ASSESSMENT UNIT BSBADM504 PART A Question 1 The main objective is to have an efficient and effective administration system; in this way it can be more reliable and relevant and enable the organization to its time frames and maintain quality standards. Question 2 Formal methods of requesting a quote can include: -Request for tender; this is common used for larger projects where several highly qualified providers are expected to bid. Tenders are detailed and methodical documents that outline the organization's specific requirements. A tender process can take months or years depending on the level of detail and work required -Request for quotation; these are more common in small-scale system changes or changes in small to medium enterprises. Documentation outlining all the project specifications, objectives and standards required for the work is usually faxed, emailed or posted to the organization. Question 3 -Antidiscrimination; it is prohibited to discriminate against a supplier based on age, sex, race, physical ability or health. Antidiscrimination laws establish penalties for unjustified discrimination in the awarding of external contract business -Business ethics; these covers the common and statutory laws of contracts ad the moral compass applied to business dealing. It can include timely payment, carrying out work to an acceptable standard and awarding new business to suppliers without prejudice -Privacy laws; privacy requirements for individuals may apply to contract negotiations and corporation law will apply concerning company property and secrets -Copyright and IP; outsourcing can often require reliance on ongoing maintenance contracts based on strict ownership principles. Additionally, software can not be copied or re-used without permission -WHS legislation; Clear guidelines for the safe operation of equipment or use of the workspace must be made clear to contractor. Question 4 -Cost consideration; it may be lees expensive to make the changes with internal staff expertise -Productive use of internal knowledge and experience; that is using existing idle capacity -Design secrecy; a requirement to protect proprietary technology. Question 5 In order to maintain the confidence of staff member when implementing change I would: -Involve the use of influential members within workgroups to act as 'change agents ' to support the project -Ensure clear and precise direction from all levels of management Have open communication with change facilitators -Offers formal feedback and testing opportunities. I would also invite staff to make suggestions to improve their current working environment. Other things that I might do as well are: -Planning temporary reductions or increasing in workload for those who are involved -Re-defining staff roles and re-distributing tasks -Trial or testing the new system. Question 6 If the implementation of the new system has proven problematic I would ensure the it has minimal impact by: -Performing a risk analysis on the system implementation and identifying the main causes of implementation issues, those contingencies can be identified by: Estimating total project costs, validation of the outcomes of the option, designing and implementing performance-based standards for each area identified and planning for the contingencies by including communication system for all problems and issues for instance; a technical helpline, a project manger hotline, a blog /online forum for all staff -Ensuring that users have confidence with the new system implementation. Question 7 Monitoring involves checking that all systems are functioning efficiently; all users (of inputs and outputs) are satisfied with the level of ease of operation and the documented information obtained and security is effectively maintained through antivirus software and storage procedures: Details reports live monitoring capabilities, useful data to managers and security personnel. Question 8 I would investigate new technologies: -When the nature and purpose of the system has changed -When the users' requirements or needs have changed -When the system size has changed -When new technologies are available. Question 9 I would identify what needs to be done, delegate responsibility to appropriated personnel and notify those changes in roles and responsibilities by: -Personal notification trough the supervisors -Description of new positions (depending of the system) -Notification of retraining. Question 10 I would first preforming a risk analysis on the system implementation project during the planning phase then: -Test the system before is introduced, in case it might prove problematic and make sure that I have backed-up plans when the new system is out of action -Monitor staff morale and identify when I need to provide additional support -Provide additional training to my staff. Question 11 -Updated policy guidelines and procedural manuals to provide a ready reference to new procedures -Professional development opportunities including communities of practice in which share information and help each other, staff irregular events, personal research and study opportunities -Annual or biannual skills assessments of users; that helps to assist in identifying knowledge gaps for future training development -Training handbooks for use within functional areas or by a central training provider (internal or external) -Instruction using electronic media; that can provide consistent, reliable and effective instruction overtime. Question 12 -What are the legalities of purchasing and/or licensing usage of the system? -If the system can be used across multiple sites and multiple users -What laws govern the data ownership if the data is stored on a cloud server? -What laws govern the privacy protection for the use and distribution of personal data? -What are the legal requirements for data retention? -WHS legislation; which means that it is necessary to have clear guidelines for the safe operations of equipment or use of the workspace. Question 13 -Establish the context in which the implementation will occur -Create a learning model that suits the context -Establish critical success factors -Select from a range of tools to facilitate the implementation and monitor progress -Choose the approach that best suits the organization based on the context, the organizational learning culture and the critical success factors that align with the organization's objectives. Question 14 In order to maintain data security managers and every worker who use the system must assume responsibility for the security of commercial and sensitive information. It is important to consider: -Personal logins and passwords; is a common method of ensuring that only authorized personnel have the access to the system and also enable the company to control and monitor how individual use the system -Confidentially and non-disclosure agreements. They are contracts between individuals or groups and the organization that set down the strict usage of confidential corporate knowledge such as; systems, process, research and development, product or service details, personnel details, client details, other policies and procedures. Any element of the business that is considered sensitive to its commercial livelihood can be contained in these agreements. This maintains the secrecy of corporate information -Safeguards; this include virus and spam protections, firewalls and other defenses to outside hackers. However hackers are continually trying to invent new ways around the system that's why is very important the vigilance with respect to the currency of the system protection. ASSESSMENT UNIT BSBADM504 PART B Challenges that BizOps may encounter due to Failure of Software Upgrade The organization may obtain huge faults and malicious attacks if they do not upgrade their software. In addition, it could be that the current software causes systems to crash due to instability. An advancement of this problem would result to loss of data, files and information. The organization may also suffer from data insecurity if they do not have an efficient and effective firewall and anti-spy software chiefly for data security. In this case, unauthorized people would have access to the enterprise data which would place the organization in lower competitive advantage as compared to the potential competitors. Further, if BizOps fail to upgrade their software they would be susceptible to viruses and computer hackers which would result to data losses in case of unauthorized access. Also, organization need to keep up with technological improvement whereby greater functionality is needed to allow efficiency and effectiveness so that production can increase. These challenges will result to no progress and development in the organization and therefore competitors may take course and overthrow BizOps from the market. Survey to assess the requirements of the stuff using OpenOffice Suite BizOps Enterprises needs to utilize the least expenses in the software upgrade. However it is fundamental to identify and understand the basic requirements that will help the employees work efficiently and the business to run its affairs suitably. In this scenario, as the organization fights to acquire a software upgrade in using the OpenOffice suite, the following questionnaires will help the entity to assess the current and future requirements that will be needed to take into practice this software upgrade. 1) What is the financial capital that the organization is willing is use in software upgrade? 2) How many employees working in the organization currently understand how the software functions? 3) How long will it take to train new employees to understand the system? 4) What will be the criteria to understand the number of people who are able to operate the system and those that cannot be able to do that? 5) How long does it take to fully install the software to run the system? 6) Which is the most efficient and suitable operating system to run the system? 7) How will the upgrade influence performance and previous data nature? Expenditure Budgets 3. Preliminary expenditure budgets Option 1. Paying an annual licence for proprietary software Option 2. Continuing to use open source software, OpenOffice Option 3. A combination of using both proprietary software and open source software Option 1. Paying an annual licence for proprietary software Stage Resource Details / Source of information Estimated costs Initial costs Licence Human resource e.g. Information technology technicians (Installation) Information technology trainers $ Physical $ Financial $ Maintenance $ Total amount $ (Assumptions) 1. A licence fee is paid per computer. 2. Technician's hourly rate is $50/hour. Option 2. Continuing to use open source software, OpenOffice Option 3. A combination of using both proprietary software and open source software A budget needs to make assumptions on how the internal and external changes of the business will influence the performance. Taking this into account, software upgrade in BizOps enterprises will be based on the following assumptions: 1) Sales value will remain constant during the implementation and development period of the software upgrade. 2) Administrative costs will reduce by 8% once the upgrade period is over. 3) By the end of the fiscal year, the organization will have reduced inventories by 2% Budgeting is an important part and parcel of business organizations. Enterprises have to budget for their production processes in order to prioritize on what is important to the company. Specialization is important in that it helps entities focus on what they need most and leave aside matters that may not generate income to the company. Budgets are drawn in ambitious manner but yet still have to be realistic in terms of achievement probability levels. Past financial data are taken into account in order to provide a certain picture in mind of what is the expected level of returns to the organization. Budgets also provide a good basis of the financial capital needed to conduct implement the affairs of the organization. Taking this into consideration, BizOps will need an appropriate budget that highlights and explains the approximated level of capital needed to fulfill the organization need (Lomash & Mishra, 2003). According to Classen & American Bar Association (2013) a software license refers to a legal binding agreement that describes and specifies the terms of use for certain software defining the rights of the producer and end-user. State governments use respective organization bodies to oversee that all software applications are legally licensed before they are installed. Purchase orders, receipts, invoices and other relevant documentations must be shown in the process of application and software implementation processes. Vendors and technical support may be in need of proof of purchase during audit and installation process respectively. It is also fundamental for BizOps enterprises to identify the type of licensing needed. However the most common or preferred license is the proprietary license whereby software publishers offers the rights or license to use one or more software copies. Report Recommendations Appraising each of the Available Options The management has put in place three options. Firstly, the option of paying an annual license for proprietary software and the option of continuing to practice the open source software. Thirdly, the option of combining the two options basing to the facts that computer users have different software needs. Taking this into account, I will examine the three options and provide the most appropriate recommendation for BizOps Enterprises. Paying an annual license was considered by the organization due to the insufficient funds for purchasing software licensing outright. This means the organization will have the license for one year after which they will purchase again. Ideally, this will turn up to be an expensive process and the limitation of funds by the organization is a little challenging. The second process entails specializing on the needs of individuals and examining what individual computers need so that the upgrade process can be gradual and following a particular sequence of order. In this way, the organization will be able to grow towards implementation process and at the same time utilize the funds available to for software upgrade. Taking into consideration the three available options, there are various factors needed to be considered in order to come up with the most suitable option. Such include the available income, time and resources constraints. Scrutinizing all measures it is clear that the organization needs software upgrade utilizing the least financial strength. Therefore improving individual computers as according to the needs of the software and application will meet the end user requirements and at the same time make proper use of the available resources effectively. Quotation Specification for supply agreement According to Monczka (2011) a request for quotation in the business arena enables organizations to invite suppliers into a binding process to bid on a specific task. The lowest bidder with the best services wins an agreement with the organization to offer the services under the contract. The following is the quotation specification. BizOps Enterprises Request For Quotation RFQ Specific Information Date of Issuance Deadline for delivery of Quote Contact Persons For Commercial Questions For Technical Questions Terms Delivery Term Payment Term Binding Period of the Quote Quality Requirements Sample Quality Verification Warranty Time Delivery Address Company Name Street Address City & Zip Phone Number Drawing Number Description Quantity Price Document to Appraise Quotations QUOTE APPRAISAL INTRODUCTION SCOPE OF WORK QUALIFICATIONS AND METHOD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 TIME FRAME BID SUBMITTAL MEANS OF SELECTION OTHERS Implementation Plan My preferred option for the upgrade of the office software is the one with both options. It's of importance to consider the specific needs of the computer users so as to increase their capability and efficiency as well as maintaining of costs within the budget. This project plan establishes how and when the office software suit upgrade will be carried out by showing the major milestones, resources and the activities that are needed to meet the established goals. Based on the timelines of the project, it is expected that it will take three months for the implementation of the project. After a rough consideration of all the steps to be involved it is expected that the content inventory which is very important will take 3 weeks. After making the inventory of all my content the other step will be the IA design will take 1 week. This will lead to branding which will as well take a week. The content migration will be expected to take 2 weeks followed by the performance measurement planning which will go on for 2 weeks. The next step is the communication and launch plan. It's an exciting moment since there will be two approaches that will be used. One of them is the pilot approach and the latter one is the complete company launch. The other part is the training which is expected to take 2 weeks. This is expected to be carried out during different times of the implementation process. This will assist the various users in the development of the required skills as well as the support in the use of the new. During the planning stage a consultation strategy will be carried out for informing the staff of the new system. This will enable them to obtain a good understanding of what to expect in the future. This will involve an initial training that will focused on the areas that can be improved and adjusted to fit the operations of the company (Shields,2001) |Risk Management and Assessment Plan The project manager assisted by the support team and sponsors have ensured that the staff loss of access to emails for three or more days have been acknowledged, investigated and managed through the project duration. A data backup plan has been established to ensure that no information gets lost. The earlier systems and the new one will run parallel for one week to ensure a smooth transition to the new era. The existing word processing and slideshow templates may become obsolete and may require a reconstruction. This risk will be assessed, identified and classified by the senior management. This will call for the estimation of the impact in the project. There will be a risk register that will contain five ratings which will include, catastrophic, critical, moderate, minor and negligible. With these impact categories we will consider the cost, scope, and schedule. This will call for a risk response which will crop mitigation strategies that will cost less than risk probabilities. The most likely response to the risks will be to mitigate the risk so as to reduce its impact and probability. A risk contingency plan has been established so as to take care of any adverse risks occurring. The staff computer use efficiency may drop by 50% for the duration that the staff will be acquainting themselves with the new software. The risk has been assessed, identified and classified. We will carry out the impact of the risk to the project. The risk will then be classified in the risk register based on its category. A risk response will be prepared by creating a mitigation strategy that will lead to the reduction on its impact. We will then create a contingency plan that will assist in handling any of the adverse risks that may crop up. The upgrade may require the computer systems to be down for eight hours. This is a critical classified risk since it will affect the operations of the organization. On this we have laid down a plan that high plan that highlighted the risk management strategy. The strategy is divided into 7 sections which will include; the risk responsibilities, risk assessment, risk response, risk mitigation, risk contingency planning, risk tracking as well as processes that will be used to address the immediate unforeseen risks that will be related to the computer systems being down for eight hours (Pickett,2011) Key Performance Indicators I have identified 5 key performance indicators (KPI). One of the KPIs is the LOB efficiency measure. With this I will analyze the organization efficiency by looking into how the operations are carried out in the store. This will include, the number of units produced in an hour and the percentage of time that the stores will be operating. This will involve carrying out survey for the next six months. The second KPI is the employee satisfaction. This would ensure a healthy growth and development f the organization in the long run. Happy employees will work harder and thus the system should be tailored to be user friendly and efficient. The employee satisfaction will be measured through surveys and other metrics that will be established. The third KPI is the Net promoter Score. Carrying out the NPS is one of the best ways to indicate the long-term growth of the organization. This will be measured by conducting surveys to the customers so as to understand how well they do recommend the organization to someone else they do know. We will establish a baseline with our first survey and put up measures that will assist in growth in subsequent period. The forth KPI is the Internal process Quality. This ensures that the services and products offered by the company are of expected standards. This will be done by conducting surveys on quarter basis to selected customers that will expected to give a feedback on the level of satisfaction on the services they are receiving from the organization. The fifth KPI is the financial performance Index. The financial department is the backbone of the organization and is expected to be at its best. It will be expected to demonstrate that it is delivering the value for money and satisfaction to the shareholders. This will include running of reports on different occasions to measure how well they are suitable and appropriate for decision making (Marr, 2012). References Lomash, S., & Mishra, P. K. (2003). Business policy and strategic management. New Delhi: Vikas Pub. House. Classen, H. W., & American Bar Association. (2013). A practical guide to software licensing for licensees and licensors. Monczka, R. M. (2011). Purchasing and supply chain management. Mason, OH: South-Western. Shields, M. G. (2001). E-business and ERP: Rapid implementation and project planning. New York: Wiley. Pickett, K. H. S. (2005). Auditing the risk management process. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Marr, B. (2012). Key performance indicators: The 75 measures every manager needs to know. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.