End of Module Assignment Autumn Term 2010 Managing e-projects and Change Using the Deductive Technology Case Study you will be expected to hand in a report ofaround 5000 words that contains 4 sections: 1. A management overview of how you see the project being managed and implemented. A discussion of potential risks to successful implementation and how they may be mitigated. (30%) 2. A project plan or Gantt chart, entered into a software package, showing the majortasks, sub-tasks, resources required, deliverables, their relationship and expected completion times. If there is no real start date please use Nov 8th 2010. Also show any additional project management tasks. (30%) 3. A revised financial plan taking into account discounted cash flows, with yourassumptions and an explanation of your financial plan. (10%) 4. A briefing paper to your management team on issues around change management and changing established working practices. (30%) Hand in Date on or before December 2, 2010 You should hand in copy on disk or similar to Reception in The Business School and upload a copy of your report onto Turnitin via Blackboard before 3.00pm on before December 2, 2010. Work handed in up to one week late will be graded to a maximum pass mark of 40%. Workhanded in a week after an agreed hand in date will not be graded. Pete Wraith 1 of 19
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Deductive Technology Case Study for M.Sc e-Business
The project idea described in the attached pages was originally drawn up by Steve Pilchard
an employee of Deductive Technology in close collaboration with Helen Ford the
company’s Finance Director. He had expected to do most of the work himself and had
planned it out to be a two year project. For various reasons Steve is no longer with the
company but the ideas he and Helen worked out are still relevant. Rather than replace Steve
Pilchard with someone of a similar background the company have employed a junior web
developer, Jacqui Jones and a recent graduate, Billie Bond to keep the existing business
systems “up-and-running”. Both these two new employees will be able to work on aspects
of the project under your guidance and that of the Senior Management Team.
The CEO and major shareholder Martin Large wants the project to go ahead but says the
company can’t wait two years and wants all work completing by end of July 2010. This
will mean running activities in parallel and bringing in some project managementexperience into the company (your role) to help deliver results on budget and on time.
You may make assumptions (your best guess) about information you feel you need to know
but which is not available to you. In such cases please state your assumption. For example
you may need to know the cost of borrowing money. Your assumption might be that an
unsecured business loan will cost around 8% per annum from Deductive’s High Street
Bank.
You may work in a group to discuss ideas but you should submit an individual piece of work the majority of which has been done by you rather than the group.
Deductive Technology provides assistive technology; hardware and software for children
and adults with special educational needs, including access devices which enable those with physical or sensory difficulties to use a computer or communicate. Deductive’s software
helps develop skills such as understanding cause and effect, making choices, literacy and
numeracy.
Special Needs Market :
2% of children in the UK are educated in special schools and an additional 17% of children
have special needs but are educated in mainstream education. The total ICT spend in this
area per annum in the UK is £30m excluding PCs, networks, communications and
consumables.
There are additional opportunities in English speaking countries. Deductive Technology
has set up a subsidiary company in the US where the market is considered to be six times
that of the UK. Australasia and Canada are smaller but lucrative markets.
Additionally, the adult and aged population special needs sector is a market we have yet to
penetrate. We estimate this to be a market worth £50m.
Deductive Technology is the largest provider of Special Needs educational software and
hardware devices in the UK. It is also the second largest independent supplier of ICTequipment to Education in the United Kingdom. Deductive holds a unique position in the
market as not only a supplier but also as an information and training organisation. The
company has several competitors who offer elements of service provided by Deductive,
many of these are small owner managed enterprises, but only one offers a comparable
range of products and services. This company is Semerc, a division of Granada Learning
plc. Deductive holds a 25% share of this market. The company has a small share of the US
market but little in the Commonwealth and Adult Special Needs markets
Basic Company Financial Information :
The Company’s annual turnover last year was £7,238,160. Net profit pre-tax as stated in its last audited accounts was £693,539.
Value of exports as stated in its last audited accounts £243,225.
The balance sheet total was £776,798.
Number of Employees 29
Some Problems
Currently “home grown” business systems are in place. These enabled the company to
grow to its current size but further business development requires a radical restructuring
and integration of the company’s information systems. There can be no further growth insales till these issues are resolved. The company is seeking year on year growth of 10%
from the end of next financial year Oct. 2010. This will be facilitated by improved
marketing activities and the use of more robust and integrated business systems capable of
supporting entry into US and other English speaking markets.
Implementing an integrated suite of software applications and consequent internal re-
organisation will streamline business processes and increase the ability to process more
orders. A new marketing strategy will widen access to markets as will an e-shop, integrated
with back end systems.
The core of any new IT developments will be an integrated back-to-back, “tele-sales” order
processing, stock control and purchase order processing system directly linked to an
accounting package working over a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
An analysis of customer behaviour, current marketing activities and market research will
generate plans for developing new products and routes to new markets.
These developments will improve internal efficiency and growth in markets across English
speaking countries.
A set of integrated activities are required to review business processes, marketing and
operational procedures, implementation of software to integrate business systems across the
company and its overseas operations over the VPN. This will develop methods for the
semi-automatic generation of an electronic shop and paper catalogue from its enterprise
systems and feed orders from the electronic shop back to its core enterprise systems. The
major aim being to increase profitability and market share through increased efficiency and
improved marketing activities.
The company may require some assistance with: ICT strategy development, Business
Process Modelling and Software Requirements Specification, but they are competent at building web based applications and integrating them with enterprise systems. They also
have experience in market research, marketing communications, customer relationship
management, catalogue operations, financial management and developing software
products for the special needs community. There is a budget of £10,000 for project support
in the figures at the end of the case study this equates to a notional 30 days at £300 per day
and £1,000 for travel and expenses.
Project objectives
To improve internal efficiency and increase market penetration the project will :
• Develop ICT and Marketing strategies capable of supporting a business strategy of
growth.
• Document requirements for and manage the purchasing and implementation of a
new integrated suite of enterprise software applications.
• Devise a change management programme to enable internal re-organisation after a
business process re-engineering exercise.
• Develop an electronic shop integrated with enterprise systems.
• Manage the integration of telephone and computer applications.
• Develop technology driven marketing activities to make better use of improved
customer information and its management.
• Develop an application for semi-automatic generation of the product catalogue• Specify requirements for and manage the implementation of a virtual private