Introduction
Globalisation of the economy challenges businesses to expand their horizons to capture the existing market. Technology has enabled businesses to achieve this expansion. The use of the internet for online services has enabled competitors to improve their competitive advantage. The internet has facilitated data storage, treatment to produce useful information for decision making and a convenience tools. The business under evaluation is TopLiance Corporation. The company sells home appliances and has a workforce of over fifty workers. The company operates in various sales and considers the use of online sales to enable the company to increase its sales. The advantages associated with the move boarder on profit maximization and convenience.
The company will be able to increase its sales through cover of a large market while reducing many overhead cost. Such overhead costs include the cost of the workforce and sales overhead. The method is convenient because sales can be done from a central location. All the products are exhibited on the site thus online marketing is promoted. Sale of product through the secure website will enable the company to attract and retain customer’s thus high profits Heagney, J. (2011).
Project specification
The name of the project will be TopLiance E-marketing platform. The project will be design to be a simple platform in which clients can interact with sales representatives of the company through the use of cheap and readily available communication media. The project is commissioned by the managing director and was authorized to start on 22nd January 2012. Student’s name is the project manager appointed by the managing director.
The project will contain a catalogue of the commodities the company offers and ways through which the client can pay for the desired items. The mode of payment can be electronic where the client should be ensured that the mode of payment is secure. The mode of payment can also be through cash where the client is suited near to distribution stall. The project is aimed at increasing the interaction with customer through convenient channels of distribution.
Management plan
The project should be completed in the next three months. Managing the project will require help from the sales, legal, finance and IT departments. The sales department will provide information on all the products in the company to the finance department. The finance department will compute all the costs associated with each product and come up with the products pricing. The sales department will also compare the agreed upon pricing with other competing goods in the market (Kloppenborg, 2009).
This ensures that the commodities sold by the company are fairly traded. The IT department then designs the website to incorporate all the information provided. The legal department should evaluate the content of the website to ensure that the company is covered for all its operations. The staffing needs for this project should be managed such that the normal operations of the business are not affected.
Compiling the necessary data to set up the website will take one moth while designing the site will take a month. The last month will incorporate evaluation of the site by the technical and legal department. After evaluation the site can be tested to ensure that it is operational. The final project is thus presented to the managing director for approval. The approval from the managing director ensures that the company will implement the project Phillips, 2004).
Task allocation
All tasks and responsibilities are allocated to the workers by the project manager. The responsibility of the sales team will be to provide a detailed evaluation of their activities in the market so as to simulate the same in to the project. The sales team will provide information on slow moving goods and fast moving goods to enable the organization to plan their website. The knowledge on liquidity of products also helps the design of the website to ensure that the website attracts many customers. The sales department is also in charge of market survey. They should look at the market and report on the pricing of competitor’s goods.
The finance team handles all the production costs and the income costs generated from the products sold. The responsibility of the finance department would be to come up with the right pricing of the goods to be sold in the company website. The cost should consider the overheads reduced by selling the goods through the website. After the website is operational, the finance department will evaluate the revenue generated and adjust the prices on the site (Phillips, 2004).
The IT department is the designers and implementers in the project. The IT department should design the project such that the all the required features are implemented. The responsibility of maintaining the site and ensuring that it is secure should handled by the IT department. Updating and additions of new products to the website is the duty of the IT team. The legal team’s responsibility is to ensure that the interests of the company are protected. The work of the project manager is to ensure that all the sub teams work together for the success of the project and presenting the project to the managing director for approval (Kloppenborg, 2009).
Project time line
All the steps in the project should be approved by the managing director. These constitute the sign off section of the project. The section consists of all the estimates in the form of funds and manpower required by the project manager to complete the project. The project manager should provide a document of all the estimates and they should be signed by the project manager. The project manager should also sign this document to ensure accountability in the organization is maintained. Below is an example of a sign off.
TopLiance Corporation
Sign off section
Original cost of project estimated by students name date
Costs verified by managing director date
Comments ………………………………………………………………………….
Signed………………………………………………………………………………….
The project incorporates the interaction of four departments. The work should be completed in three months so the activities of the four departments will have to interact at a point in development of the website. The work of the sales department will take the first moth and can overlap will collection of corresponding information from the accounts department. The two activities then give way to design of the website. The stage incorporates producing a site that works in the parameters it is intended (Heagney, 2011).
The evaluation work done by the legal team can be merged with the trial phase of the website. The trial can be done by the IT department simulation of clients to detect the weak points in the website and the presence of bugs. The testing phase and the evaluation of the website can be done during the last month. Upon completion of the project, the project manager can present the project to the managing director for final approval.
References
Heagney, J. (2011). Fundamentals of project management. New York: American Management Association.
Kloppenborg, T. J. (2009). Contemporary project management: Organize, plan, perform. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Phillips, J. (2004). IT project management: On track from start to finish. Emeryville, Calif: McGraw-Hill/Osborne.
