2 to 3 pages (700 to 1,050 words) describing your plans for training employees and preparing them for system changeover. Include the following: Develop a schedule of activities to prepare for training and to conduct the training. Describe the resources th

10 Brewton’s Enterprise, Inc. System Implementation

Brewton’s Enterprise, Inc. System Implementation

Shaquita Boss

August 22, 2016

CMGT 445

James Sternieri

Company Overview

Brewton’s Enterprise, Inc. located in Eugene, Oregon has requested our project management services to implement the Enterprise Business Software application. The company offers an array of products with a mix of clothing styles, appealing primarily to teens and young adults. Brewton’s Enterprise, Inc. has four satellite offices in Los Angeles, New York, Houston, and Atlanta. These offices, including headquarters in Eugene, serve as distribution centers for products sold by Brewton. The company employs 240 employees. Each of these locations has a warehouse manager, an administrative assistant, a human resources representative, sales and customer service coordinators, shipping and receiving personnel, and facilities maintenance personnel. All locations stock a full complement of Brewton products for delivery to purchasing customers. In addition to these functions, headquarters, located in Eugene, also provides human resources, purchasing analysts, sales and marketing personnel, accountants, systems personnel, and operations personnel.

Key Stakeholders

Brewton’s Enterprise, Inc. has nine (9) key stakeholders who will take interest in the implementation of the project implementation. It is very important that we make a huge impression on the key stakeholders due to the fact that they will have the deciding factor on whether we will collaborate with Brewton’s Clothing Retail. Below is a list of the key stakeholders with a brief description of each individual:

Mark Brewton, Chief Executive Officer- Constructed from a small retail store, Mark has managed to turn Brewton’s Enterprise, Inc. into an Enterprise with four satellite offices located in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York with the headquarters located in Eugene. Mark uses inputs from his staff and direct reports to manage the daily operation of the company. The fact that the CEO openly takes input from his staff speaks volumes about his character and that he has direct involvement with the company. It also shows that the opinion from his staff is considered with the decision making process.

Barbara Scharer, Chief Financial Officer- Barbara manages the finance and accounting functions within Brewton’s Enterprise, Inc.. She maintains appropriate levels of investments, retains adequate operating capital, and arranges for lines of credit as needed. She oversees the accounting function of the organization where her employees use desktop software products to perform their work. Barbara is looking forward to making use of the new Business Enterprise System, leveraging its integrated reporting capability to better track the business. She would like to determine why the company is not as profitable as it might be and feels the software will help to identify areas in which improvements might be made.

William Hunter, Chief Operations Officer- William Hunter is responsible for the purchasing organization, which places orders for products to be sold, office supplies, equipment, computers, etc. Bill and his staff are also responsible for physical plant security and making sure the strategically located warehouses are properly stocked with products to be will be delivered to their customers. Products are centrally received and accounted for before they are distributed to the warehouses. Warehouse personnel work on orders as they are received, pulling products together, packaging them, and shipping them to their customers.

Jennifer Morales, Sales and Advertising Director- Jennifer oversees the selection of products to be offered for sale on the company’s web site and works with purchasing to acquire those products. She works with the IT organization to make sure that products are effectively and accurately presented on the web pages. She also maintains a relationship with an internet advertising firm that provides links on other sites to direct potential buyers to the Brewton web site. Her staff of sales associates and customer service representatives takes orders over the phone and assist customers with their selections. Orders are sent daily to Operations for picking, packaging, and shipping.

Roger Tomlinson, Human Resources Director-The employment needs of the company are addressed by Roger Tomlinson, who handles the recruiting and hiring of qualified personnel for the company. He also oversees running of biweekly payroll, government reporting, and processing of insurance payments, as well as other payroll deductions. Roger’s staff conducts compensation surveys to make sure employee pay remains competitive in the industry, and in line with corporate financial guidelines. Roger plans to use the Human Resources module of the new system to streamline job applicant data, from the receipt of resumes through the interviewing process and hiring of candidates.

Mike Benson, Information Technology Director- Mike Benson’s staff is responsible for maintaining the company’s technical infrastructure, such as the network, employee workstations, the web site, and associated hardware. His staff negotiates software agreements with vendors, performs routine maintenance, and monitors network usage. Mike meets regularly with his staff to receive status updates on projects underway. Mike has some concerns about the implementation process, because his staff members do not have the bandwidth to take on a new project the size of the ERP system implementation. He is considering hiring additional staff to take on this responsibility, but also wants to evaluate the possibility of bringing in consultants to do the work.

He knows that preparing for testing of the new system and scheduling training for all users will be a challenge in order to keep the business functioning normally and getting everyone familiar with the new system. The development of training materials and user documentation will also be a consideration. Mike feels that there must be some good alternatives for accomplishing these tasks.

Gary Holmes, Systems Administrator- Reporting to Mike, Gary Holmes sets up user IDs for all employees, and installs desktop software on PC workstations as needed. Gary is sensitive to the need to maintain state-of-the-art equipment and software to support the technical operation and seeks to keep all systems up-to-date and running at peak efficiency. Gary is somewhat apprehensive about the new system that has been acquired. He wonders who will be asked to support it and who will fix it when technical problems occur following implementation.

Nancy Davis, Web Developer- Nancy Davis is a web developer, reporting to Mike. She is responsible for maintaining the company’s web site, working with Jennifer Morales, to keep the content of the site attractive and user-friendly. She does not think that the new system will affect her work in any way.

Jim Travis, Network Administrator- Jim Travis, the network administrator also reports to Mike Benson, maintaining all network hardware and connections, including web access. He is responsible for maintaining security of the Brewton data assets and providing threat detection of unauthorized access to the corporate network. Like Gary, Jim is wondering how the new Enterprise Business System will fit into the existing configuration of the technical infrastructure. He fears it will require the purchase or lease of a new server and will likely increase his workload significantly. He knows that the implementation will require, not only a production environment in which the new system will run, but will also necessitate creating a test environment for user acceptance testing, and a training environment in which users will be trained to use the new system. He wonders if the training could be conducted in the test environment so as to save some resources.

Challenges

Some challenges that we have the possibility of facing are that everyone is not anticipate the changes to the software application. Over half of the stakeholders have very valid concerns about the implementation of the new software system. They have concerns about how the system is going to assist them in their jobs, who is going to fix and maintain the system, and why is this new implementation needed in the first place. The goal is to ensure every stakeholder that this system will not just assist certain areas but all areas of the company whether it’s invoicing, Customer Relationship Management, purchasing, Human Resources, Accounting, or the Supply Chain Management. The Business Enterprise Software will incorporate all modules of the company which will create a more efficient system. Each Module of the system will run independently but will utilize the same database. The system will help keep everything well organized, accurate, and will also save time with inventory. On top of that the system is more up to date with the technology of competitors.

Project Communication Plan

In order to keep stakeholders notified of changes, we will need all key stakeholders to provide contact information. Every ninety (90) days face- to- face meetings will be held with key stakeholders. During the face-to-face meeting the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) will be reviewed with key stakeholders. We will provide overall updates and completed milestones pertaining to the project. We will also review future milestones and notify key stakeholders of upcoming tasks and estimated time of completion of each task. Emails will be sent to key stakeholders between face-to-face meetings to notify stakeholders of the status of the project, if the estimated time of completion changes, or if any unexpected situation comes into existence. Phone calls to key stakeholders will be held only if absolutely necessary however, our contact information will be providing to executive key stakeholders if there any questions or concerns.

To ensure the client that needs will be met, we will conduct structured walk-throughs. The reviews will be provided to the project manager. The project manager will review and make changes as needed (Tilly & Rosenblat, 2016.) The project manager will briefly describe the reviews with key stakeholders in the face-to- face meetings. We will also be holding project status meetings for members of our team every thirty (30) days to discuss milestones and tasks updates, any issues or concerns within the project, and also discussing estimated completion dates.

Documentation Required

During the project there will be an enormous amount of documentation that is required from both ends. This is to ensure that our team provides the client with exactly what they need. Of course the requirements documentations are need so that our team can manage all attributes and entities that will be need for the project. We will also need documentation of key stakeholders contact information so that we are able to update key stakeholders as necessary.

Architecture documentation is required to provide the plan of structure. The documents will give explanation to the overall structure of the software to the clients (Wikipedia, 2016). I feel that keeping the clients more involved as much as necessary tends to decrease the stress level for the team allowing us to appropriately communicate necessities.

Technical documentation will provide more about the code itself. The technical documentation will be available to necessary personal. User documentation will be provided to the client on completion of the project. The user documentation will give a full description of how the program is used and how it functions. This will allow clients to utilization proper utilization of the program. The user documentation will provide text and video examples for users.

Outsourcing VS. In-house

Outsourcing is to simply purchase services from an outside vendor ("Outsourcing", 2016). There are tons of different reasons why companies would consider outsourcing. The biggest question is rather it’s worth it. For bigger projects outsourcing would be more ideal. It could possibly cut cost of the project. But if the project is something simple or something that is something that will better off done in house, then outsourcing may not be a wise choice. With outsourcing, you have to have a certain level of trust that the project is going to be as expected. On top of that, the you may not be able to be as involved in the overall development of the project. In other cases, somethings are better done using outsource. In the event that there is a time crunch, outsourcing would be perfect. But somethings to consider is being very direct with the requirements, to differ from the needs and the wants, and to communicate. As long as the communication is up to par outsourcing is not such a bad idea.

To successfully migrate the existing data to the testing platform, our team has decided to use the trickle migration approach. This approach will allow for both old and new systems to operate during the migration process. This process uses time increments to complete the project (Successful Data Migration, 2011). As the project manager, I will use Microsoft Project to create a project plan. All associates will have access to this plan so that everyone is aware of the project’s schedule. During the face to face meetings we will go over the project’s schedule. We will cover the milestones that has been completed, milestones having complications completing, and future milestones as well. We will also brainstorm to diminish any dilemmas that shall arise. If the schedule or budget is affected it is our duty to notify the client.

The very first step to our data conversion plan is to extract the existing data from legacy system. Instead of having the systems down during the migration, a trickle migration will be performed on the last weekend of the 9th month of the project. This will give us 3 months to test the new system. Trickle migration is a great fit for Brewton Enterprise since the method can be implemented with real-time process to move data, and can also be used to maintain the data by passing future changes to the target system.

An important aspect is that the migration team is educated on the existing systems and has schemas for the target application. The main priority is to safely transfer data from the source to the target without disruption.

In order for our migration team to assure that the correct data is migrated, topologies will be discussed in meetings with the stakeholders. During the meetings we need to develop a clear understanding between wants and needs for the new system. We will go over how the data will be migrated, data type, and also legal obligations. During the meetings a variety of information is exchanged between the clients and our team so it is important to be in attendance to every meeting.

The testing at platform

The testing platform is supposed to lay the ground work or existing systems to transfer data to the main platform which will be used to integrate data and information to the new software and systems which the company is implementing. Shifting will mean converting the data ad also having to take account of new data that the new systems are going to need in order to operate. The stakeholders who have raised concerned about the shifting from the current systems to the new systems will have their views taken into account when developing the new platform and the testing platform will seek to showcase to them that the new information systems is better and it can safeguard the interest of the company and the shareholders better. (Kaufman, Kaufman 2005)

The testing platform will also be used to determine the data that the new systems are going to handle in order to improve the operations of the company. With four satellite offices, the company needs to have the systems connected to all of the offices and for communication to be easier in order for changes to be made in all satellite offices to be dome in sync (Kaufman, Kaufman 2005). This will help in ensuring that the satellite offices do not lose important data that they require for their operations. The testing should also take into consideration the different needs that each satellite office requires due to the different state laws and also the fact that the client demand may vary.

The testing platform should also enable both the new and the old systems to function parallel to each other. This will ensure that the company doesn’t have to stall its operation to upgrade the systems and also to ensure that the new systems are working in line with the company’s expectations. The systems operations will also enable the company to compare the operations of the new system and the old system. The testing environment should have various factors that will challenge and affect the systems once it becomes operational.

Testing environment

The testing environment is going to use software’s that the company plans to use and is also using while at the same time utilizing the hardware that the company has. This will so as to test the compatibility of the new systems with the software and hardware that the company currently owns. It will also offer the company a chance to divulge more onto the systems that it requires to install to improve the performance of the new systems and to optimum run the operations of the company. (Banks 2001)

The testing environment is going to require the company’s IT departments and also some of the staff who is going to be regularly using the system for various functions. When implementing anew system at the work place, it is important to have the technical know how to use it and also to have a team of qualified personnel who can be able to fix the systems or to fix the systems when it experiences difficulties (Banks 2001). The company should also have an outside contact who will help in fixing the systems if the problems persist. IT departments are supposed to maintain the operating systems of the company and at times when the problems persist, they can outsource to specialist who deal with fixing operating systems problems.

The testing environment should also have certain parameters in order to protect sensitive data that the company might have. This will ensure that the company safeguards its trade secrets and also achieves testing wary outside testing professionals without having to worry about them accessing certain files. Test environments should be staged before the testing can take place in order to seal all the loopholes where data might get leaked or any vulnerability that the test environment might have.

Procedures of testing

The testing of the systems will be based on acceptance testing and accessibility testing. This will be to ensure that the systems can operate together with existing systems and also to ensure that the system is easily accessible form the four satellite offices of the company.

The first test will be to set the baseline of the systems in line with the company’s activities. This will help in identifying the weakness that the systems have and also to ensure that the company can establish the minimal operations to expect when dealing with the new system. This will use the data that the company has currently and is operating on to run the tests for the systems. (Kaufman, Kaufman 2005)

This test will be in line with the load testing as it seeks to establish the traffic and the size of data that the systems can handle. It is also going to measure the stressors and the regressing point of the systems. This is where a system if overloaded either by having the maximum number of users logged onto it or a huge amount of data being found on the systems. The test will help in evaluating was in ways to improve the capacity of the systems and also how to increase its speed.

Through the performance test, the company will be able to know how many users the systems is going to handle and whether it’s going to require a parallel system to help in catering with excess data and users.

References

Banks, J. (2001). Discrete-event system simulation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kaufman, P. J., & Kaufman, P. J. (2005). New trading systems and methods. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Nguyen, H. Q. (2001). Testing applications on the Web: Test planning for Internet-based systems. New York: Wiley.

Outsourcing. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/Op-Qu/Outsourcing.html

Successful Data Migration. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/oedq/successful-data-migration-wp-1555708.pdf

Tilly, S., & Rosenblatt, H. (2016). System Analysis and Design (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Wikipedia. (2016). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_documentation