Implementation Plan For Sharing7000 System Software At Anderson Engineering

Major issue prompting the management

           The business plan   gives details about the inherent system need which Anderson Engineering has been experiencing. The plan begins with the description of the major issue prompting the management of Anderson to source for a new System software. The company has been using and outdated system which cannot accommodate all the employees necessitated a demand to contract a system software vendor to install a new and a robust system. The business plan comprises of a detailed step by step project implementation guideline which the company’s system implementation committee will use to deliver the new system. The key section of the paper includes description of the scope of the project, business analysis team which describes the key people charged with the implementation process, objectives, cost and alternative analysis as well as the required approvals to facilitate the implementation of the project.

Anderson Engineering has been using document collaboration program has been in use for seven years and it to perform an upgrade. However, instead of upgrading the current program, it was decided to develop a new cloud-based system (Ganguly & Rai, 2018). So, the company will replace old system with a new application called Sharing7000. The cloud-based corporate license for the new software will cost $125,000 but it will be used by everyone in the firm. The current program is obsolete and does not have a return value.

Anderson Engineering is expected to benefit a lot from installation of sharing700.The system will create an online virtual office which will allow the employees to work from any location and access company's information at any time. The company will be able to engage with customers and exchange information more easily than ever before thanks to cloud-based collaboration (Ali & Miller, 2017). Cloud computing will create flexible working environment for employees since they can work at the comfort of their home.

The   system procurement department of Anderson Engineering issue a proposal request to reliable cloud-based system vendors to apply to for contract of supplying Sharing700 within one month. The management must select a system implementation committee to oversee the implementation process. The company should use open tendering to encourage multiple bidders but select the most qualified and low-cost bidder.

The competitive bidding process will ensure that the Sharing700 vendor selected has sufficient capacity to install the software and provide a three year system support intervention to  avoid unnecessary  system  breakdown during the piloting period.

The Business Case Analysis Team will be composed of the IT Director, IT Manager, the CFO, head of risk and strategy, Head of procurement, Five system Engineers, a representative of customer relationship department and one member of operations department. The team will be drawn from all departments in Anderson Engineering to create a sense of inclusivity.

Problem Statement

The Anderson Engineering has been using document sharing software for seven years which has become obsolete and does not allow adequate capacity to accommodate all employees in the company. For this reason, the company is planning to acquire new system software by the name sharing7000 which will help the company to correct the inherent system challenges.

Detailed step by step project implementation guideline

Organizational Impact

The Sharing7000 will help the Anderson Engineering to reduce the cost of system operation because the vendor will take care of system maintenance costs for period of two years before the maintenance responsibility is handed over to Anderson System Support team (Ebad,2020).The system will help the organization to improve its productivity because all employee will be accommodated hence eliminating time wastage experienced with the former document sharing software.

Technology Migration

The technology migration must begin after careful evaluation of the competence and reliability of the new system. The software engineers must ensure the new Sharing 7000 is functional and in good condition before planning to migrate data files from the old system. Secondly, the Anderson Engineering must ensure proper data back-up and security plan for the data in migration to prevent data during migration (Phaphoom, et al.,2018). The IT department must also ensure cloud compatibility between the old system and the new system to facilitate smooth migration of data.

The project involves preparing request for proposal which details the inherent system need for Anderson engineering so that potential system vendors can make tender application. After application the project steering committee will evaluate applications and pick the qualified bidder (Rasnacis & Berzisa, 2017). The qualified vendor will prepare the system implementation   plan to facilitate smooth implementation of system after which the vendor will conduct Anderson Engineering employee training before launching the system.

Project

The project refers to the Anderson Engineering system replacement from shared document sharing software to new cloud-based Sharing7000 System.

The new system software project Sharing7000 will be enabled with different functionalities such inventory, manufacturing, maintenance, procurement, supply chain management, order management, project management, logistics, product lifecycle management, risk management, enterprise performance management (EPM), and human resources to provide comprehensive system solutions to the company (Wahyudi,2020).

The goals of the project include

• To promote system efficiency through a robust cloud-based software
• To promote organizational collaboration by ensuring safe sharing of data among employees.
• To increase organizational productivity by accommodating all employees through a universal system
• To ensure reliable data security by using a reliable cloud-based software.

The project is expected to serve all 120 Anderson employees effectively due to its adequate capacity and system resilience to accommodate massive system pressure and operability.

It is used that the new system software will not be prone to perennial system   breakdowns like the ones experienced with the previous document sharing software (Zebari,et al., 2019). Therefore, it is assumed that the new software will double the productivity of Anderson Engineering because all employee will be accommodated by the system.

There are three major constraints affecting the implementation of the project. First of all, the scope of the project is a major challenge because the company  must  evaluate risk assessment experts to  assess the risk of implement the project as well as the possible fear of incompatibility  of the new system with  the old one.Secondly,the time required for implementation  of the project is extremely  little, only  three months  which  puts extreme pressure on implementation  committee (Wahyudi, 2020)..Lastly,the cost of implementing the project  may  cross-over to $150,000  which  hence making the steering committee to  work   with  a constrained budget  of $125,000.

The key project milestones include approval by the IT director, assembling of the necessary deliverables, start and the completion of the project. The approval of the IT director is the first milestone because he has the power to approve or decline (Terblanche & Nkukwana,2017). Similarly, the project cannot kick-off unless all necessary deliverables are allocated. Another key test of the project is actual kick and finally seeing it completion will be a great achievement for the project implementation committee.

Description of the scope of the project

The project achieves organizational strategic alignment by allowing employees to work from the virtually hence promoting employee flexibility. Secondly, the implementation of the project will enable employees in different departments share operational tasks which aligns with Anderson’s objective of employee collaboration (Frolova, et al.,2019). Finally, the project provides a reliable security  platform  for the organizational  data by  use of the of cloud based secure authentication  protocols.

The total cost for implementation and maintenance for a period of three years is estimated at $200,000 which include an estimated installation cost of $125,000 and additional $75,000 cost for the three years. However, the company is expected to  make an additional  profit $ 800,000 with  the three years due the  direct  benefit of using the system  software. For instance, the software simplifies the nature of doing business and simplifies customer management through implementation of robust customer relationship management function leading to increased sales leads (Wang, et al., 2017). The system also eliminates routine repetitive functions hence eliminating unnecessary labor costs. The reduction of unnecessary costs is expected to translate to profits.

There are two alternatives in the implementation of new system software for Anderson Engineering. The first alternative is subscription and the second one is purchase. The subscription is beneficial in the short run because it may save the company from heavy financial commitment but it is expensive in the long-run and does n0t give the company full control over the whole system (Li-Man, et al.,2018),Purchasing is expensive in the short-term but beneficial in the long run and gives the company full control of the system.

The first approval is from the IT director with the permission from the CEO of Anderson Engineering to launch the project. The second approval is required to initiate data migration from the old system to the new system as a security measure to ensure all security protocols are observed before the data migration (Zhang, et al.,2018). Lastly, it is the approval by the system vendor to Anderson Engineering IT department to take over the management of the project   after the lapse of the system implementation period.

References

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