Abundant Produce Limited Organization

Introduction

Project management is an important part of every organization. It is a kind of art that helps the companies to manage their various kinds and sizes of projects in effective and efficient manner. The present research is based on project management and to understand the following concept, ABUNDANT PRODUCE LIMITED organization case is taking in to the consideration. Firm is listing in Australian Stock Exchange. The cited company is dealing in the agriculture area where Abundant Produce develops Australia’s world class agri-science research into commercially valuable intellectual property (About us, 2016). In the present time, organization has faced the issue related to no integration between all the departments. It has affected overall business operational activities and other areas. In this context, it has planned to introduce ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) at the workplace to deal with the problem.

Project Background

As per the current situation, it has determined that ABUNDANT PRODUCE LIMITED functional activities have not integrated with each other. It has affected the overall working of the organization. By this problem, the management has taken initiative to adopt a new system that can able to integrate all functional areas. This project will fit into the existing program and deliver various benefits to the organization.

Measurable Objective

• To develop and implement high quality advance ERP system within the five month at the cost that will not exceed ‎$ 160, 000.

• To deliver some basis features such as Financial, Human Resource, Manufacturing, Inventory and Material Management, Suppliers and Purchase Order and CRM management.

• To enhance overall productivity of the organization by 20% till June 2017.

• To improve decision making process of departments.

• To minimize operational costs and managing day to day activities.

Current Situation

The current situation of ABUNDANT PRODUCE LIMITED has stated that there has a less real time information available for the company to take decision within the respect of business. Due to this, organization has unable to keep control over the cost and manage the current financial resource. Along with this, the existing system has not able to maintain the accurate records of all kind of information.

Problem Statement

In the context of Abundant Produce Limited, it has found from the investigation that there is not a single and integrated system present in the organization that can able to align all work in a one system. With the aim of this, it has planned to implement or introduce ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) within the workplace (Burke, 2013).

Critical Assumptions And Constraints

• ERP system will be developed to the specifications and designs as per the mention requirements of Abundant Produce Limited.

• Working timing on project work will limited to Monday through Friday, 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.

Analysis Of Options And Recommendations

There are various options available in front of Abundant Produce Limited. These are CRM (customer relationship management), SAP, MAP (marketing automation platform), PIM (product information management), CMS (content management system) and ERP (enterprise resource planning). But as per the needs and requirements of cited company, the suitable option is ERP. The reason of selecting the following one is able to take right decision with real time information, accurate data recording, managing and controlling over cost, enhance operational productivity etc.

Preliminary Project Requirements

• Client or server requirements that can allow hosting of resources, systems connected with networking devices etc.

• Database systems with the features of structured query language that can able to directly access the data from the database, transaction mechanism that enable access of data, triggers to initiate actions etc.

• Different development tools like Visual Basic.net or C#.net.

Budget Estimation And Financial Analysis

The budget for major activities of ERP project is showing in below table.

Categories		Cost in ‎$
Software costs	Application	1500
	Software	2500
	Additional 3rd party software	600
	Database software	180
Hardware costs
	Application server	800
	Others items	1000
Network costs
	Cabling	500
	Racks	400
	Routers	450
	Switching devices	800
Employee compensation	Salary	100,000
	Bonus and commissions	6000
	Employee incentives	5000
Other expenses		30,000
Total/strong>		149730

Schedule Estimation Including Assigned Resources

The ERP Project for Abundant Produce Limited has contained an action plan which has included several lists of events. The preliminary scheduling of the project plan including with assigned resources is showing in below table.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names
ERP System development	147 days	Tue 1/3/17	Wed 7/26/17
Initiation	10 days	Tue 1/3/17	Mon 1/16/17
Problem recognition	3 days	Tue 1/3/17	Thu 1/5/17		Project manager, Project consultant
Selection of project	5 days	Fri 1/6/17	Thu 1/12/17	3	Project manager
Overview of organization structure and culture	2 days	Fri 1/13/17	Mon 1/16/17	4	Project consultant, Project manager
Planning	28 days	Tue 1/17/17	Thu 2/23/17
Defining the project	3 days	Tue 1/17/17	Thu 1/19/17	5	Project manager
Estimation of project time and costs	8 days	Fri 1/20/17	Tue 1/31/17	7	Financial manager, Project manager
Developing project plan	12 days	Fri 1/20/17	Mon 2/6/17	7	Project consultant, Project manager
Managing risks	5 days	Tue 2/7/17	Mon 2/13/17	8,9	Project manager, Risk assessor
Scheduling resources	8 days	Tue 2/14/17	Thu 2/23/17	10	Project manager
Implementation	80 days	Fri 2/24/17	Thu 6/15/17
Develop different modules	50 days	Fri 2/24/17	Thu 5/4/17	11	IT engineer, Project manager, Software developer
Integration of all modules	20 days	Fri 5/5/17	Thu 6/1/17	13	Project manager, Software developer
Testing	10 days	Fri 6/2/17	Thu 6/15/17	14	Project consultant, Project manager, Quality analyst, Software developer
Monitoring and review	19 days	Fri 6/16/17	Wed 7/12/17
Review project	5 days	Fri 6/16/17	Thu 6/22/17	15	IT engineer, Project consultant, Project manager, Risk assessor, Software developer
Taking corrective actions	8 days	Fri 6/23/17	Tue 7/4/17	17	Project consultant, Project manager, Quality analyst ,Software developer
Ensuring quality	6 days	Wed 7/5/17	Wed 7/12/17	18	Project manager, Quality analyst
Project Closer	10 days	Thu 7/13/17	Wed 7/26/17
Project documentation	5 days	Thu 7/13/17	Wed 7/19/17	19	Project consultant, Project manager
Releasing of resources	3 days	Thu 7/20/17	Mon 7/24/17	21	Project consultant, Project manager
Sign off of project	2 days	Tue 7/25/17	Wed 7/26/17	22	Project consultant, Project manager

Potential Risks

Every project contains several risks which negatively hamper the outcomes and deliverables of the project work. In the context of ERP project for Abundant Produce Limited, project manager has appointed a Risk Assessor that can able to determine the best possible hazards in the plan and their impacts on entire working plan (Azimi and et.al., 2011). From the risk assessment, there are five types of risks in development of ERP project which are as follows: New and unproven technologies: In general, majority software projects needed the application of use of new technologies. In the ever changing tools, methods, techniques, standards, protocols and increase the requirement of system developments have increased the risks related to technology. In the case of ERP project for Abundant Produce Limited, the changes of occurrence of this type of problem has raised because improper use of technologies have lead directly to failure of project (Hazır, 2015). Users and functional requirements: At the time of development of a project, it becomes important to consider the all requirements of the users such as system features, functions, and quality of service. In the case of ERP project of Abundant Produce Limited, users and functional requirements risk has occurred because at the time of development different modules and their integration, the client requirements have varied along with the new system functioning (Meredith and Mantel Jr, 2011). Application and system architecture: The less understanding towards application and system architecture of new ERP system for Abundant Produce Limited, it has increased the risk for the entire project. This has moved the plan in the opposite direction which may affect the overall outcomes of activities (Müller and et.al., 2013). Performance: It becomes most important to ensure to measure the performance of the project as per the expectations and set performance criteria. By considering the case study of Abundant Produce Limited, project manager has not developed some performance methods to evaluate the effectiveness of entire plan. The overall impact of this has made on the functioning of the plan and its deliverables (Kerzner, 2013). Rather than the above stated risks, some other occurred risks in ERP project has resource allocation, improper communication, unavailability of skilled staff, ineffective scheduling of the plan, scope creep etc (Mar, 2013). To overcome all these risks along with their impacts on action plan, the project manager has adopted the risk management plan which has as follows:

Objective	Probability
Impact		VL	L	M	H	VH
	VH	Developing the wrong user interface		Insufficient QA time	Difficulty integrating work	Unrealistic schedules and budgets
	H	Inadequate staff available	Loss of a team member	Developing the wrong functions and properties	New, unproven technologies.
	M	Lack of exposure		User and functional requirements	Real-time performance shortfalls	Lack of communication
	L		Common meeting times			Application and system architecture
	VL	Scope creep			Performance

Conclusion

From the research, it can be concluded that Abundant Produce Limited has faced a serious issue related to less integration of all departments of the organization. It has affected the overall productivity of the firm. Along with this, departments have depended on each other and sometimes, miscommunication between them has existed. To resolve them, it has decided to develop and implement Enterprise Resource Planning. The estimated time for completion of plan has 5 months but it has been completed within the 4 and half months. Along with this, estimated costing was ‎$ 160, 000 but the proposed project has contained only $149,730 cost.

References

• Azimi, R. & et.al. (2011), A framework for an automated and integrated project monitoring and control system for steel fabrication projects.Automation in Construction.20(1). pp. 88-97.

• Burke, R. (2013),Project management: planning and control techniques. SAGE.

• Gemünden, H. G., Huemann, M. & Martinsuo, M. (2013), Project management: A social innovation that is changing our world of thinking and acting. International Journal of Project Management.6(31). pp. 791-793.

• Hazır, Ö. (2015), A review of analytical models, approaches and decision support tools in project monitoring and control.International Journal of Project Management.33(4). pp. 808-815.

• Kerzner, H. R. (2013),Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

• Meredith, J. R. & Mantel Jr, S. J. (2011).Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons.