1. Project description
In the previous paper, I had proposed to the company a project that would help it in achieving its set goals. The company initially had put forward some new strategies that they were to be implement so that the company’s productivity and would be improved. The strategies included; introducing warehousing services to the company so that they could help the local customers in the region who wanted to reduce the delivery time and pick their products whenever they wanted as well as provide pick-ups, secondly the company had aspired to improve loaded mile percentage in their transportation fleet so as to contribute in the reduction of costs through pick-up and delivery coordination of freight (Connolly, ; Begg, 2005) and simultaneously in the same geographic locations and their third strategy was that the company wanted to improve the customer services by tracking for them their freight right from the time it reaches their terminals and through the transportation by their truck fleets thus giving their customers real-time information on that. Due to these strategies imposed I thought it was better and advantageous to the company if they will adopt the using of the warehousing management systems. This system will provide warehousing management as well as keep record of the inventory in the warehousing. It will be able to give details of goods leaving the warehouse and through which truck so that the customer can be updated on the whereabouts of their products.
2. Strategic alignment
He Company introduced new strategies that were to be adopted and were open to any ideas on new systems that would be used in the company that would enable the achieving of the goals and objectives. The strategies were aimed at improving customer services and satisfaction as well as the reduction of costs and therefore the warehousing management systems are a perfect system that the company should adopt and use in the business. This is because not only does it align with the set strategies of the company but also it provides an integrative system (Bowersox, Closs, ; Cooper, 2002) that comprises of many components or rather subsystems that will prove advantageous to the company. They also are easy to use and thus won’t require much of training. The warehousing management systems are capable of providing tracking of goods that are to enter the warehouse and those that leave which will align with the strategy of tracking the freight of customers from the terminals to when it would meet them and also they will provide storage of the freight and customers who want to acquire their products without being delayed by the delivery system of the company could go to the warehouse and b providing the right documents then they will get their products when they want them. And by providing the tracking services, truck drivers can simplify the delivery and pick-up procedures they were using making it efficient for them to deliver and pick-up freight to and from customers respectively (Bowersox, Closs, & Cooper, 2002).
3. IT portfolio Alignment
The proposed project (Warehousing management system) will also be able to perform some accounting functions that will provide financial statements of how the warehousing services are doing. The warehousing management systems can integrate the Accurate Financial Management system, an IT strategy that the CIO had come up with to replace the old financial systems in place and provide better financial operations. Also the financial reports from the warehouse management system can be used by the Management Reporting system (Connolly, & Begg, 2005) which is used by the executives of the company to track the daily financial performance of the company. Therefore the warehousing management systems would be aligning to some of the IT strategies of the company putting the company at a greater strategic and competitive position. Looking at the strategic and operational importance of this system I would recommend that it be included in the first phase of the development plan, if possible during the implementation of the Accurate Financial Management Systems, Management Reporting systems (Connolly, & Begg, 2005).
4. IT architecture
The system will be integrated with the other system making it one big system with subsystems. The system also designed in a way that will be interactive to the customer and the comparisons with other companies will be clear and self-understandable (Connolly, & Begg, 2005).
5. Benefits
The warehousing management systems will be beneficial to the FWDC Company in several ways. The fact that it will integrate the delivery and pick-ups of freight from customers who are in the same geographical area by the driver of the FWDC fleet will reduce on the costs that were incurred during the use of the routing system (Connolly, & Begg, 2005). Also the time take for delivery and making pick-ups will be reduced making operations more efficient. By using the warehouse systems in the proposed warehouse, then it will become easier for the company to be able to keep track of how inventory enter and leaves the company. The system will reduce the cumbersome and tiring work the book keepers have in record keeping of the freight that enters the terminal and coordinating for it to be transported as once freight is cleared on the terminals then it will be registered in the warehouse management systems and thus making it easier for them. The mobile marketing app was to include the services offered by the company including a photo gallery for their flee (Bowersox, Closs, & Cooper, 2002) t so that the customers could view the whole package that FWDC was offering and since the warehousing management system acts as an integrative systems for all the systems in the company, they can use the information on the website in designing the mobile which will give the customers the access to the website and look at the services offered. Another benefit that the warehousing management system will provide is the ability of customers to be able to track the whereabouts of their products.
Benefit Alignment to IT strategy Alignment to business strategy
Reduced costs Need for an integrative system Efficiency in delivery and pick-up procedures
Customer satisfaction Mobile marketing app Customers able to track their products
Warehousing services Warehousing systems Providing warehouses for customers who were inconvenienced by the delivery and pick-up systems
Fast delivery Freight tracking systems Cost reduction on loaded mileage
6. Requirements
The organization is in need of a system that will integrate all other systems and also a way to come up with a marketing app which the customers will use in showing the services offered by FWDC Company and be able to track their products on their whereabouts. The business requires this system to be able to monitor the tracking systems (Connolly, & Begg, 2005) and also enable the customers to track on the whereabouts of the freight. The IT requirements are that the system protected by firewalls so that the information cannot be used maliciously. Also they expect the system to record the incoming and outgoing freight from terminals and to the customers respectively, be able to provide financial statements for the operations of the business on a daily basis, provide tracking systems and logistics (Bowersox, Closs, & Cooper, 2002) analysis, the system is also expected to provide labor management features and back up and integration features. The system itself is expected to be automated and fully computerized.
Requirement Business/ IT/ system requirements
Automated and computerized System requirement
Tracking analysis features IT requirement
Labor management Business and IT requirement
Logistics features IT requirement
Back up and integration IT requirement
Customer satisfaction Business requirement
Data protection System and IT requirement
7. Cost estimation
Assessment of project size and complexity
Size/ complexity small medium Very large
Complex $2000 $3500 $5000
Moderately complex $1100 $1200 $2500
straightforward $800 $1200 $1500
In the table above, the colored row is the cost estimation for the project which includes buying of the software and another related instruments needed to make it working efficiently
8. Performance measures
Benefit to business Measure
Customer satisfaction Number of app downloads
Reduced costs Loaded miles costs
Improved efficiency Truck drivers delivery and pick-up patterns
9. System development
This section will describe how the system will be developed which is done through the five stages below;
Plan
The funds for the purchase of the systems will be acquired and the system will be bought from a vendor off the shelf supplier
Design
Then the program will be taken to our programmers, tow of the nine to design the program to meet our specific company requirements and put up special coding and firewalls for data protection.
Build
The program the will be build according to the specified requirements.
Test
The system will be checked for errors before it is used and if any errors are found they are to be corrected before the company start using the system.
Launch
When the programmers and their team are satisfied that the system is bug proof then it is launched for the company to start using