Reference no: EM132438968

THIS IS NOT A DEVELOPMENT PROJECT!

• The goal for this project is to find a CRM software solution to purchase/lease and implement for ‘ABC Stores.' The goal of this term project is to familiarize you with the steps, activities and tasks necessary to evaluate COTS (Commercial off-the-shelf) applications with your requirements and resources in mind.

• For the term project,You and your team are employed by a smallIT company based in California. The client, ‘ABC Stores.' A $1.5 M privately held retailer with 5 stores in the U.S. selling casual lifestyle clothing and home goods.

• The company operates on a zero-advertising policy, which means They need to build and maintain strong long-term relationships with key customers by creating personalized experiences across all their touch-points. ‘ABC Stores'are seeking to identify and implement a complete Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution; to move from an old CRMwith limited capabilities to a ‘best of breed' CRM solution with the capabilities that support their mission and to help them understand the needs of their customers. Customer support and loyalty is their highest priority.

Other objectives they are seeking when acquiring a CRM is to be able to:

• Email customers with recommended purchases.
• Present users with targeted web pages promoting items likely to be of interest.
• Enable users to make purchases without having to re-enter payment details.
• Offer promotions and incentives.
• Manage a loyalty program.
• Manage pricing (not all customers receive the same pricing).
• Contact customers for feedback and surveys.
• For the store sales teams CRM means dynamic access to large and live databases for real-time information on store inventory, sales, and warehouse inventory. This drastically reduces the time it takes to decide and keep customers well informed on availability, improving the overall customer experience.
•  improved data capture, data integrity, data access, ease of use, workflows, and productivity.
• Improve system security, the concern about possible attacks as they continue to grow.

Your Organization's current system being used and some basic requirements

• A legacy system based on an in-house client-server model. The database is running on an in-house on SQL Server or Oracle. There are one or more separate Windows 2000 or 2003 application servers. Users access the system using a locally installed Windows desktop client. Remote access is via a VPN login.

• ABC Stores has a 3rd-party company that takes care of physical security, provides all security cameras and storage for the camera footage. They also have an ISP that provides outbound connectivity for this branch, as well as a firewall

Base Assumptions

• As an IT manager & with Your group of 4 or 5 students (consists of ONE Project Manager and 3 technical experts); It will be your "job" to determine what your needs for the project will be, you need to choose a vendor & look for guidance on how to best fit all the requirements needed by your client.

you can spend around $200K; you must have a minimum of 5 licenses, and the application can be hosted in-house or by a provider.

• Hint: Select COTS license types that fits (enterprise-wide, per-seat, per user, and end-user/run-time) to your program structure. An inappropriate license type can drive up costs unnecessarily.

• In addition to the main objectives mentioned above, anything else you can think of that would improve customer satisfactions; efficiency and operations will be considered as long as there is money left over.

The various documents for the project you will be creating throughout this semester:

• Systems Requirement Document- SRS
• Project Charter. 
• Request for Proposal- RFI & RFP
• User Acceptance Test Plan
• Resource List
• Work Breakdown Structure- WBS
• Project plan
• Critical Path method- CRM

Hint:Most CRMs are Web-Based,

• You must decide if you want to Have Hosted Software, or a Fully Managed Service (SaaS)?

There are two main solution types these days: Self installed/hosted, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Each has specific benefits and drawbacks, and deciding which type of solution would best fit your business needs will help you with vendor selection (Assignment 4A).
Identify client challenges for example:

• Agents spend about 25 to 40 seconds leaving messages on customer's answering machine
• Customers did not have 24x7 accesses to the collection systems. Customers were forced to call during business hours
• A considerable number of the inbound calls were from customers whose accounts were closed for various business reasons
• Agents spent a good percentage of the talk-time validating customer information.

Research Project Objectives &Deliverables:

Part 1

1. Come up with a nameand vision statement for your CRM project.

2. Decide which SDLC methodology to pick (waterfall or Agile)& why?

3. Present a project plan to implement the CRM system, with the following required goals in mind:

• a. Gather requirements- Have a SRS document presented
• b. Create a new website for their customers (Optional-extra credit)
• c. Create a project charter- Have a project charter document presented

Part 2

1. Further analyze any requirements not specified2. Evaluate RFP & select a vendor(focus on how the COTS products work & match it with the client requirements)

• Ensure that the PMO staff has the necessary experience and training in product licensing and technical product evaluation to conduct COTS selection activities.

Part 3

1. Further analyze any requirements not specified

2. Provide a COST-breakdown analysis of all equipment and software needed to perform this upgrade