¶ … New Product, Service or Process Produce a specification for an agreed project to implement a new product, service or process

Be able to plan for the launch of a project to implement a new product, service or process

Produce a project plan for an agreed project

Match appropriate resources to a Project

Cost all resources required for implementing a project

Agree timescales for the management and implementation of a project

Plan an appropriate strategy for the implementation of a project

Be able to implement a project

Implement a project in accordance with an agreed specification

Develop appropriate measures to monitor and evaluate progress and outcomes

Monitor the implementation of a project

Task 4: Be able to evaluate the outcomes of a project

Analyze the outcomes of a project in terms of the original project specification

Evaluate the outcomes of a project

Make justified recommendations for improvements to the project

Task 5: Be able to present the outcomes of a project

5.1 Produce a report of all project procedures used

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5.2 Present the outcomes of the project to an audience using an agreed format and appropriate media

Reference

Task 1: Be able to develop a project Specification

1.1 Analyse the factors that contribute to the process of project selection

In this section, we provide an elaborate analysis of the factors that contribute to the process of selecting the concerned change (CRM development and implementation at McDonalds).McDonald's is the world's leading foodservice retailer having over 34,000 local restaurants that serve close to 69 million people in a total of 119 countries every single day (McDonalds,2013). An estimated 80% of the franchise's restaurants globally are owned and operated by several independent men, women and families. The main factor that has led to the selecting the concerned change is the apparent loss of profits/income. Last year, it was reported that the global chain's net income fell by 3.5% for the very first time in 9 years;from $1.51 billion to close to $1.46 billion. This took place as its total sales fell by 0.2% to about $7.15 billion (Grimes,2012).The other factor for adopting or selecting the concerned change is the need to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. CRM has been noted by Ballantyne (2005) to be an important tool for the creation as well as gaining of a competitive advantage in an environment marked with stiff competition such as the one in which McDonalds operates in.

Project selection is noted by Mantel et al. (2010) to be the process of choosing a specific project or a set of critical projects that are to be implemented by a given organization. Due to the fact that projects generally demand a substantial amount of investment in regard to the money and other resources and coupled with the fact that both are usually limited, it is necessary that projects that are selected by an organization provide an excellent return on investment on both the capital and resources invested.

The high level of uncertainty that characterizes the modern business environment has made project selection to be a critical aspect of project management. This is because it makes the difference between operational life and the ultimate operational death of an organization.

The decisions arrived at during project selection are high-stake due to their strategic implications and are highly. That is why it is critical that the best tool or framework be adopted when arriving at this step. A successful model must be able to accurately capture all the critical elements of the decision. The factors that led to the process of selecting the concerned change can be subdivided into three main subcategories:

Mission factors

McDonald's brand mission is to be their customers' favorite place as well as way to eat. Its worldwide operations are perfectly aligned around a global strategy referred to as the Plan to Win, which effectively center on an exceptional level of customer experience of People, Products, Place, Price and Promotion. The company is also committed to continuously improving its operations as well as enhancing its customers' experience. CRM is a tool for realizing such an objective and mission.

Process factors

The selection of CRM was guided by the resource-based view of McDonalds that revealed that it has the resources and competencies needed to implement the project fully.

Implementation factors

The company has in the past implemented IT-based solutions such as e-SCM system for the management of its supply chain. The ability to implement these projects depends on the company's ability to pull together all the resources and competencies needed to implement the project fully.

Decision process for CRM implementation

The implementation path

1.2 Develop outline project specificationsfor the implementation of a new product, service or process

Costs

Time scales

Scale of operation

Standards

Legislation

Ethics

In order to introduce a new product in the market, the project will focus on a number of factors and stages in the market. These stages include:
Identification if the need in the market

Estimation of the degree of the product quantity needed in the market

Establishment of the budgetary terms and conditions toward the production of the product in the market

Implementing the set objectives and goals towards creation of the product

Rolling out the product to the people in the market

Getting feedback on the required amounts of products and services offered by the product

1.3 Produce a specification for anagreed project to implement a new product, service or process

The development as well as implementation of an enterprise-wide CRM system at McDonalds will be carried out according to the following systems specification:

Costs:

It is important that the development and implementation costs be maintained at a minimum. Equally important is the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). To ensure that the costs are maintained at a minimum level, McDonalds would have to implement a cloud-based enterprise-wide CRM system. The cost of any type of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution should be considered in terms of hard costs (such as software licensing, implementation consulting fees, hardware fulfillment, IT labor) as well as soft costs (integration, employee downtime, training) Even though it still comes as a surprise too many people, the soft costs would normally exceed the hard costs by a solid factor of two or more. Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM implementation costs are considered to be lower than traditional licensing as well as on-premise software installations. Internal costs however continue to apply. McDonalds must be ready to invest at least $5,000 in the initial hard costs. The project cost should however be close to $50M.

Time scales:

CRM project implementation takes time. Bigger CRM projects, which affect several areas a given business normally, entered into without enough time, human resource as well as money being allocated to both the planning as well as management of the roll out across the business. Consequently, two things usually happen: the loss of the original business objectives, and as the main project advances forward, the realization that the value from the investment hasn't made clear to project stakeholders. Consequently, they get frustrated and the entire project becomes regarded as a cost as opposed to a business initiative that should deliver a return on investment ("ROI"). The project should be fully implemented within a year with a consideration of the timescale as well as time for staff raining.

Scale of operation:

The operation will be enterprise-wide covering all the McDonald franchises. A parallel application will also be deployed as a free download to mobile devices from the mobile Internet portals.

Standards:

The CRM will be built and deployed according to the approved industry standards as envisioned in the standard UML standard for use in the analysis and design of the CRM system. The CRM must also meet the standards dictated by ISO 27001,Safe harbor as well as SSAE16 SOC1 Type II

Legislation:

The fact that McDonalds is a multinational franchise means that there are serious legal issues to be considered when deploying the CRM solution. For any business to legally transfer any data from the European Union to the U.S., the company or other firm must publicly certify that it would comply with the EU Safe Harbor principles, which perfectly aligns to the EU's privacy rules.

Ethics:

The CRM solution will not reveal any private and confidential customer or company data without consent. Confidentiality of information must be at the highest level.

Sustainability:

The system must be operated from terminals that are socially and environmentally friendly. All the equipment must confirm to the FCC rules and regulations and must have the lowest level of carbon footprint.

Quality:

The quality of the CRM solution must be the highest possible due to the sensitivity and value of information contained and exchanged within the framework.

Fitness-for-purpose:

To ensure that the project is "fit for purpose," a parallel project dubbed "optimize" will be deployed.

Business data:

Business data will have to be treated with utmost confidentiality.

Resource implications:

The CRM implementation shall not take up more than 4% of McDonalds 'resources. If need be the company would have to outsource the service in order to ensure that it concentrates in its key competencies.

Project Life Cycle

The project life-cycle is noted by Westland (2006) to be a framework…