Case Study 1
Scenario:
Rainsgarth School first opened in 1952 and was initially intended to accommodate 600students. Over the years it has established a good reputation and currently has 1,400students on roll. The initial building is now surrounded by mobile classrooms.
Somefaculties have classrooms spread all over the school site and many of the rooms arereally too small to accommodate the class sizes required. A private finance initiativemeans that a whole new school building can be developed on the existing playing field.
Once this is ready and the school has decanted into the new build, the old buildings canbe demolished (or sold in the case of the mobile classrooms). Some of the staff in theschool have worked there for over 25 years, although there is quite a large contingent ofyounger teachers and support staff too.
1. Recommend actions that can be taken to deal with change in the above scenariowhich includes the planning and design stage of the build as well as the decant
2. You should take into consideration any likely resistance to change and how thisresistance should be managed, in addition to the recommended activities requiredto manage the change effectively.
Case Study 2 - Speedy Office Supplies Web Expansion Project
Company Overview
Speedy Office Supplies has been in business for 15 years and is recognized as the leader indiscount office supplies. We have a reputation of providing high quality products atreasonable prices and offering superior customer service. We are selling to corporateclients, governmental agencies, and individuals. Our customers are served by over 40,000employees through direct sales, catalogs, e-commerce and more than 2,000 stores.
Eightypercent of our business is currently done in our 2,000 retail stores.Over the past five years the Retail Store Division has shown a steady decline in sales andprofitability; energy costs have increased by 30% for our fleet vehicles and retail stores;employee health care costs have increased by 75% and continue to rise. Market trends andcustomer preferences are indicating that customers desire the ability to order theirproducts on-line at times convenient to them. The SOS management team believes if wephase-out the Retail Store Division and replace it with a web-based ordering system andconsolidation of our distribution network, we anticipate a savings of nearly 10 milliondollars per year. This would also need to integrate into the existing supply chain systems.
Customer satisfaction surveys also indicate a favorable reaction to the concept of webbasedsales, which could increase our current sales by at least 25% over the next 5 years.Based on this information SOS management has made a decision to close all the brick andmortar stores within 18 months. We believe this decision will significantly cut costs and thatwe can be just as successful selling our products on our website.Currently orders for products are received via in-store requests, phone calls, or catalog mailinfrom customers.
We access our online system to check inventory, prices, and estimatedshipping dates. If the order total is over $100,000 we turn it over to a supervisor. We thencall the Credit Card Authorization Company to check the customer's credit card account. Ifthe credit card charge is authorized we enter the order into the system. The current systemis an old mainframe application and is very cumbersome.There are purchasing agreements, special discounts, and payment terms for our clientspurchasing over $50,000 per year.
In the past, we have billed these customers on a monthlybasis, providing them with a detailed listing by location of their purchases. We want tomake it easier for them to pay via credit card each time they place an order to increase ourcash flow and lower our Accounts Receivable. If possible, we still want to provide selectcustomers the same reporting on a monthly basis for their purchases by location.
Federal Express and UPS are currently bidding on the exclusive rights for delivery of allcustomer office supplies. Each company is proposing an online interface to track shipments,including the name of the person who signs for the delivery. The shipment will need to havea label and detailed purchase order slip with the package. The cost of shipping isdetermined by the size of the package, weight, location, insurance, and timeliness ofdelivery. The customer will need an accurate shipping cost at the time of purchase.
Project Request
Our main focus for this project is to create the shopping experience for our retail customeron the website and to place product orders on the Internet. We want to have real timeinformation regarding product description; quantities; pricing; availability; paymentprocessing; shipping method options with associated costs; delivery date; and ordertracking. All information currently available at the retail stores and in the catalogs should beavailable and consistent with the Internet.
It would be nice if there were a place on the Internet for the customer to build a profile andstore frequently purchased items in a list to use for future purchases. This would be verybeneficial for large organizations that purchase the same products frequently.We envision using our existing customer number and allowing each customer to create apassword to ensure security. Anyone could look at the products online, but only registeredcustomers would be allowed to place orders.
The web site should have search ability byseveral options: product item number (from the catalog), product type, color, and size.Hopefully when a customer places an order the software would quickly calculate a shippingcharge and present the order total to the customer. We would not allow orders totalingmore than $1000 to be placed on the web.
The software should also email a confirmation tothe customer if requested.
Departments Involved
The Marketing Department is responsible for customer reporting and the negotiations forpreferred customer status including volume discounts. Our largest customers receive onemonthly bill for all their departments' purchases and a report showing the detailedpurchases.
Additionally, marketing maintains the customer profiles, which are used toprocess orders, verify billing information, discounts, and reduce redundancy by eliminatingthe need for the customer to always enter their company information.
The Customer Service Department will need access to all information regarding customer orders toassist with the web site usage and handle any possible complaints.
Accounts Receivable is responsible for processing and sending bills to our preferred customers. Theweb ordering system will need to notify accounts receivable when one of our preferred customersrequest their order to be direct billed. Some customers have negotiated payment terms anddiscount rates based on volumes.
They work with the Collections Department for any outstandingreceivables beyond 90 days. On a monthly basis Accounts Receivable produces an aging report.Inventory Management is impacted by a reduction in inventory from placed orders and an increasein inventory from cancellations and returns. They are responsible for managing the inventory andplacing orders with vendors.
Inventory Management is also responsible for handling returns,including items that have to be returned to the suppliers as defective.Order Fulfillment receives an order notification from the order processing system containing allnecessary information required to assemble the order. They are responsible for producing thepackaging slips, retrieving the supplies, assembling the order into a bin or crate, and delivering theorder to the Shipping Department.
The Shipping Department receives the order from the Order Fulfillment department and preparesthe order for shipment. The packing slip contains the shipping method requested by the customer
and the estimated shipping timeframe. The Shipping Department is responsible for notifying theshipping company and updating the order status.
Outside Organizations
The Shipping Company currently has an online tracking system. Our web ordering system will have adirect link to the shipping company's web site for the customer to track packages using the trackingnumber provided by the Shipping Department to the order status system.
The Credit Card Processor currently authorizes customer purchases made in the stores, over thephone, or via fax. An additional interface will need to be established between the web application toreceive the customer and order information and to return an authorization code.
Instructions:
Read the Case Study below, and answer the following questions:
1. What is the scope of the change being planned?
2. How complex is the change? Give examples of process, technology, job roles, business model, etc.
3. Based on the information in the study, can you thoroughly assess the environment? If so, what didyou find? If not, what additional inputs might you need to do so?
4. What change risks have you identified?
5. What change structure would you recommend, and why?