Case Study: Project Management of a New Customer Relationship Management System - CraftBrew

Background

Background

The Nottinghamshire based company ‘CraftBrew’ manufactures and supplies craft beer for the drinks industry. This beer is sold through its own chain of CraftBrew bars and through other independent bars and retailers. They also have an online shop and are stocked in selected large supermarket chains.

In 2018, CraftBrew developed an idea for a new investment scheme through their own platform ‘Apply4Shares’, approved by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which offered 330,000 new shares in the brewery aiming to raise a total of £3 million. In exchange for their cash, investors get a stake in the business and perks such as discounts online and at CraftBrew bars and a complimentary beer on their birthday.

Management expect sales to increase by 20% by the middle of 2022, otherwise CraftBrew may lose out on market share and be unable to continue with its plans for international expansion. To support CraftBrew’s vision, the company intends to use some of the money raised to implement a new CRM system to help improve processes such as sales management, contact management and reporting.

The Executive have commissioned a project to provide a new CRM system and estimate the cost of the project to be £1million. The project will purchase an existing CRM software package and will configure it to meet CraftBrew’s specific requirements. A team of consultants, experienced at implementing this package, has already been identified to lead the project, including the configuration, customisation and handover of the system.

The three phases of the project are to manage the (I) selection/acquisition, (II) configuration/development and (III) deployment/handover of a new CRM application and related hardware within a £1million budget. You will create and manage a project team to undertake this project. This assignment relates to the key elements of planning the project.

The Board of Directors has allocated funds from 1 April 2021 so the project can commence then. The project must be completed – the system fully tested and handed over for operational use – by 1 April 2022.

CraftBrew will establish a Project Board which will meet monthly to control the project.

1. Produce the following planning documents for the case study.

It is expected that the planning documents presented are sensible and relevant, however there is not only one right way for planning a project of this nature. Please make sure you justify your choices and all documents are fully linked with each other.

For the whole project:

1. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
2. Risk Assessment

For one of the three phases:

1. Responsibility Matrix (RACI)
2. Scheduling: Critical Path Analysis (CPA) and Gantt chart

Note: CPA should be drafted using Activity Box in MS Word or MS Excel, and Gantt chart should be created using MS Project or a similar software tool.

2. CraftBrew intends to use a lot of their customer-facing staff, including sales staff, on this project. Critically evaluate how resource management tools may help the project manager resource this project effectively while reducing impact on day-to-day business to a minimum.

3. Critically review alternative methodologies that could be taken to manage the successful delivery of this CRM project, while highlighting any specific issues that may be faced if they are chosen. Consider the added complexities if this company decide to implement a CRM system with multiple sales channels and/or wide geographic location.

Individuals to write a report to be submitted online on NOW via the Dropbox facility by 28^th February 2021 at 11pm (UK time).