HOLMES
INSTITUTE
FACULTY OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
FACULTY OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Individual assignment 1 - Case study analysis
HS2061 Information Systems Project Management
Trimester 1 2017
Date Due: Friday Week 8, 2017 by 5:00 PM
Marks: Weighting 10%
Student Name (Block letters) Student Number:
___________________________ _____________
1. Develop a Project scope document
Using the Signed, Sealed, Delivered Case Study provided, develop a system scope document. This document must include a section for each of the following:
• the business problem,
• a statement of purpose,
• the benefits of a new system
• the system capabilities and what it must achieve as a minimum
• exclusions – what the proposed system will NOT include
Ensure you use business language and write in the third person (avoid the use of I or we). This section should comprise four or more paragraphs but should be no longer than a page in length. All bullet lists must be introduced with at least one sentence that provides context for the reader.
Signed Sealed Delivered Case Study
Notes from an interview with Richard Turpin Managing Director, Company Founder:
As an employee of a large international courier and shipping service, I met almost every day with many companies that shipped and received packages. I was frequently asked if the company I worked for could deliver local packages on the same day. Over several months, I observed that there appeared to be a substantial need for courier services in the city I lived in so I decided I would form my own courier delivery company called Signed, Sealed, Delivered to fill this gap in the market.
I began by listing my mobile telephone number in the Yellow Pages and sending letters to all those companies that had requested same-day courier service that my previous employer had not been able to serve. I hoped that, through good service and word-of-mouth advertising, my own business would grow. I also began other advertising and marketing activities to promote my new services.
At first, I received delivery requests on his business mobile phone. However, it was not long before my customers were asking if I had a Web site where they could place orders for shipments. I knew that if I could get a Web presence I could increase exposure and help the business grow.
After I had been in business only a few short months, I discovered I needed to have additional help. I hired another person to help with the delivery and pickup of packages. It was good to see the business grow, but another person added to the complexity of coordinating pickups and deliveries. With the addition of a new person, I could no longer -warehouse- the packages out of his delivery van. I now needed a central warehouse where I could organize and distribute packages for delivery. I thought that if his business grew enough to add one more delivery person I would also need someone at the warehouse to coordinate the arrival and distribution of all the packages.
.
The details of the package pickup and delivery process are described on the following pages:
When I got an order, at first, only on my phone, I recorded when I received the call and when the shipment would be ready for pickup. Sometimes, customers wanted immediate pickup; sometimes, they were calling to schedule a later time in the day for pickup.
Once I arrived at the pickup location, I collected the packages. It was not uncommon for the customer to have several packages for delivery. In addition to the name and address of the delivery location, I also recorded the time of pickup. I noted the desired delivery time, the location of the delivery, and the weight of the package to determine the courier cost. When I picked up the package, I printed out a label with his portable printer that I kept in the delivery van.
At first, I required customers to pay at the time of pickup, but I soon discovered that there were some regular customers who preferred to receive a monthly bill for all their shipments. I wanted to be able to accommodate those customers. Bills were due and payable upon receipt.
To help keep track of all the packages,I decided that I needed to scan each package as it was sorted in the warehouse. This would enable me to keep good control of his packages and avoid loss or delays.
The delivery of a package was fairly simple. Upon delivery, I would record information about when the delivery was made and who received it. Because some of the packages were valuable, it was necessary in those instances to have someone sign for the package.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered courier services grew and changed over the years. At first, I received requests for package pickups on my mobile phone, recorded that information in a log, and would then drive around to retrieve all the packages later in the day.
However, I soon discovered that with another driver, it was difficult to coordinate pickups between the two of us from the van. It was not long before I reorganized the business and turned the warehouse employee into a driver. Then, I stayed in. the warehouse myself, and my two employees made all the pickups and deliveries.
This worked well because I could control and coordinate the pickups and deliveries better. It was also easiest for me to receive pickup requests working at a desk rather than trying to do it while driving a delivery van.
As I thought about how the business was growing and the services I provided to my customers, I began to itemize the kinds of information I would need to maintain. Of course, I needed to maintain information about customers. Some customers were businesses; some were individuals. I needed to have basic address and contact information for every customer.
Also, for corporate customers, I needed to identify a primary contact person. It was mostly corporate customers who wanted to receive monthly statements listing all their shipments during the month and the total cost. I needed to distinguish which customers paid cash and which wanted monthly statements. In fact, for those that paid monthly, I needed to keep a running account of such things as when they were last billed, when they paid, and any outstanding balances.
Finally, when payments were received, either for individual shipments or from monthly invoices, I needed to record information about the payment: type of payment, date, and amount. Although this was not a sophisticated billing and payment system, I thought it would suffice for our needs.
Next, I started thinking about his packages and shipments. At the time that a request for a pickup came in, I needed to keep track of it as some type of delivery request or delivery ·order. At that point in time, I mostly needed to know who the customer was, where the pickup location was, and what date and time the package(s) would be ready for pickup. I also recorded the date and time that I received the order. A delivery order was considered -open- until the delivery van arrived at the pickup location and the packages were all retrieved. At that point, the delivery order was satisfied.
Once the packages were retrieved, each package needed to be uniquely identified; I needed to know when it was picked up and which delivery person picked it up. Other important information was the -deliver to- entity name and the address. I also needed to identify the type of delivery. Some packages were high priority, requiring same-day delivery, others were overnight. Of course, the weight and cost were recorded so the customer could either pay or have it added to the monthly invoice.
In the courier and delivery business, one of the most important information requirements is the date and time stamp. For each package, it is important to know when it was picked up, when it arrived at the warehouse, when it went back out on the delivery run, and when it was delivered. When possible, it is also important to have names associated with each of these events.
As Signed, Sealed, Delivered Courier Services continues to grow, I anticipate that I can provide much better services to our customers if I utilize some of the technology that is currently available. For example, it will allow us to maintain frequent communication with the delivery trucks, which could save transportation and labour costs by making the pickup and delivery operations more efficient. This would allow us to serve our customers better. Of course, a more sophisticated system will be needed, but a development consultant has assured me that a straightforward and not too- complex solution can be developed.
This is how I would like the business to operate. Each truck will have a morning and afternoon delivery and pickup run. Each driver will have a portable digital device with a touch screen. The driver will be able to view his or her scheduled pickups and deliveries for that run. However, because the trucks will maintain frequent contact with the home office via telephony Internet access, the pickup/delivery schedule can be updated in real time-even during a run. Rather than maintain constant contact, I believe it will be sufficient if the digital device synchronizes with the home office whenever a pickup or delivery is made. At those points in time, the route schedule can be updated with appropriate information.
With the current system, customers have been able to either call the company and request a package pickup or visit the company's Web site to schedule a pickup. Once customers log in, they can go to a Web page that allows them to enter information about each package, including -deliver to- addresses, size and weight category information, and type of service requested. Signed, Sealed, Delivered provided -three hour,- -same day- and
-overnight- services. To facilitate customer self-service, Signed, Sealed, Delivered haven’t required exact weights and sizes, but there are predefined size and weight categories from which the customer can choose.
Once the customer has entered the information for all the packages, the system would calculate the cost and then print mailing labels and receipts. Depending on the type of service requested and the proximity of a delivery truck, the system would schedule an immediate pickup or one for later that day. It would display this information so the customer would immediately know when to expect the pickup.
Picking up packages is a fairly straightforward process, but there was some variation in what would happen depending on what information was in the system and whether the packages were already labelled. Upon arriving at the scheduled pickup location, the driver would have the system display any package information available for this customer. If the system already had information on the packages, the driver would simply verify that the correct information was already in the system for the packages. The driver could also make such changes as correcting the address, deleting packages, or adding new packages. If this were a cash customer, the driver would collect any money and enter that into the system. Using a portable printer from the van, the driver could print a receipt for the customer as necessary. If there were new packages that weren't in the system, the driver would enter the required information and also print mailing labels with his portable printer.
One other service that customers have required was to be able to track the delivery status of their packages. The system needed to track the status of a package from the first time it -knew- about the package until it was delivered. Such statuses as -ready for pickup,-
-picked up,- -arrived at warehouse,- -out for delivery,- and -delivered- were important. Usually, a package would follow through all the statuses, but due to the sophistication of the scheduling and delivery algorithm, a package would sometimes be picked up and delivered on the same delivery run. We also decided to add a status of -cancelled- for those packages that were scheduled to be picked up but ended up not being sent.
Marking Criteria
ASSESSMENT 1 CRITERIA
N/A Poor Fair Good Very Good Excellent
Scope
Document Statement of Purpose (1)
Business problem (2)
Business Benefits (2)
System capabilities (2)
Exclusions (1)
Document Format Document Presentation Good layout, grammar & spelling (2).
Deduction for late, copied, or plagiarised work (up to total marks earned)
Total out of 10