Case study- B9IS110 Information Systems & Project Management – Director of IT for a UK-based retailer of mobile phones

Assessment Task

Read the following case study and address the tasks given in groups:

You are Director of IT for a UK-based retailer of mobile phones that has just completed the takeover of a small Irish chain that will add 40 stores to the existing UK figure of 200.  While the UK ICT infrastructure is quite modern, the Irish systems are in need of investment.

Many of the Irish stores are not online in the modern sense.  Some use a thin client for subscriber and product data, while most just use the phone to transact business.  Fax remains widely used.  While Internet is available for browsing, true Internet-enabled applications and real time data are not available. New GDPR rules and Brexit are also causing a potential headache.

In the UK most branches have broadband connections with a 50/50 mixture of a Citrix off the shelf system and bespoke web-based applications.  This has occurred due to prior mergers and acquisitions and had led to a system that can be best described as ad-hoc and heterogeneous.

With the Head of Finance, you have been asked to study the feasibility of moving the entire organization to one access platform while retaining the current server-side architecture or another alternate solution. You are also charged with exploring the potential for an enterprise solution to facilitate organisational transparency and improve decision making.   Systems that would facilitate more effective customer monitoring regarding customer retention and the potential for product / service cross-selling and up-selling should also be explored. If such a move is considered feasible, a full project plan will be required.

Assessment Requirements

For this assessment you will form into project teams of 2 members and use Harvard style referencing.

Summative Assessment

• Request for Proposal

For the purposes of this consultancy exercise (assignment) you need to demonstrate an understanding of certain Information Systems & Project Management concepts and methods. Additionally, you must be able to convince the client you are the best team to undertake this contract. You are competing against the other teams undertaking this course and you will be ranked, in order, accordingly.

Assume that this is a Request for Proposal (RFP) and you are a team of project consultants.  As a project team, you are required to formulate an all-inclusive, professionally presented offer document that must be as inclusive as necessary for the work to be undertaken. At a minimum level, it should include:

• The basis of your knowledge to undertake this work.
• Brief biological profiles of your team.
• Document the key systems requirements for the business in Ireland. Ensure that the system is capable of supporting in-house applications for customer and product data; rich Internet applications that can exploit the potential of broadband; and be mindful that the server-side applications will change and merge over time.
• You proposal should also include detailed recommendations for future system functionality.
• Prepare a formal Project Implementation Plan for the management of the migration including at a very minimum:
  • Detailed Requirement classifications, development life-cycle, Critical Success factors, WBS, fully labelled network diagram, detailed budgets, resource plans, risk analysis, procurement strategy, stakeholder management plan, change control system, and other elements as required and appropriate.
  • Illustrate your project plan with graphics, network diagrams (do not use MS Project), graphs, etc as appropriate.