Identify candidate solutions:

1.7 identify the criteria to be used for identifying potential solutions.

The director of Sales and Marketing, Mr. Nkhosi, mandated a consulting firm (PicPoint Consulting) to help analyse
the current business problems and investigate possible solutions that can be implemented in the order capturing
department.

1.8 Agree on two potential solutions to the problem.

 Increase the staff compliment in the order capturing department to cater for the increasing workload.
 Initiate an IT (systems development) project to implement an order capturing system.

1.9 Highlight the key features of each of the two solutions.

 The first solution requires increasing the staff compliment in the capturing demand so that the work load
can divided between a number of employees with the intention of improving efficiency
 The second solution involves initiating an IT system to implement an order capturing system that reduces
the number of staff whilst at the same time improving efficiency and eliminating errors in the order
capturing department.
1.10 Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each of the potential solutions.

Advantages

 Increasing staff compliment might be the best solution in the short run because it is cheaper than
introducing an IT System.
 The additional staff introduced may also service perform other duties as may be assigned by management
from time to time.
Disadvantages

 Increasing staff compliment may turn out to be more expensive in the long run
 The order capturing department does not have a formal process in place for how the order forms are
received and captured hence increasing staff complement will not solve the problem.
Advantages

 Initiate an IT (systems development) project to implement an order capturing system will save cost in the
long run. Cost may be reduced through reduced staff cost and reduced risk.
 An IT system will help solve the system challenges that the department is facing.
Disadvantages

 The company does not have a budget for the IT system. The manager is yet to get an approval for this
project from the board
  The setup cost for an IT project might be quite high. This capital expenditure may need proper planning
before implementation.

1.11 Prioritise each of these solutions in terms of their ability to fulfil the project objectives.

It is important to note that the department is faced by a number of challenges which cannot be solved by a single
solution. One of the challenges the department faces is that, the order capturing department does not have a formal
quality assurance process in place. This means that any mistake made on the invoice template can go unnoticed.
This challenge can best be solved by introducing additional staff who can help cross check the work of other staff
members thereby reducing errors in the order capturing department.

Setting up the IT project will be the best solution for solving the challenges that the firm is facing. Currently, the
sales consultants can’t differentiate between new orders and re-orders (repeat orders) for existing customers. This
can only be solved by introducing a proper IT system which can differentiate between new orders and re orders
again the company does not have a formal process in place for how the order form are received and captured. The
order forms do not get processed in the order in which they are received. The company does not have a formal
system or database in place to keep track of all stock items and stock prices. Since the invoice template is manually
completed various problems and mistakes are encountered. These include error in the calculation errors in terms of
total amount due per order, customer discounts, VAT and customer details are usually incorrectly captured. The
department does not have formal quality assurance process for checking the orders before processing. These
challenges cannot be solved by increasing the number of staff a proper IT system will provide an answer to these
problems.

RISK AND FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS

Individual Activity

Using the feedback from your workshop, answer the following questions:

Risk Analysis

1. Highlight your preferred option from the two possible options identified and discussed
The second recommendation that required the company to initiate an IT (systems development) project to implement
an order capturing system is a better option considering the challenge that the organisation is facing. The main
challenge that company is facing is that of a non-functional system. The manual system it is presently using is the
source of the challenges the department is facing. The challenges begin with members of staff who cannot
differentiate orders, incorrect computation of invoice totals, incorrect capturing of customer details and lack of
quality controls. This can best be solved by putting in place a system that can address these challenges. Employing
additional staff that are equally confused will not help solve the problem.
 2. Identify any risks that would need to be managed with your preferred solution option.

 The risk of financial loss due to incorrect computation of invoice totals,

 The risk of loss of customer confidence due to incorrect capturing of customer details
 Fraud may occur as some employees may take advantage of the confusion in the order capturing system

3. Briefly explain why you would consider them to be risks for the project
They are risk because incorrect computation of invoice totals may result in the company suffering a financial loss.
Incorrect capturing of customer details may result in the customers losing confidence in the brand which may affect
sales in the long term. The risk of fraud is also very high since the department does not have a proper quality
assessment system. Some members of staff may take advantage of this to defraud the company.

4. Use a risk matrix to priorities these risks. Suggest the mitigation strategies for containing these risks

R A C I Mitigation
incorrect High Automated system
computation of calculations
invoice totals
Risk of fraud High Proper systemic
quality assessment
Incorrect capturing High Proper order
of customer details capturing system

(Note: a table can be used to present the risk matrix)

Feasibility Analysis

5. Using the problem and objectives that you have identified, analyse the preferred solution to determine if it
is feasible across the following dimensions:
Economic: It makes good business sense to approve the project, since introducing an IT system is a
long term solution to the challenges the department is facing. It may appear costly in the short term
but in the long run the company will benefit from reduced staff cost. The company may also benefit
from the fact that an IT system is efficient, reduces handling by staff whilst reducing errors in the
order capturing system. The goals is to reduce the errors and mistakes in the order processing as well
as improve on the efficiency in the system.

Technical: Presently the company does not have the technology and expertise. The budget for IT
project is yet to be approved by top management. Staff also needs training in the use of the new
system as they have been using a manual system.

Organisational and Cultural: The changes will to some extend adversely impact on the
organisation and its culture. The staff members in the department have been used to using a manual
system. Introducing an IT System may be mate with resistance hence there is need to educate staff
on the benefits of an IT system.

Schedule: The IT project may be completed in the time frame required provided the capital budget
for the project is approved by management on time. This project is yet to get management approval.
Once the project is approved the installations may be begin as well as staff trainings

Resources: The resources seems to be available since several attempts have been made in the past
to initiate such projects, and top management were of the thinking that order capturing is merely a
support process hence, project investment funding has often been redirected towards enhancements
in the design and manufacturing process. The findings of this study may help convince the board on
the necessity of addressing the challenges that the department faces.
IMPLEMENTATION AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT PLAN

Individual Activity

1. Using the feedback from your workshop, compile a brief implementation plan for your preferred solution
option. Include the following in your plan: people, resources, timelines and how the system implementation
will take place (or the implementation approach).
Purpose
The role of this plan is to help plan for and manage the people side of the IT (systems development) project to
implement an order capturing system. This implementation and change management plan focuses on identifying,
preparing and managing a wide array of internal and external stakeholders, employees and customers that will be
impacted by the new solution. We want those stakeholders to feel informed, prepared, trained and ready to
participate in a successful implementation. We want employees to adopt new skills and develop new capabilities and
to value and appreciate the features that our new technology offers.

The purpose of is to effectively plan and transition the organization to the desired future state. The purpose of the
Plan includes:

 Assessing the project’s impact to the organization.

 Assessing the readiness of the user organizations and individual users to accept changes to working
environments.

 Identifying, describing and planning for necessary actions to facilitate those changes.

 Reducing resistance to change using various communication tools.

 Reducing overall impact to operations.

Our objectives include:

 Increase awareness and buy-in on the part of internal and external stakeholders.

 Broad-based readiness to implement the necessary business and system changes.

 Successful adoption and high utilization rates of new software and business processes.

 Meet budget and schedule expectations, while assigning enough of the right-skilled resources to be
successful.

Our key tasks will be iterative in nature, repeated many times over the life of the project, and include:

1. Stakeholder identification, analysis and planning.

2. Communication planning and execution.
 3. Readiness assessment activities.
4. Training, mentoring and coaching in the project principles.
5. Knowledge transfer support.

Vision

Presently the company is facing challenges in its order capturing system. The challenges faced includes incorrect
capturing, and calculation errors on invoice totals in the thereby exposing the company to the risk of financial loss.
The aim of the IT systems project is to eliminate the inefficiencies which are brought about by the manual order
processes , eliminate the risks associated with the manual processes, streamline the overall order capturing process ,
ensure that the implemented solution will help fulfil customer orders timeously, generate customer invoices
accurately, as well as track customer payments adequately so that the company can satisfy its service level
agreement with customers, to develop a simple application that will also provide basic management reporting
functionality and to improve overall quality of service offered to AB Corporation customers.

Stakeholder identification and analysis

Stakeholder / Stakeholder Group High / Medium / Low Impact on the project

Directors Medium Low
Director , Sales and Marketing High High
Sales Manager High High
Project change team leader High High
Order Capturing Department High High
Supervisor
Trainer High High
End user Representatives High High

The AB team structure and responsibilities

The following represents the AB team structure:

Role Name Responsibilities

Project team leader Manages the organizational change
processes including information
passed from top management to
lower level staff
Business process analyst Reviews the business to process to
ensure that they are in line project
 implementation
Trainer Develops training plan, materials
and conducts training
End users Listens to and asks questions
related to organizational change.
Participates in all levels of training
as required, from technology
familiarization to testing use-case
driven scenarios.