Golden North: Improving Business With Information System

Problem Description

Introduction

Golden North is an Australia based ice cream making company headquartered in Laura. This company produces ice cream and from the physical store they sell the quality food products to the consumer. In this new era of technology, where most of the business organizations have started using online service Golden North Company does not have any such automated data management system. In order to gain maximum commercial profit and more consumers from throughout Australia currently Golden North is willing to implement an Information System (IS). The total budget estimated for the project is $50,000 and also the total time allotted for the successful accomplishment and implementation of Information System is around 6 months. The budget structure developed for the Information System (IS) development project is designed along with a project Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Problem description

Due to lack of usage of proper technology the selling and buying structure of the company is lagging behind. Though, the essence and flavor of the ice cream they produces are enough unique from the other production companies but due to lack of service capabilities they are facing commercial flaws. As the numbers of consumers are increasing it is becoming difficult for them to manually manage the system.

System capabilities

The system is capable to take orders from the clients, record the orders and sequentially deliver services to the clients within estimated time. The customers can pay online through debit card and net banking. The information System can store huge set of record. Within less time data can be accessed and stored as well.

Expected benefits

It is expected that with the successful implementation of the Information system the company will be able to grab more numbers of consumers throughout Australia. Both online as well as offline services they will be able to serve to their consumers. Though, after immediate implementation of the design the profit is not expected rather after three to four years of it is expected that high rate of profit will be experienced.

IS development schedule	16 days	Sat 5/5/18	Mon 5/28/18
Project initiation	6 days	Sat 5/5/18	Mon 5/14/18
Analyzing current situation of Golden North Ice cream producing company	6 days	Mon 5/7/18	Mon 5/14/18
Scope statement development	6 days	Mon 5/7/18	Mon 5/14/18
Designing project objectives	2 days	Mon 5/7/18	Tue 5/8/18
Information system development requirements gathering	5 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/11/18
Information system development requirements analysis	6 days	Mon 5/7/18	Mon 5/14/18
Defining work process	1 day	Mon 5/7/18	Mon 5/7/18
Conducting Internal meeting	5 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/11/18
Milestone 1: Statement of Work Submission	0 days	Sat 5/5/18	Sat 5/5/18
Project planning phase	9 days	Sat 5/5/18	Thu 5/17/18
Resource planning	6 days	Mon 5/7/18	Mon 5/14/18
Communication planning	5 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/11/18
Risk management plan development	9 days	Mon 5/7/18	Thu 5/17/18
Identifying required hardware	8 days	Mon 5/7/18	Wed 5/16/18
Identifying required software	6 days	Mon 5/7/18	Mon 5/14/18
Functional requirement identification	7 days	Mon 5/7/18	Tue 5/15/18
Non-functional requirement identification	6 days	Mon 5/7/18	Mon 5/14/18
Milestone 2: Project statement report	0 days	Sat 5/5/18	Sat 5/5/18
Project design phase	16 days	Sat 5/5/18	Mon 5/28/18
Information system design outlining	5 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/11/18
Prototype development	6 days	Mon 5/7/18	Mon 5/14/18
Prototype analysis	10 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/18/18
Simulation	16 days	Mon 5/7/18	Mon 5/28/18
Coding	10 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/18/18
Modeling	6 days	Mon 5/7/18	Mon 5/14/18
System aggregation	5 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/11/18
Milestone 3: Implementation of Information system	0 days	Sat 5/5/18	Sat 5/5/18
Project testing phase	12 days	Sat 5/5/18	Tue 5/22/18
Unit testing	10 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/18/18
Integrated testing	12 days	Mon 5/7/18	Tue 5/22/18
Acceptance testing	10 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/18/18
Monitoring and project control	10 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/18/18
Verification	5 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/11/18
Validation	6 days	Mon 5/7/18	Mon 5/14/18
Milestone4: Project testing phase completion	0 days	Sat 5/5/18	Sat 5/5/18
Project closure	3 days	Sat 5/5/18	Wed 5/9/18
Final document presentation	3 days	Mon 5/7/18	Wed 5/9/18
Stakeholder signoff	2 days	Mon 5/7/18	Tue 5/8/18
Post maintenance program for the Information System	3 days	Mon 5/7/18	Wed 5/9/18
Milestone5: Completion of project closure phase	0 days	Sat 5/5/18	Sat 5/5/18

Project Cost-Benefit Analysis
project analysis variables

Expected project discount	5.00%
Project annual profit	$ 80,000.00
Total annual profit	$ 24,000.00
Project Development Cost	$ 225,000.00
				Year of Project
		0	1	2	3	4	5	TOTALS

Economic profit		$15,000.00	$ 25,000.00	$ 3,000.00	$ 3,000.00	$ 4,000.00	$ 4,000.00
Rate of discount		1.0000	0.9524	0.9070	0.8638	0.8227	0.7835
PV profit		$15,000.00	$23,809.52	$2,721.09	$2,591.51	$3,290.81	$3,134.10

Benefits from PNV		$15,000.00	$ 38,809.52	$ 41,530.61	$ 44,122.13	$ 47,412.93	$ 50,547.04	$ 50,547.04

one time project COSTS	$(225,000.00)

Net recurring cost	$0.00	$ (24,000.00)	$ (24,000.00)	$ (24,000.00)	$ (24,000.00)	$ (24,000.00)
project discount rate	1.0000	0.9524	0.9070	0.8638	0.8227	0.7835
recurring cost for PV	$0.00	$ (22,857.14)	$ (21,768.71)	$ (20,732.10)	$ (19,744.86)	$ (18,804.63)

net cost from PV	$(225,000.00)	$ (247,857.14)	$ (269,625.85)	$ (290,357.95)	$ (310,102.81)	$ (328,907.44)	$ (328,907.44)

Total NPV							$ (278,360.40)

Total Return of Investment
							-0.8463

Golden North will be able to grab more consumers
The competitive advantage will be increased
The annual cost structure will deliver commercial revenue to the company

Provide an estimated annual benefits

It is expected that if an Information System is designed with $50,000. Then the annual benefit that can be experienced will be around

Different types of organizational risks are there such as strategic risk, operational risk, compliance risk, reputational risk etc for which the success and revenue structure of the companies can be negatively impacted. The entire strategic business structure of Golden North can be affected due to this reason. It is known to all that successful business strictly requires comprehensive as well as well structured thought-out business plan. If the structure of the company strategy becomes less effective then automatically the company will struggle for that. The reasons for such kinds of changes may involve technical changes, powerful new entry of strong market level competitors, and extreme cost of the raw materials.

In order to gain feasible outcomes it is necessary for the company to prioritize all the organizational risks and developing proper strategies accordingly for resolving them. In order to operate the Information System (IS) on job technical training should be arranged for the system development team.

Technical risks can be faced during the development and implementation phase for Information System. It may happen that proper software license is not adopted then it will be little difficult to run all the system application accurately. Not only this but also security is another concern for the Information System (IS) development project. Due to lack of security financial or personnel information can be hacked or misused by the unwanted users.

In order to mitigate the technical risks proper encryption mechanism is required to be adopted by the system developers of Golden North. It will not allow any external unwanted users to access information from the server. Even the information transition channel will also be secured from access.

In order to reduce work pressure from the development team members the large project is segmented in small parts and for each of the part skilled and experienced resources are allotted. If any fault is identified in allocating resources then the expected outcome of the activity will be interrupted. Risks may occur in cost estimation and resource outsourcing.

In order to resolve this specific resource level risks it is necessary for the Golden North ice cream making company to allocate accurate resources for the specific activities based on their skills and knowledge capability. In addition to this, proper reward structure should also be designed to keep the team members engaged to their job roles.

System Capabilities

If proper project schedule is not designed then it will negatively impact the assigned project budget also. With the development of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) the complexity of each and every activity should be calculated and based on that the time structure must be allotted. If the resources fail to complete the specific activity within time then the estimated cost for that activity will increase. On the other hand, if the project is found to be completed before the allotted time period then it will help them to obtain commercial revenue.

For resolving these kinds of issues it is required for the company to allot time for the specific activity based on their complexity at the project initiation phase. It includes timely accomplishment of each of the project phase within a timely manner.

in order to develop the information system for Golden North ice cream making company the different types of methods in terms of tools and software are elaborated in the below table:

Phases	Types of methods	Type of tools
Business processing and project initiation phase	Accurate business modeling, technical process modeling, process work flow model, activity structure	Proper work flow modeling tools, statement of work (SOW), business modeling tools and simulators
Project planning phase	Brain storming of both the project manager and the project team members, interview, design techniques and requirement gathering	GDSS, requirement engineering tools and CSCW
Project design phase (system analysis and design)	Structured modeling, data modeling, mapping from various high level programming language, version control and professional object oriented analysis	Interface design tools, code generators, verifiers and performance analyzers
Project monitoring and control phase	Reverse engineering for version control and accurate configuration management	Reporting and documentation tools, project status report, progress report
Project closure phase	Stakeholders signoff	Project status report

In order to develop the Information System (IS) the software tools those will be required include traditional tools, support tools, personal information management tools, programming tools a purpose tools as well. Collectively it can be said that for the development of the Information System application software and system software both are required. One of the most popular IDE software package from Microsoft Visual’s studio adoption will be helpful for the company.

It is necessary for the company to provide a healthy working environment to the project manager and project team members so that they can deliver cent percent of their efforts for the Information System development project. A healthy working environment can effectively boost up the rate of quality productivity. If the development tem feel engaged to their job roles then they will surely give quality work. Instead of signing contract to another consultancy an internal Information System development team has been created by the company for the development of the Information System (IS). The other components that are to be designed by the project team members include setting out of clear staff management policy, encouragement for the development of managerial responsibilities, team building.

For designing the Information System development project different company follows different process and development procedure. In case of the Golden North Company the specific development method that will be followed in iterative waterfall model. The iterative waterfall model is consists of five different phases such as initiation, planning, development, monitoring and control and final implementation or closure. At the project initiation phase the statement of Work (SOW) should be prepared and based on that only the project will take progress accordingly. At the planning phase the details planning requirements will be arranged properly. It is expected that the planning must contain all the basic project requirements. In addition to this, for designing the Information System (IS) prototype all necessary licenses should be taken in the project development phase. With a final project documentation report the approval for the project will be signed from the project manager himself.

WBS	Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names
0	Schedule for the Mobile app development	180 days	Tue 5/8/18	Mon 1/14/19
1	Project initiation phase	24 days	Tue 5/8/18	Fri 6/8/18
1.1	Statement of work development for the project	5 days	Tue 5/8/18	Mon 5/14/18		Project manager
1.2	Stakeholder identification	5 days	Tue 5/15/18	Mon 5/21/18	2	business analyst, Project manager
1.3	Resource identification for the Mobile app development of Golden North	6 days	Tue 5/22/18	Tue 5/29/18	3	Project manager
1.4	Budget estimation for the mobile app	4 days	Tue 5/22/18	Fri 5/25/18	3	Finance manager
1.5	Start off meeting	8 days	Wed 5/30/18	Fri 6/8/18	4,5	business analyst
1.6	Milestone 1:Submission of Statement of Work	0 days	Fri 6/8/18	Fri 6/8/18	6	operation manager
2	Project planning phase	36 days	Mon 6/11/18	Mon 7/30/18
2.1	Developing project road map	12 days	Mon 6/11/18	Tue 6/26/18	7	system developer
2.2	Documenting project team members	10 days	Wed 6/27/18	Tue 7/10/18	9	operation manager
2.3	Stakeholder interconnection and resource negotiation	8 days	Wed 7/11/18	Fri 7/20/18	10	operation manager
2.4	Business rules identification	9 days	Wed 7/11/18	Mon 7/23/18	10	business analyst
2.5	Technical resource for mind mapping	5 days	Tue 7/24/18	Mon 7/30/18	11,12	system designer
2.6	Milestone 2: Completion of the project planning phase	0 days	Mon 7/30/18	Mon 7/30/18	13	Project manager
3	Project design phase	89 days	Tue 7/31/18	Fri 11/30/18
3.1	Designing prototype	20 days	Tue 7/31/18	Mon 8/27/18	14	system designer
3.2	Mobile app simulation	25 days	Tue 8/28/18	Mon 10/1/18	16	system developer
3.3	Graphical User interface design	20 days	Tue 8/28/18	Mon 9/24/18	16	system designer, coder
3.4	Application programming and coding	16 days	Tue 10/2/18	Tue 10/23/18	17,18	application programmer
3.5	Integrated testing	18 days	Wed 10/24/18	Fri 11/16/18	19	system tester
3.6	Acceptance testing	10 days	Mon 11/19/18	Fri 11/30/18	20	system tester
3.7	Milestone 3: Submission of the final design of the Information System	0 days	Fri 11/30/18	Fri 11/30/18	21	system developer
4	project monitoring and control phase	17 days	Mon 12/3/18	Tue 12/25/18
4.1	Process control	2 days	Mon 12/3/18	Tue 12/4/18	22	Finance manager
4.2	Change management request	3 days	Wed 12/5/18	Fri 12/7/18	24	business analyst
4.3	Project scope creep analysis	5 days	Mon 12/10/18	Fri 12/14/18	25	operation manager
4.4	Project documentation	6 days	Mon 12/10/18	Mon 12/17/18	25	Project manager
4.5	Monitoring project work details	6 days	Tue 12/18/18	Tue 12/25/18	26,27	system designer
4.6	Milestone 4: Implementation of change management program (if required)	0 days	Tue 12/25/18	Tue 12/25/18	28	operation manager
5	Project closure phase	14 days	Wed 12/26/18	Mon 1/14/19
5.1	Stakeholders signoff	5 days	Wed 12/26/18	Tue 1/1/19	29	Project manager
5.2	Final project document submission	6 days	Wed 1/2/19	Wed 1/9/19	31	operation manager
5.3	Post maintaining plan for the information System	3 days	Thu 1/10/19	Mon 1/14/19	32	system developer
5.4	Milestone 5: Successful completion of the project	0 days	Mon 1/14/19	Mon 1/14/19	33	Project manager

Expected Benefits

Figure 2: Gantt chart for the subsystem (mobile app development) for Golden North

(Source: created by author)

This subsystem developed for the Golden North is focused on the Mobile application. Though, a website is also planned to be designed to give the users a more user friendly platform to the consumers. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of the project is comprises of five different phases in terms of initiation, planning, design, monitoring control and project closure. With the help of the WBS the project manager will be able to keep track on project progress. The total time duration including the start date, finish date and also the resources that are allocated for the different activities are also shown in the Gantt chart. It is the responsibility of the resources to complete their allotted job roles within estimated time and budget frame. Besides this for obtaining project approval all the project problems should be identified while planning and monitoring the project. Additionally, while testing the project with specific validation and verification factors it is necessary for the development team to consider the generated feedback according from the internal development team.

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