Starting A Cyber Cafe Near The University Campus, An Essay In Progress.

Question:

Briefly explain why such a project would be beneficial. What procedures might you use to ensure that the project was sponsored and supported by the organization.

The project is about starting a cyber cafe near the university campus. The cyber café would have resources like internet browsing, print out and photocopy.

This business idea would be beneficial because students in any university always have requirement for printing and using the internet. They require this for doing their assignments at all times. Especially during submissions, they have to take print outs of huge chunks of paper regarding reports and journals. By starting a café in the vicinity of the campus, we will be able to cater to different colleges and since different colleges have different schedules, we would be getting good work al throughout. Currently, there is no existing shop and students have to travel far for the same work. We would provide students convenience at the same price and hence would be generating good business out of this.

In order to get approval from the organization, we have to first get permission from the university regarding their permission to open the café. Having obtained the permission, we would be the official and only shop in the university premises. The second thing that we need to do is estimate the number of students in every college and prepare an estimated analysis of the forecasted sales based on factors like exams, usage rate etc. By looking at the sales figures expected, we will be able to get support from the organization.

Define the project, write a project narrative and develop a project plan, including the processes that would be used to manage financial, technical, human and physical resources.

The project is starting a cyber café near the campus so that students on the campus can have easy access to print outs of important documents, fax, photocopying, and internet café to browse and surf the net. It will require us to purchase a computers with MS operating system, photocopying machine, fax machine, and internet connection from a local provider.

The café should also purchase a cybercafé management system to help it record data on both server side and client side and will help them maintain the records of the employees too.

Financial resources – The cybercafé management system must have a data base which will note the details of the customers who log in to the server. It will note the name, ID and time since it starts using the net and time till the server is used and prepare the receipt accordingly. Similarly the receipts of photocopy and fax can be produced and help the café maintain its revenue sources. The café can also note all the money that is to be paid to all the creditors and employees and hence calculate the profit generated, maintain budget and plan future expansions.

Human Resources- The cybercafé management system will have to note down the details of all the employees working and maintain a log of their attendance so that they can be paid according to the work they did.

Project Plan

Technical Resources-. The café can also appoint a maintenance team which will charge an annual fee and take care of all the technical issues which will be faced by the café. The maintenance team can be from the same vendor providing the hardware or a local vendor providing similar services based on the cost advantage.

Physical resources- The café needs to check with the suppliers of the hardware about the warranty of all the products they have provided the café and if any issue in hardware is faced then it can be sorted with their help.

1. Who are your projects stakeholders?

The projects stakeholders include the company, the employees in the cyber café, students studying at the university and the management staff at the university.

1. What would your role be in planning and delivering the project?

My role would be that of the project manager and my responsibilities would be designing the whole plan from scratch setting deadlines and target milestones for the team to achieve. The deadlines would be realistic and manageable so that the project would be delivered on time and without any kind of hassles.

1. How would you make sure that the project met organizational objectives?

I would make sure that the project meets organizational objectives by ensuring that responsibilities are designated to the people capable of handling them. For example, from sourcing the hardware to getting permissions from the university, the right kind of people should be responsible and there should be clarity of responsibility assigned to them. No roles should be overlapping and right kind of authority needs to be provided. By having a proper plan in place, the project will be able to meet its organizational objectives.

1. What resources would you need and how would you source them?

The basis accessories that would be required in the cyber café are computers, printers, webcams, headphones, USB card readers, DVD burner, UPS, chairs, Xerox machine, fans, and lighting. Apart from this, human resources would be required in the form of the café manager and 2 people for Xerox and printing alone.

The sourcing of the resources would be done from a computer supplier who supplies to big firms and companies. Purchasing the equipment from such a vendor would be helpful as it would help us derive good bulk discounts. Also, smaller things like pen drives etc. can be bought online by comparing the prices and deciding which option is cheaper and better in quality.

For human resource sourcing, we would be giving out adverts in the local newspaper calling for applicants.

1. Why should you and how would you consult with team members in the planning stage of the project and throughout the projects implementation?

We intend to use the popular means of communication like email and what Sapp to keep in touch with team members throughout. By keeping a mailing thread and a group on what Sapp all updates can be communicated easily and the same would be visible to all group members simultaneously. It would be easier to pass and obtain information.

1. How would you monitor the quality of outcomes?

I would monitor the quality of outcomes by setting cost performance Indicators (KPI) with respect to the project and tracking the progress of those cost indicators regularly. For example, the indicators in this case could be working hours, purchase order release, cost incurred etc.

1. How would you ensure that you met project timelines?

It is important that proper milestones are checked and compared at regular intervals and measures are taken if work is not going in progress. By doing regular checks, the team can decide on which processes need to speed up and how to remove the existing bottlenecks to the development.

1. What project management tools would you use and why would they be most useful?

Financial Resource Management

Designed project management teams would be not be beneficial for a project of this scale. Using the traditional tools like mails, charts and communication tools would be a viable option for this project. The project would get further complicated and mixed up if bulky project management tools are used. We would rather focus on the existing methods and tools and make better use of them.

1. How and why would you delegate roles and tasks?

Delegation would become easier if people are hired for specific roles in the first place. People would be hired with a clear understanding of their work roles and the café management system would help track the work and progress of the employees. This way the details of the employees will be maintains. Tasks would be assigned based on number of factors like the work history and performance of the employee as well as his availability and eagerness in the future to take up the work.

1. How would you design and develop risk management and contingency plans for cater for any health and safety issues?

In wake of the security issues that might exist, the café would have a vigilance system installed and the same would record and track the customers entering and leaving the café. The screen would be near the manager’s seat and he will be able to monitor any illegal activity immediately. Also, two fire extinguishers would be installed and opposite ends and instructions for use would be written in bold.

1. What methods would you use to clarify roles, responsibilities and lines of authority?

The café management system would have a server side and a client side. Through the serve side, we would be able to track, record and assign roles and responsibilities to employees. The same would help us in understanding if any employee has not been doing well and how to take care of the situation in that case. Employees would be briefed in detail in the very beginning even during their selection process regarding what their roles would be and what is expected out of them. Apart from this, having written documents that can be viewed by employees anytime regarding their roles and responsibilities would help clarify any kind of doubts that may exists in the minds of the employees.

1. Describe in detail how the budget would be prepared and used as a communication and monitoring tool.

The budget would be prepared by the manager on a quarterly basis and communicated to the entire team. The team would have a target that they have to meet and on meeting those targets specific awards would be given. This would motivate them to work harder and increase the profits. The budgets can be broadly divided into two types:

• Initial budget

This would be prepared at the very early stage of the project so that all resources can be bought and allocated properly. This budget would be prepared in discussion with the senior management, accounts teams of the organization and the designated project manager.

• Monthly budget

This budget would be prepared every month so that the expected costs and results are clear to the team handling the café and they can adhere to it before making any kind of major changes. This would also avoid any unnecessary expenses being made and would help the café meet its overall profit goals.

1. Explain the data collection, record keeping and reporting processes that would apply to the project

We would be needing a proper café management software package that can ensure that day to day productivity can be tracked as well as record keeping can be done. This will also help the customers feel that they are not cheated. Some of the features required would be a flexible billing system, updates on all computers through a dashboard and preinstalled reporting. The users would enter the café and the administrator would assign him an id and enter his enter time and the same would the exit time would be recorded when he is done. The system would automatically generate a bill and the same would be handed to the user. If the user is a regular visitor, a member id will be created for him.

1. What legislation would apply to the project and how would you ensure compliance with it?

The café should take necessary approvals from the university regarding their permission to open the café. Apart from this, the cybercafé should act in accordance with Cybercrime Act 2001. The act has created investigation powers to different authorities to protect the integrity and security regarding the computer data. The federal agencies have authority to investigate and prosecute anybody who is found guilty of cyber-crimes. The café is also liable to all the illegal activities which generates from its computers and hence they need to keep details of all the students and other customers using their systems with time so that it is easy to track them. Thus the café should work in accordance with these legislations.

1. What are your projects deliverables?

The project deliverables include the following aspects:

Plan for development and starting the cyber café: The strategy for starting the process and managing the processes should be in place. It should take care of all kinds of manpower planning, financial planning, operations planning.

Setting timelines: The project needs to be completed on time and hence milestones and deadlines need to be set that would be adhered to by all stakeholders.

Implementation: The project should foresee the implementation that activities are done as planned and abnormalities can be handled along the way.

1. Why should you and how would you review project outcomes and processes?

We should review project outcomes and processes because many a times the final deliverable does not meet all requirements prescribed in the project in the beginning. Also, during the project, there are times. When processes can be improved and by reviewing outcomes, the same can be identifies.

In this case, we would review the outcomes by drafting a project report plan in the beginning and then checking at regular milestones regarding the progress of work. By looking at the expected and actual results at specific times we can assess the outcomes of the project.

References

Internet Cafe Business Plan. (n.d.). Retrieved from