Provide a plan that outlines responsibilities and related resources--software, hardware, and networks--necessary to support and maintain the proposed system.

Service Request SR-kf-013

             Quality customer loyalty programs succeed in fostering frequent or returning customer to generate added revenue.  Customer loyalty programs additionally generate a positive corporate image, as customers who win will advertise their perks.  The bottom line is customer loyalty programs that work bring in added revenue. 

Kudler Fine Foods (KFF) is revising their marketing strategy to include a customer loyalty program.  In order to successfully initiate an effective customer loyalty program, a consulting agency, our agency, has been hired to establish and field a program.  We will be conducting a feasibility study, which will entail comprehensive involvement throughout the KFF staff for maximum input.  Next, we will identify the project requirements.  The requirements are inclusive of functional and non-functional requirements.  Then, the architecture and design will be proposed for a clear and efficient way-ahead.  Finally, a test plan will be constructed and exercised to ensure a quality product is delivered to Kudler Fine Foods.    

Scope & Goals

            Kudler Fine Foods (KFF) has contacted our company to develop "…a system to rack Customer purchases through a Frequent Shopper Program to award loyalty points for redemption" (University of Phoenix, 2011).  The current problem is there is no system in place that allows Kudler Fine Foods to track what their customers are buying.  Once a system is in place the company will be able to provide better customer service and ensure that the products that are in demand are always on the shelves.  The main goal of Kudler Fine Foods is to be able to offer loyalty points that can be “redeemed for high end gift items, airline first-class upgrades, or other specialty foods” (University of Phoenix, 2013).  By having such a unique loyalty program in place, it should also bring in additional revenue as it will attract more customers.

            The deliverables for this project will include utilizing the demographic information from the purchaser database; produce a system that will produce a monthly newsletter with detailed information that is personalized for the customer.  It will provide the number of current points and will also list what prizes they are eligible for.  When the customer is ready to redeem their points they can call the customer service desk at Kudler Fine Foods, and they will assist with the redemption process.  Kudler Fine Foods should also have a database in place that can track what the points have been redeemed for to ensure they are meeting their customers’ needs.

Supporting Measures for accomplishment of this project include conducting a feasibility & requirements analysis to ensure that we can design a system that meets the needs of Kudler Fine Foods (Dennis, Wixom, & Roth, 2013, pg. 9).  

Project Feasibility

A feasibility study is used to conduct an objective and a reasonable analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of this project.  A feasibility study is the primary and most important thing in the development of this project because it is an analysis of the viability of our ideas through disciplined and documented ways of thinking based on logic. The Project Feasibility Analysis is based on Operational, Technical, and Economic feasibilities.

Operational

From this standpoint, Kudler Fine Foods would benefit consumers through developing the Frequent Shopper Program by developing contests that will allow them to gain points for each item based on their shopping needs. Also, by advertising any new products and services as well as any updated news. This will also determine how the business will make money overall by describing the products and services that will be marketable.

Technical

There would be software put in place that is user-friendly for both the employees as well as the consumers. Employee training programs would be put in place for any new software implemented but all at a low cost to the organization.

Economically

By developing this Frequent Shopper Program, it would help Kudler Fine Foods to determine or keep up with the estimate of credit needs, allow the analyzing of the return on investment, and compare the overall profit in order to estimate the long-term cost. Benefits would be the overall flexibility of the operation and the reduction in cost by doing what works for the consumers which in turn keeps our consumers loyal.

Requirements Analysis

To understand the requirements analysis needed for Kudler Fine Foods, we need to understand the consumer in all phases. We need to know and understand each consumer and their personal preferences when buying from any of the stores. We also need to know what the stakeholders and others major department goals are, and use the best method that everyone can live with. There are many methods, but the tradition method is a good starting point, because of the feedback you acquire through the many interviews and surveys. Requirements analysis is the process of defining new expectations to gather information about a project; these requirements must be clear and comprehensive and achieve all the goals of both parties involved.

Requirements analysis main focus is communicating the spending habits of consumers and forms an outline that will enhance the Frequent Shopper Program. This will be a team effort and information from many departments will determine a system that will increase revenue through the benefits of this program and create new consumers also. After gathering all this information through software, hardware, and social media; you can take a closer look into different patterns and form many diverse point of views on what works best, you can then customize a list of requirements. This list will form a template for every consumer that participates in the discount program.  This list will consist of certain information available to each party that include, shopping frequency, points earned, special offers, and website access so both can learn valuable information through this Q&A. With all this information being gathered, you need to ensure the consumer that their information will be safe; so this is something that will get upgraded or modified, so consumers can be confident about shopping and focusing on their points with no fear of their information getting into the wrong hands.

The interview process and survey methods that we plan to use will cover a wide range of people. From the business side, we plan to use the top down approach to get perspectives and viewpoints at every level. We will interview store managers, customer service managers, and random store employees at each of the 3 locations. We are going to ask several open-ended and closed-ended questions to all the interviewee to gather a strategic vision for the new system. The approach of each interview will be prepared to build a rapport in a logical order and only asking a question that the interviewee will know putting the highest priority in mind. We plan to answer all questions about the current problems, future goals, and the daily processes; our goal is to ask precise questions and receive rich answers. Once we are finished analyzing all the interview questions, we are going to form survey questions that will focus on customer satisfaction and service, as well as how knowledgeable employee are of the products. The survey will be in all the stores, company website, and sent to customer emails. Customers will be able to provide feedback on the new program, and that information will be sent to each store manager and the director of store operations, with the purpose of designing the best program for the future.

Requirements List

System Functional Requirements:

            Processing – The new system shall process and record sales and reward point totaling from any point of sale within Kudler stores. The customer receipt will be automatically generated, and the total savings, point, and transaction total will be depicted. Online transactions and delayed orders shall also be factored in whenever customer payments are made. This will ensure that real-time point totals are communicated.

Information – The system will allow for customer enrollment at any point of sale, online, or at any store front kiosk. Customer information will be retained for an unlimited amount of time and membership, and reward points will never expire. Customers will automatically receive point of sale generated savings in the form of coupons based on tracked purchase totals and historical purchases.

System Nonfunctional Requirements

            Security – The Rewards system that will facilitate the rewards program will store customer information therefore it is mandatory that the system comply with the following security and performance measures

·         Trojan Horse protection capability at each information processing point and the main database storage point

·         Virus protection shall receive semi-annual updates and whenever a new potential threat to the system is discovered.

·         Compatibility with existing sales system in each store, online point of sale and headquarters’ system.

·         System support of unlimited users without degrading performance.

·         Technicians will not be able to have any secondary storage of customer information outside of the approved redundant system.

·         Back-up server will be set up with the capacity to store customer information and sales transaction history

Proposed Logical Model

Logical Modeling involves the gathering of information of business entities, processes, and units. It affects not only the database design but the overall performance and administration of the database. The general process model gives the development team an idea of how data moves within the organization (“Logical Versus Physical Database Modeling", 2015).  It is important to show the breakdown of categories to show how each of Kudler Fine Food's category of data relate to one another. The purpose of this Proposed Logical Model is to show how Kudler Fine Foods will gather its business requirements and convert them into model form. This model is determined by the needs of our business, so that information of the organization and its processes are gathered. This information is to show the visual relationship between the Kudler Fine Food's customer and flow of business. Time is very important and needed to invest into logical modeling to determine the physical design of the database. Physical Modeling involves the actual design of a database according to any requirements established during logical modeling. The Managers, end users, and developers all review the information as well as the diagram to determine if any changes are necessary before physical modeling occurs.

Functional Allocation Model

Kudler Finer Foods goal is to create a functional allocating system that will connect the three stores and study the sales information of each customer whether they visit the store or purchase from the website. This new information system will update the existing system, by integrating smooth flowing software and hardware while keeping cost down and staying competitive in their industry. This new system will combine frequent shopper program through a new POS system that will allow every “customer who participates in the program to receive news about store events, featured products and sales. In addition, they will be given exclusive offers on select merchandise and discounts on cooking and wine classes" (University of Phoenix, 2011).

The new POS system will include software and hardware upgrades that suit your business needs. Depending on which system you choose, a new database server will be needed to connect registers, barcode scanners, and card reader's hardware to support the calculating and updating of new information from the three stores. This information will include shopper's cards and phone numbers that will be tied directly to their loyalty points. Both parties will be able to track sales and loyalty points through credit, debit, or frequent shoppers cards as well as on the receipt and website. With a three stores seeing sales information, they can predict future sales and control inventory to keep that competitive edge.

      We suggest using square register because of the contact and affordability of the service, which includes no extra charges or long term agreements. This service processes all types of credit, debit, or gift cards; it can also send digital receipts via email, website, or mobile phones. Lastly, it will apply discounts, loyalty points, and any special promotions that are due to the customer.

We are going to use several resources to develop and customize a system that will work with all departments built by leaders in the industry. We work with SAP, Oracle, BAAN, and Lawson; each has their own advantages and disadvantages, but we will find the perfect combination, which will answer the entire spectrum of question from customer support to technical training for the employees.

Architecture

The three types of architecture which could be possible for the Kudler Fine Foods, Roger Sessions (2004);

1.      The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architectures is a structured matrix that breaks down in detail the different classifications, model names, audience perspectives, and enterprise names ("John Zachman'S Concise Definition Of The Zachman Framework™", 2014).  This type of framework would be beneficial to Kudler because it presents all the definitions as to what would occur under any event.   This design is vital to the success of the business, as well as the further development of the new system. 

2.      The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF): This architectural design consist of four types of subset of different architectures; Business, application, data, and technical architectures. With the integration of these four types of sub-architecture, it becomes a single TOGAF enterprise solution that helps to resolve the issues of Company and customers.

3.      Gartner: This architectural design defines the ‘practices'. It is the enterprise-architecture practice of the best-known industry research and consulting organizations in the world. This architectural design preferably useful while looking for an IT solution and demands the practices and more practices for getting the accurate results. Like; designing a class student attendance system.

For the current Company, they want to implement Customer Management System (CMS) for tracking all the records likely if a customer has served earlier with services and offers then there should be a loyalty for respective customer through a gift card or redemption points for their next shopping experiences. Therefore, this system is required to have a data storage system for customer's record, business record tracking of customers for keep tracking the records of customers experiences, application architecture require to include customized operations and a technical architecture which could integrate the logical, conceptual and physical set-up designs.

To accomplish these requirements, The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) would be the most appropriate architecture that can effectively useful for Kudler in order to keep track of the records and save them accordingly for the customers redemptions and/or gifts and Kudler can provide such offers to its valuable customers through records tracking and ultimately to make customers happy that somewhere is beneficial to the Company’s business practices (Sessions, 2007).

Design Trade-Off Approach

It would be beneficial to create a system through the use of a high-end system that keeps track of customer points for rewards to track the most frequent purchase of products on a frequent basis. This approach will save time and money and allow customers to buy items with the rewards points gained. It will also keep customers loyal to the business and allow them to share their experience with family and friends in the hopes that they will want to shop there as well. In the design approach, it would be convenient for the customer to navigate easily throughout the website to find products based on categories listed with similar sub-categories such as meats and the types of meats. Taking the time to know what the customers want and advertising them will keep customers happy and allow the business free advertisement through the word-of-mouth of the customers experience to others. In creating such a system, the cost, time, and performance level of that system would have to be within a reasonable time frame together so that plan can be correctly implemented. The goal is to stay within the budget, so if any of these things are not in sync, then Kudler Fine Foods runs the risk of losing money.

The first step in the trade-off process is data collection. When this is done, it is important to gather all the necessary and relevant data so that the objective can be put into action. In the models below, you will see an example layout of how we plan to compare cost, schedule and system performance. This information is obtained through the conduction of interviews and surveys of service.

            When deciding in our choice of design and software, all alternatives and approaches are considered by the parties involved and are based on what requirements are needed to solve the problem as well as the resources that are readily available or needed to complete the task. The Cost and System Performance are the crucial in making sure the plan is effective and meets the needs of the business as well as staying within the budget. The Schedule is important but can be adjusted according to any necessary changes that need to be made.

Input Validation

To ensure accuracy all data must go through checks to prevent invalid data from harming the system. “Input validation is the “key” to application security. 50 to 60 % of security vulnerabilities in almost 70 % of applications are due to poor input validation” (Nelabhotla, 2007). There are six types of validation checks to alert designers when issues occur; these types are completeness, format, range, check digit, consistency, and database check. We used all six, because we wanted to ensure that all data was entered correctly, all data was formatted correctly especially if special codes were used, and we also check that each numeric data was within range. To ensure that the correct codes were used we perform a check digit check to validate the correctness; and consistency checks to ensure data fields were correct, lastly we check the database to make sure all the other checks were valid and correct.

Our design motto was to keep it simple for the users, we worked hard on this aspect, because the harder we work to simplify the system, the more comfortable the end user will adapt and learn the correct way to use the new system. This will results in less technical support, repeat training, and more production which is the primary goal; this system is designed to effectively get the most out of your employee using the least amount of effort and time.

Conclusion

Kudler Fine Food ultimately wants to provide the customer with the ultimate shopper experience and gain more customers in the process.  By introducing a frequent shoppers program, it will provide added benefits to not only the stakeholders but to the customer as well.  The team has designed and explained what the scope and goals for this project and through the feasibility study it is still perceived to be a project that is worth taking on.  Through continued research and analysis, the new program will grow as new ideas are brought to the table.  The service request document SR-kf-013, focused and listed the specific functional and security requirements; it also defined the proposed logical model for the new system that included a high-level data flow diagram of the proposed system; all of these were address with the highest priority. The functional allocation model proposed and specified what system components could be built including hardware, software, and database to work with the human-computer interface. We gathered all the information through company interviews and customer surveys, to design the best system that will benefit both parties.

The next phase of the project we explained the three architecture designs that would work bests for Kudler Fine foods, this address any question by answering all the needs of the frequent shoppers program. The design trade-off approach was an important part because cost, scheduling, and system performance options were all evaluated to design a unique system that is perfect for Kudler. We customized the software, hardware, and network environment that was within the budget, time frame and delivered the highest performance. Data must be validated, so we ran completeness,format,range,digit,consistency, and database check until we found one that would identify the highest invalid data. We also used error, confirmation, acknowledgment, delay, and help messages to see how the system responds to a user and inform him or her of the status of the interaction. Upon gathering all this information, we propose the perfect package for the best ROI.

References

Dennis, A., Wixom, B. H., & Roth, R. M. (2015).  Systems Analysis & Design (6^thed.).  Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

John Zachman's Concise Definition of TheZachman Framework™. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.zachman.com/about-the-zachman-framework

Logical Versus Physical Database Modeling. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.developer.com/tech/article.php/641521/Logical-Versus-Physical-Database-Modeling.htm

Nelabhotla, P. (2007). Input Validation - An Application Security Perspective. Retrieved from http://blogs.msdn.com/b/stronglinks/archive/2007/03/31/input-validation-an-application-security-perspective.aspx

POS Systems Reviews and Comparisons. (2015). Retrieved from http://pos-systems-review.toptenreviews.com/

Sessions, R. (2007). A Comparison of the Top Four Enterprise-Architecture Methodologies. Retrieved from https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb466232.aspx

University of Phoenix. (2011). Kudler Fine Foods Service Request SR-kf-013 [Multimedia]. Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/cist/vop/ServiceRequests/index.asp#Kudler%20Fine%20Foods

University of Phoenix. (2013). Sales & Marketing [Multimedia]. Retrieved from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/cist/vop/Business/Kudler2/intranet/marketing-overview.asp