability to grow, more IT will be needed. In-house ERP software requires hardware and the
human resources to maintain it. By using a cloud-based solution instead of hosting and
processing customers, sales, accounting, and operations information locally. Trusty Carpets can
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save significant amounts of money from not having to provide its own in-house IT support.
According to Networkworld, …
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