Read the Brewton Business Scenario. 

Prepare a 2- to 3-page document (700 to 1,050 words) identifying the key stakeholders of the company who will have an interest in the implementation project and who will approve your Week Four implementation plan.

Identify any challenges you anticipate in working with these stakeholders and strategies for leveraging their position within the company, their strengths, and their level of support for the project.

Specify all of the human resources that will be required to implement the application and describe the roles each will play on the project. 

Identify computer and network resources that will be required in order for the system to be useable in a production mode of operation.

Prepare a high level implementation plan using Microsoft® Project, showing just broad categories of effort that must be accomplished, and the general project timeline required to successfully implement the Business Enterprise Software application. The initial plan will have such major categories as the following:

• System Deployment Preparation
• System Documentation
• Data Conversion
• System Testing
• User Training
• System Startup

You will add the detailed tasks for each category as you work on the subsequent weeks' assignments.

 

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. You will need the Microsoft Project program to do the second part of the assignment. I have attached an example of what the second part should be like.

 

 

CMGT/445 Assignments
The Brewton Business Scenario will be utilized throughout the course for both individual and learning
team assignments. Brewton Business Scenario
Brewton Enterprises, Inc. is a clothing retail company located in the city of Eugene, Oregon. The
company offers an array of products with a mix of clothing styles, appealing primarily to teens and young
adults. Brewton has four satellite offices in Los Angeles, New York, Houston, and Atlanta. These offices,
including headquarters in Eugene, serve as distribution centers for products sold by Brewton. The
company employs 240 employees as follows:
Eugene
Los Angeles
New York
Houston
Atlanta 130
27
30
25
28 Each of these locations has a warehouse manager, an administrative assistant, a human resources
representative, sales and customer service coordinators, shipping and receiving personnel, and facilities
maintenance personnel. All locations stock a full complement of Brewton products for delivery to
purchasing customers. In addition to these functions, headquarters, located in Eugene, also provides
human resources, purchasing analysts, sales and marketing personnel, accountants, systems personnel,
and operations personnel. Mark Brewton, the company’s founder, wants to implement a comprehensive Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) application to support the business now and in the future. He believes the business has
grown to the point that such a system will streamline business processes, help to control business
expenditures, and will better manage inventory levels, which presently do not seem to reflect accurate
numbers for each distribution center. The new system will replace almost all of the computer applications
currently in use in the company. The Current System Environment
Users in the business functions of the organization utilize standalone software packages such as a
purchasing system, accounting and payroll applications, and a personnel tracking system used by Human
Resources. Because these applications do not share files, there are frequently situations in which
employee and customer data do not match, then research must be conducted in order to make the data
consistent in all systems. The IT organization runs special programs developed to cross-compare the
information and report mismatches among data files, which are then updated to reflect the correct
information. The new ERP System will help to mitigate these data integrity issues.
The current applications reside mostly on individual desktop computers, with the exception of the HR
System and the Inventory Tracking System, which reside on the company network. Human Resource staff
from all locations have access to the HR System and its files. Inventory files are maintained centrally and
can be accessed by operations personnel at corporate headquarters, as well as the remote distribution
centers. As merchandise is received in the central warehouse, quantities are updated in the Inventory
Tracking System. When products are sent out to the other distribution centers and to customers, the
inventory levels are adjusted accordingly. All employee workstations are connected to the network and
have access to the Internet for sending and receiving emails. The IT organization maintains the software
and data files for all employees and their computers, performing routine backups and applying needed
updates. The company does not have a disaster recovery plan or a business continuity plan to be
followed in the event of a contingency situation, such as flooding or earthquake, and it is generally felt by
management that this situation should be addressed. The online web application for processing orders is
maintained separately, with orders sent to operations on a daily basis for fulfillment and shipping. The Software Application
The application acquired for implementation is the Business Enterprise Software solution which
incorporates modules supporting multiple areas of the company, including Customer Relationship
Management (CRM), Purchasing, Human Resources, Accounting, and the Supply Chain Management
(SCM) components of inventory control, receiving, and shipping. The application includes a high-speed
analytics module designed with predeveloped reports and with the capability to enable user-defined ad
hoc reporting. Each module of the system performs independently of the others, but they all utilize the
same database management structure as an integrated data store. The vendor delivers the software in a
bundled package that can be downloaded from the vendor’s web site or can be obtained on CD, if
necessary. It is anticipated that the software can be installed, the necessary business processes
developed, and the migration to the new system environment accomplished within a one-year time frame. Stakeholders
Mark Brewton, Chief Executive Officer
Mark is an energetic entrepreneur who built Brewton Enterprises from its beginnings as a small retail
store in Eugene to a well-managed corporation serving several business markets via an online website
store. Mark relies on his direct reports to manage the day-to-day operation of the company. With input
from his staff, Mark directed Mike Benson, the IT Director of Brewton Enterprises to acquire the Business
Enterprise Software and to prepare for its implementation. He feels that the new system will streamline
the accounting and purchasing functions and will help to achieve better inventory control.
Barbara Scharer, Chief Financial Officer
The finance and accounting functions are managed by Barbara Scharer and her staff. She maintains
appropriate levels of investments, retains adequate operating capital, and arranges for lines of credit as
needed. She oversees the accounting function of the organization where her employees use desktop
software products to perform their work. Barbara is looking forward to making use of the new Business
Enterprise System, leveraging its integrated reporting capability to better track the business. She would like to determine why the company is not as profitable as it might be and feels the software will help to
identify areas in which improvements might be made.
William Hunter, Chief Operations Officer
William Hunter is responsible for the purchasing organization, which places orders for products to be sold,
office supplies, equipment, computers, etc. Bill and his staff are also responsible for physical plant
security and making sure the strategically located warehouses are properly stocked with products to be
will be delivered to their customers. Products are centrally received and accounted for before they are
distributed to the warehouses. Warehouse personnel work on orders as they are received, pulling
products together, packaging them, and shipping them to their customers. Bill has a group of associates
in the shipping industry with whom he has close relationships, and he uses their companies to ship the
products. Bill is proud of his organization and believes that the supply chain is working smoothly and
effectively. He sees no need to use the new application to support his part of the business and believes it
will require his staff to do unnecessary reorganizing and to bring in unneeded additional resources to
perform their work using the new system.
Jennifer Morales, Sales and Advertising Director
Jennifer oversees the selection of products to be offered for sale on the company’s web site and works
with purchasing to acquire those products. She works with the IT organization to make sure that products
are effectively and accurately presented on the web pages. She also maintains a relationship with an
internet advertising firm that provides links on other sites to direct potential buyers to the Brewton web
site. Her staff of sales associates and customer service representatives take orders over the phone and
assist customers with their selections. Orders are sent daily to Operations for picking, packaging, and
shipping.
Roger Tomlinson, Human Resources Director
The employment needs of the company are addressed by Roger Tomlinson, who handles the recruiting
and hiring of qualified personnel for the company. He also oversees running of biweekly payroll,
government reporting, and processing of insurance payments, as well as other payroll deductions.
Roger’s staff conducts compensation surveys to make sure employee pay remains competitive in the
industry, and in line with corporate financial guidelines. Roger plans to use the Human Resources module
of the new system to streamline job applicant data, from the receipt of resumes through the interviewing
process and hiring of candidates.
Mike Benson, Information Technology Director
Mike Benson’s staff is responsible for maintaining the company’s technical infrastructure, such as the
network, employee workstations, the web site, and associated hardware. His staff negotiates software
agreements with vendors, performs routine maintenance, and monitors network usage. Mike meets
regularly with his staff to receive status updates on projects underway. Mike has some concerns about the
implementation process, because his staff members do not have the bandwidth to take on a new project
the size of the ERP system implementation. He is considering hiring additional staff to take on this
responsibility, but also wants to evaluate the possibility of bringing in consultants to do the work.
He knows that preparing for testing of the new system and scheduling training for all users will be a
challenge in order to keep the business functioning normally and getting everyone familiar with the new
system. The development of training materials and user documentation will also be a consideration. Mike
feels that there must be some good alternatives for accomplishing these tasks. Gary Holmes, Systems Administrator
Reporting to Mike, Gary Holmes sets up user IDs for all employees, and installs desktop software on PC
workstations as needed. Gary is sensitive to the need to maintain state-of-the-art equipment and software
to support the technical operation and seeks to keep all systems up-to-date and running at peak
efficiency. Gary is somewhat apprehensive about the new system that has been acquired. He wonders
who will be asked to support it and who will fix it when technical problems occur following implementation.
Nancy Davis, Web Developer
Nancy Davis is a web developer, reporting to Mike. She is responsible for maintaining the company’s web
site, working with Jennifer Morales, to keep the content of the site attractive and user-friendly. She does
not think that the new system will affect her work in any way.
Jim Travis, Network Administrator
Jim Travis, the network administrator also reports to Mike Benson, maintaining all network hardware and
connections, including web access. He is responsible for maintaining security of the Brewton data assets
and providing threat detection of unauthorized access to the corporate network. Like Gary, Jim is
wondering how the new Enterprise Business System will fit into the existing configuration of the technical
infrastructure. He fears it will require the purchase or lease of a new server and will likely increase his
workload significantly. He knows that the implementation will require, not only a production environment in
which the new system will run, but will also necessitate creating a test environment for user acceptance
testing, and a training environment in which users will be trained to use the new system. He wonders if
the training could be conducted in the test environment so as to save some resources.

Attachments:

• 1493450498-CMGT445_Project_Implementation_Plan_Template.zip