Assignment title: Information


You will continue the project this week by further examining critical issues of the project and submitting the second part of the group project The premise of the Assignment: Eindhoven Horticulture is a small and upcoming enterprise located in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. It is running a farm and selling its produce locally. This company is interested in expanding its tulip and vegetable business by exporting its produce into international markets in parts of Europe and East Asia where demand is high for this type of produce. The plan is to add a small IT workforce of six members to install and support a computer network and software that will be used by the company to report on the status of the harvest and then sell and ship produce quickly to their international customers. This system must report real-time status of the crops to customers through the company Web site, make sales transactions through the company Web site, report business transactions to the organisation's accounting systems and integrate with international shipping providers systems. The IT workforce will consist of: • Four hardware/software specialists who work developing the networked system installing appropriate hardware and software so that the system is ready for use in a six-month deadline. • Two IT-knowledgeable generalists who are deployed in the farm with tablet computers and/or mobile phones to report the state of the harvest. When produce is ready, it will be shipped quickly to customers where demand is high. To complete this Group Assignment: Assume that the IT project was successful and that business opportunity has substantially increased for Eindhoven Horticulture. Now, the IS/IT systems infrastructure and IT workforce have to be expanded. The company is looking at two options, either inshoring the IS/IT infrastructure software development or outsourcing the IS/IT infrastructure software development to an organisation outside of the country. To complete this Group Assignment: • Critically analyse the options of outsourcing and inshoring of this project. Describe the collaborative challenges presented in each of the two options and how they can be met. Assuming that the project manager is interested in both the synchronous and asynchronous collaborative tools shown in Figure 3 of the Weeks 5 and 6 Lecture Notes: Explain how they can be used and the pros and cons of using them.