Get-Revved Project Business Case

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Developed by 27/12/2018Page 1 of 28

Way To Success Pty LtdProject Management FIT5057

Get-Revved Project Business Case


Exec Summary

This Business Case document covers the scope of the Get-Revved project, defines the selected solution delivery option and project lifecycle approach and justifies the project from the strategic benefits point of view along with the Cost vs Benefits analysis.

Time and certainty of delivery are identified as major business constraints. Together with the analysis of the CarPart Productions business background and market situation they are used to prioritise the recognised business drivers. The “sales expansion in existing and new markets achieved via centralised sales tracking, reporting and projections” driver is selected as the primary driver and is to be addressed by the Get-Revved project. Limiting the scope of the project around this driver allows to achieve immediate results critical to business in the current market environment. On the other hand, the project is to form the foundation and make the first step towards the broader strategic business transformation.

It is assumed that more functional features addressing other identified business drivers will be added to the initial Get-Revved deployment in a series of consecutive phases (waves) with each of them delivering new technical capabilities and associated business process changes. Implementation of these technical and organisational changes is to ensure the company’s vision of “customer satisfaction by delivering their product at the right time, in right place, and at the right price” and to allow CarPart Productions to achieve its goals in the challenging commercial environments.

A cloud based SaaS ERP system delivered by the vendor known for its focus on SaaS and automotive industry – Plex Manufacturing is chosen as the solution delivery option. The Waterfall model is chosen to manage the Get-Revved project. To achieve the best outcome the Waterfall approach is extended with elements of the V-model and agile style methodologies. Altogether, this should help to decrease delivery time and improve quality of the solution.

Project Management Plan is developed in accordance with the selected project lifecycle and then translated in the work breakdown structure that is used for the Duration/Effort analysis and Costs vs Benefits estimations. It is demonstrated that the Get-Revved solution is financially justified on its own with a reasonable positive NPV of the project’s cash flow. The outcome of the Cost vs Benefits estimations along with the fact that the proposed solution is completely in line with the CarPart Productions business agenda and IT strategy allows to come to the conclusion that the project is worth pursuing.

Contents

1.Introduction

1.2Purpose

1.3Scope

1.4Audience

1.5Limitations and Constraints

2.Project Background

3.Get-Revved Project

3.1Identification of Options and Options Analysis

3.2Immediate Scope Justification

3.3Broader Strategic Fit

4.Project Lifecycle

5.Project Management Plan

5.1Project phases and activities

5.2Work breakdown structure

6.Expected Costs vs Benefits

7.Summary

References

Appendix A. Project Gantt chart

Appendix B. Team Project plan

Appendix C. Meeting minutes

  1. Introduction

1.2Purpose

This Business Case document covers the scope of the Get-Revved project and justification of the option chosen for the proposed solution. It also explains how the solution is going to be delivered by describing the intended implementation methodology, high level project management plan and expected costs and benefits.

1.3Scope

The Get-Revved project will introduce a solution based on a vendor Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software system delivered in Cloud as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

In the interest of the fastest solution delivery and minimising delivery risks, scope of the Get-Revved project will be significantly limited in breadth and depth (in comparison with general all-inclusive ERP offerings).

The project is to deliver a solution that directly aligns with the primary strategic driver of expanding sales in existing and new markets. This will be achieved by introducing centralised sales tracking, sales reporting and sales projections functionality that provides for standard business processes and full consistent visibility of sales across the organisation. CarParts Production needs these capabilities for early identification of commercial opportunities required for maintaining and development of their competitive advantages.

As such, the breadth of the solution introduced by the project will be limited to the Sales and Order Management functional area of the ERP system. The depth of the solution will be limited to the modules delivering sales tracking, reporting and projections functions. Business process changes required to make full use of introduced functionality and realise project’s benefits will be developed by the project.

1.4Audience

CarPart Productions Board of Directors

Business Case sponsor:

  • [Name, Position]

CarPart Productions business stakeholders:

  • Sales – [Name, Position]
  • Finance – [Name, Position]
  • Manufacturing – [Name, Position]

CarPart Productions IT stakeholders:

  • [Name, Position]
  • [Name, Position]

1.5Limitations and Constraints

  1. Business constraints
  • Time of delivery (due to the current pressure on the company’s market share, business value associated with the project’s scope needs to be delivered in the fastest possible time, no more than 6 months)
  • Certainty of delivery (need to minimise risks that may jeopardise successful delivery of the project’s scope)

1.5.2Technology constraints

  • Multiple offices and centres in different geographical locations, including oversees (i.e. China) need to be served by a centralised solution
  • As the project’s scope does not cover all functional areas relevant to various business processes, the new system is to co-exist with the legacy IT systems for a period of time. Ease and flexibility of further functional areas migration to the new system in the short to mid-term future are to be considered by the Get-Revved solution.
  • Information currently stored in the existing IT systems is to be gradually migrated into the new centralised system along with the migration of functional areas reliant on this information. Ease, flexibility and data loss avoidance for information migration are to be considered.
  • Need to serve different groups of users with various levels of computer literacy, need to consider the solution implementation impacts – on inexperienced and casual users in particular

Due to the strict “time of delivery” constraint, it is the business sponsor requirement to accelerate the vendor selection process and avoid engagement of potential vendors in a formal RFI/RFP process.

  1. Project Background

CarPart Productions considers a business improvement project codenamed “Get-Revved”.

CarPart Productions is a manufacturer of specialised car parts with the head office in Melbourne and sales offices, manufacturing plants and distribution centres in Melbourne and Fremantle, WA. Traditionally, the company has been selling parts to car manufacturers and vehicle maintenance and service companies. Manufacturing division in China with a small sales and distribution centre has been recently added to the portfolio and the company wants to expand further into the subcontinent.

The company’s domestic market niche is currently under pressure from a number of competitors aggressively expanding their operations. This situation along with the overall decrease of the domestic market due to car manufacturers leaving Australia requires an immediate response.[1]

CarPart Productions sees expansion to the new overseas markets as one part of this response. The other part of the response is to do with optimising domestic and the overall operations by consolidating information and business processes for better efficiencies. At the moment all separate offices, distribution centres and manufacturing plants of CarPart Productions are acting pretty much as independent companies with separate processes and information flows. Together with the currently disparate IT systems lacking flexibility and scalability, this significantly affects the company’s ability to protect its market niche and provide for the strategic growth. Addition of the overseas operations with rapid and significant growth potential coupled with high aspirations only stresses the urgent need for consolidation of information assets, process standardisation and centralisation of various business functions.

A number of main business drivers were identified by Sales, Finance and Manufacturing departments to focus on for the next 3 to 5 years as follows.

  1. Increase customer loyalty and engagement via:

1)ability for all departments and regions to retrieve and update customer information using a central repository of master customer files

2)ability to generate a single consolidated set of financial accounts and provide for global and region specific financial reporting to make informed holistic decisions

  1. Continually expand sales in both existing and new markets via:

1)ability to visualize the global sales picture and provide projections of future growth by tracking sales and reporting on sales in a centralised and consistent way across the entire organization

  1. Leverage new technologies to achieve higher agility in dealings with customers and suppliers via:

1)ability to determine stock levels and plant capacity, place orders and generate invoices ad hoc and outside the office (i.e. providing support for portable devices)

2)ability for smaller customers to make ad hoc orders using an online sales portal (i.e. providing B2B IT capabilities)

Based on the conducted analysis, “sales expansion in existing and new markets” (point B-1 above) is considered to be the primary strategic business driver. Therefore, the Get-Revved project will focus on the appropriate solution to address this business driver. Other identified business drivers are expected to be addressed in mid-term based on the success of this project and the foundations laid by its technology solution.

The new technology solution is defined at high level through the options analysis in Section 3 of this document. In general, it is seen as a prerequisite and catalyst for the overall organisational change vital for the anticipated business improvement.

  1. Get-Revved Project

3.1Identification of Options and Options Analysis

The following options have been identified for the Get-Revved solution:

  • Option 1 – Maintain existing IT systems and address current issues exclusively via business process adjustments, i.e. no IT changes
  • Option 2 – Introduce limited IT changes to the existing systems to support possible business process changes
  • Option 3 – Build a new IT system
  • Option 4 – Buy a new IT system

Options 1 and 2 focus on business process changes (with limited auxiliary changes to the existing IT systems in Option 2). They may provide small tactical benefits and be relatively quick to deliver, but will not be able to improve the current situation significantly. Most of the existing problems caused by the currently de-centralised and disparate systems will persist. Going the way of small system/process improvements is likely to be a costly exercise in a longer run and will not take CarParts Productions much closer to its strategic goals.

Options 3 and 4 shift the focus to considerable IT changes and introduction of the new IT system that will lay foundations for relevant business process changes to achieve strategic business improvement. Identified business drivers clearly indicate that one of these options to be selected.

High level functional requirements suggested by the business drivers indicate that deploying an ERP software system is going to be a good fit for the CarParts Productions transformation agenda. A typical ERP system may cover the following functional areas that, as indicated by the identified business drivers, present a significant interest for CarPart Productions:

  • Customer Relationship Management, CRM (depending on a particular vendor terminology it is sometimes considered as part of broader Customer and Sales Management area)
  • Production and Supply Chain Management
  • Financial Management
  • Sales and Order Management (depending on a particular vendor terminology it is sometimes considered as part of broader CRM area that covers marketing, sales and service activities)
  • e-Commerce capabilities supporting B2B and B2C types of transactions (depending on a particular vendor terminology it is sometimes considered as part of broader Customer and Sales Management area)

Some other functional areas often provided by ERP products also include Human Resource Management, Quality and Compliance Management, Planning and Scheduling, Business Analytics and Collaboration, etc.

Terminology and the way particular functional modules are grouped into broader functional areas slightly vary from vendor to vendor, but the core functional offering is rather consistent across the different ERP products. Multiple vendors currently provide well established ERP solutions of various breadth and depth including solutions specifically tailored for particular industries and companies of different size and organisational structure. [2][3]

The current state of the ERP products market along with the Get-Revved business constraints of quick and certain delivery justify selection of Option 4 – buying a new IT system rather than building one. It is also understood that out of the On-Premises, Cloud (Hardware-as-a-Service) and Cloud (Software-as-a-Service, SaaS) deployment options SaaS would be the quickest way to deliver the required solution in the most cost effective and flexible way. SaaS delivery will also allow to avoid adding a burden of the new system maintenance and support to the CarParts Productions IT department.

Though CarParts Productions clearly operates as a multi-entity organisation (and will stay on this path in line with its overseas expansion intensions), a Single-instance ERP system is thought to be appropriate for its size and organisational structure. This aligns well with the SaaS deployment method and will allow to avoid complexities inevitably associated with a Federated approach (an alternative to Single-instance). Multiple ERP instances for different “entities” would necessitate introduction of data synchronisation mechanisms adding to the cost and time of the implementation. Moreover (and most importantly), this would have a potential to undermine the main driver of the CarProducts Productions business transformation – urgent need for consolidation and standardisation of its information flows and operational processes.

In line with the strict “time of delivery” business constraint, understanding of the ERP market landscape and product characteristics considered important for the Get-Revved solution, vendor selection was performed based on the publicly available information (i.e. without engaging potential vendors in a formal RFI/RFP process). Vendors considered for the delivery of a Single-instance SaaS based ERP system serving multiple entities in different geographical locations were initially shortlisted to SAP (Business ByDesign product) and Plex Manufacturing Cloud. [4][5][6][7][8]Both vendors’ products were seen as appropriate and mainly comparable for addressing the project’s functional aspects. However, Plex experience in and undivided commitment to ERP SaaS delivery, coupled with the product’s roots in the automotive industry and a number of known success stories for efficient delivery to manufacturing companies with the structure of similar size and complexity eventually swayed the selection decision. See Appendix 1 for further information. Plex has been selected as a vendor for the Get-Revved solution.

A short proof-of-concept (POC) exercise is considered for an initial stage of the project to verify the selection. Apart from this, outcomes of POC are expected to provide some further information that is to assist with the preparation of the detailed solution requirements.

The following items are in scope and to be delivered by the Get-Revved project:

  • POC for the selected product

Apart from confirming the functional fit for addressing requirements of the prioritised “sales expansion in existing and new markets” business driver, POC is to demonstrate that the product is suitable for delivery on wider CarParts Productions business transformation intentions (i.e. other business drivers in further phases/waves of the transformation initiative).

  • SaaS implementation of the chosen ERP product to provide for the following functional modules (Sales and Order Management area) in a centralised and consistent way across the entire organization:
  • Central sales tracking that is to:
  • allow capturing information consistently in different geographical locations across the entire organisation
  • be configurable and provide for capturing additional information if required by applicable rules and regulations in the relevant overseas markets
  • Sales reporting that is to:
  • provide for and enforcing a standard set of repots being produced across various offices and regions
  • be configurable and provide for producing additional reports if required by applicable rules and regulations in the relevant overseas markets
  • Projections of future sales growth per region and product

Functional modules mentioned above are to provide ability to visualize the global sales picture that will allow early identification of commercial opportunities required for sales protection and expansion in existing and new markets. This is the primary strategic driver of the CarParts Productions transformation initiative and the one to be addressed by the Get-Revved project.

  • Development of new business processes based on the new IT capabilities – introduced functional modules
  • Amendment of the existing business processes (where appropriate) based on the new IT capabilities – introduced functional modules
  • User training for the introduced functional modules in line with the relevant new or amended business processes
  • Data migration and transition to the new system for the introduced functional modules

The following items are not in scope and will not be delivered by the Get-Revved project:

  • Formal RFI/RFP process for vendor and product selection
  • Any other functional areas of the selected ERP product apart from the explicitly mentioned in scope above
  • Any other functional modules of the selected ERP product apart from the explicitly mentioned in scope above
  • Any specific CRM components that may be seen as part of broader Sales and Order Management functional area unless they are natively included in the delivered Sales modules explicitly mentioned in scope above
  • Development of new business processes apart from those directly linked to the functional modules introduced by the solution
  • Changes to any existing business processes apart from those directly linked to the functional modules introduced by the solution
  • Roadmaps and/or detailed plans for introducing any further functional areas and functional modules of the selected ERP product
  • Roadmaps and/or detailed plans for migration to the new ERP system of information and processes that are linked to those further functional areas and functional modules

3.2Immediate Scope Justification