Information Management System Development for Organic Food Production Industry

This case study discusses the need for an information management system for a small organic food production company. The company wants to automate their ordering system and improve their marketing efforts. The study also explores the organization chart, business functions, project management, and cost benefit analysis.

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“Eat Organic Food”
business analysis and
Information Management
System Development
A case study analysis
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT FOR
ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

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Table of Contents
Report A:
.........................................................................0
Background Information:..........................................................................3
Organisation Chart:...............................................................................5
Business Functions:.................................................................................5
Project Management:...............................................................................6
Gantt chart:............................................................................................0
PERT/CPM Chart:.................................................................................0
Critical Path:..........................................................................................0
Total Duration:.......................................................................................0
System Vision Document:........................................................................1
System Capabilities...............................................................................1
Business Benefits..................................................................................2
Policies:....................................................................................................2
Risk Analysis:...........................................................................................3
Cost Benefit Analysis:..............................................................................3
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Summary:
The case study presented discusses the “Eat organic food”
company of Ian and his wife Ruth. The farm completely deals in growing
and selling organic vegetables. They currently use a phone based
manual system of taking orders from customers. The customers also
self-pickup their purchased vegetables. Also their customer base is
limited now. They want to expand their business by shifting to an
Information based system that will be able to help manage the customer
handling and marketing aspects. They want the system to be able to
automatically take orders from the customers and reduce the ordering
time. The system should display the customers all the available
vegetables in stock and also recommend them vegetables based on
their previous purchases for faster ordering. There are quite a few
people working on the farm along with Ian and Ruth. They all report to
Ian and Ruth and help in different departments from marketing to
production. Ian manages the production aspect and Ruth the marketing.
They are also planning to introduce another information system to
manage the legal paper work for their organic farming issues. The self-
pickup system is now replaced by home delivery to reduce traffic issues.
Overall the farm needs a information management system to handle the
marketing aspect of the business so that more time can be given to the
production part. This will also reduce the need for separate manpower
for each individual departments and increase profit.
Background Information:
The company described in the case study is a small to medium
enterprise which deals with the production of organic food vegetables.
The company is owned by Ian and his wife Ruth. The company first
started in Ian’s home’s backyard but now has shifted to his grandfather’s
farm where Ian had grew up. The farm is quite big in size and has
enough space to run a small production business. Ian manages the
production aspect of the business and Ruth the marketing aspect. The
quality of the organic vegetables is very good and hence has drawn
customers from around the area. The customer ordering system is done
through phone or talking directly. This is a very time consuming process
and has become a problem both for the customers as well as Ian.
The company generally communicates to its customers about the
availability of vegetables a day before the actual delivery date. This
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creates some problem for the customers as they return disappointed not
getting the vegetable of their choice and quality. The delivery system is a
self-delivery system where the customers usually come and collect their
own vegetables. The increase in the number of customers had led to the
hiring of more helping hands for the farm. For taking orders through
phone, Ian hired four people. Chris, Christina, Cathy and Charlie’s job is
to take the customer orders and also help in gardening sometimes. They
reported directly to Ruth. The regular customers were given 20%
discount for their trust. To help with accounts aspect of the farm, Sam
and Samantha were hired to oversee that department. They also
answered directly to Ruth. The self-pickup delivery sytem was abolished
and home delivery was started to avoid the traffic jams caused by
multiple incoming customers. Mark and Marsha were appointed to help
with the home delivery service. Dirk was hired as an assistant to Mark
and Marsha to help with the heavy lifting of the produce boxes. They
were trying to combine the deliveries to reduce the number of trips. Ian
was completely dedicated to serving the production side of the business.
To manage the production side, Noel, Noeletta, Mick and Netta
were hired to help in different aspects of gardening like watering,
fertilizers, pruning, picking, planting and weeding. They all reported
directly to Ian. Ian also hired Tim, Terry and Tina to manage with the
machinery aspect of the production. Tina and Terry both are experts in
operating all types of farming machinery. They both reported to Tim, who
is the machinery manager and in charge of all the farming vehicles. Tim
directly reported to Ian for production and to Ruth for marketing
purposes. Ian is an expert knowledge in machineries and helps Tim is
maintenance of the tractors. John, is the son of Ian and Ruth, who is
studying marketing currently at Southern Cross University. Ruth and Ian
have asked him to help them in developing the Information system for
their business and he has agreed to it. He will work independently and
will report to both Ruth and Ian. On top of that, he has access to all the
information required for him to develop such a system.
The farm owners have also tried to shift towards fruits production
but lacks the necessary space and resources to produce in bulk that is
needed for the commercial market. They are planning to negotiate a deal
with the neighbouring fruit producers to strike an exchange deal where
they will be able to grow fruits in the neighbour’s land and vice versa.
However, their condition is that the production should be completely
organic which seems a little unpractical now but may be possible in
future. All in all, they want to develop an information management
system that will be able to help them solve their marketing problems and
help them shift from manual to automatic ordering system. Ruth also
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT FOR
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wants another or an integrated system which will be able to organise and
handle all the legal paperwork needed to authenticate their organically
produced vegetables.
Organisation Chart:
Figure 1 Organisation chart (Source: created by author)
Business Functions:
This section will help the reader get accustomed to the business
functions of the system. The system will have two main parts. One will
focus on the production aspect and the other will focus on the marketing
aspect of the company. Each of these main divisions will have multiple
sub divisions for the smooth functioning of the system.
For example, the production system can be divided into the following
parts:
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1. Gardening jobs: Done by Noel, Noeletta, Mick and Netta.
2. Operating farming vehicles and machinery: Done by Terry and
Tina
3. Managing the farm vehicles and Machinery: Done by Tim
For example, the marketing system can also be divided into the following
parts:
1. Taking customer orders through phones: Done by Christina, Chris,
Cathy and Charlie.
2. Accounts and record keeping: Done by Samantha and Sam.
3. Pickup and delivery of goods: Done by Mark and Marsha
4. Heavy lifting and sorting of boxes: Dirk (Assistant to Mark and
Marsha)
So from the above examples, a rough idea about the business functions
can be estimated. The functions of the business comes out to be
gardening activities like weeding, pruning, planting, picking and watering,
accounts and book keeping, operating farm vehicles and machineries,
managing and maintenance of those vehicles, taking customer orders
and delivery of the produce. At least the marketing part of the business
functions excluding the delivery needs to be incorporated into the new
Information management system.
Project Management:
This section will likely have some SUB SECTIONS…so give
them each their own header (or sub-header) so that it is easy
for the user …to USE the document by easily being able to find
any given section (or sub section).
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT FOR
ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

Gantt chart:
ID Outline
Number
Task
Mode
Task Name Duration Start Finish PredecessorsResource Names Cost
0 0 Eat Organic Food
Information System
133 days Tue
09-04-19
Thu
10-10-19
$195,080.00
1 1 Start Project 1 day Tue 09-04-19Tue 09-04-19 $0.00
2 2 Project Initiation 31 days Wed 10-04-19Wed 22-05-19 $62,480.00
3 2.1 Conduct a series of
staff interviews
5 days Wed
10-04-19
Tue
16-04-19
1 Project
Manager
$6,000.00
4 2.2 Review of farm
records, costs and
purchases
2 days Wed
17-04-19
Thu
18-04-19
3 Project
Manager
$2,400.00
5 2.3 Observing of Business
operations
2 days Wed
17-04-19
Thu
18-04-19
3 Project
Manager
$2,400.00
6 2.4 Interviewing of
customers
1 day Fri 19-04-19 Fri 19-04-19 4 Project
Manager
$1,200.00
7 2.5 Analysis over the
currently used
accounting processes
2 days Fri 19-04-19 Mon
22-04-19
5 Project
Sponsor,Project
Manager
$4,960.00
8 2.6 Study of sample of
orders and payment
transactions
2 days Tue
23-04-19
Wed
24-04-19
6,7 Project
Manager,Project
Sponsor
$4,960.00
9 2.7 Undertaking field
work
2 days Tue
23-04-19
Wed
24-04-19
7 Project
Manager
$2,400.00
10 2.8 Preparing a report for
Ruth and Ian
1 day Thu
25-04-19
Thu
25-04-19
8,9 Subject Matter
Expert
$960.00
11 2.9 Proposing of a
solution
4 days Fri 26-04-19 Wed
01-05-19
10 $0.00
12 2.10 Designing the project
and financial plan
15 days Thu
02-05-19
Wed
22-05-19
11 Project
Manager,Project
Sponsor
$37,200.00
13 2.11 Sanctioning of the
plan
0 days Wed
22-05-19
Wed
22-05-19
12 $0.00
14 2.12 Completion of the
Project Initiation
Phase
0 days Wed
22-05-19
Wed
22-05-19
13 $0.00
15 3 Procurement of
Materials and Technical
Planning
29 days Thu
23-05-19
Tue
02-07-19
$33,120.00
16 3.1 Purchasing of
necessary software
and contacting
technical service
provider
3 days Thu
23-05-19
Mon
27-05-19
14 Project
Manager
$3,600.00
17 3.2 Preparing a
development, testing
and quality analyst
team
5 days Tue
28-05-19
Mon
03-06-19
16 Project
Manager
$6,000.00
18 3.3 Planning for the
technical design of
project
12 days Tue
04-06-19
Wed
19-06-19
17 Development
team
$13,440.00
19 3.4 Setup of computer
systems and
networking
9 days Thu
20-06-19
Tue
02-07-19
18 Development
team
$10,080.00
20 3.5 Completion of the
planning and
procurement phase
0 days Tue
02-07-19
Tue
02-07-19
19 $0.00
21 4 Development of the
Information System
45 days Wed
03-07-19
Tue
03-09-19
$70,600.00
22 4.1 Designing the initial
interface
10 days Wed
03-07-19
Tue
16-07-19
20 Development
team
$11,200.00
23 4.2 Performing the coding
part and designing
database structure
20 days Wed
17-07-19
Tue
13-08-19
22 Development
team,Database
Administrator
$43,200.00
24 4.3 Testing of the code
and necessary
requirements
15 days Wed
14-08-19
Tue
03-09-19
23 Testing Team $16,200.00
25 4.4 Completion of the
Development Phase
0 days Tue
03-09-19
Tue
03-09-19
24 $0.00
26 5 Quality Check Phase 19 days Wed
04-09-19
Mon
30-09-19
$21,680.00
27 5.1 Checking the quality
of the Information
System
10 days Wed
04-09-19
Tue
17-09-19
25 Quality Analyst $11,600.00
28 5.2 Implementing the
necessary
recommendation to
the internal structure
9 days Wed
18-09-19
Mon
30-09-19
27 Development
team
$10,080.00
29 5.3 Completion of the
Quality Check Phase
0 days Mon
30-09-19
Mon
30-09-19
28 $0.00
30 6 Documentation of the
Information System
5 days Tue
01-10-19
Mon
07-10-19
$4,800.00
31 6.1 Preparing of reports 5 days Tue
01-10-19
Mon
07-10-19
28 Subject Matter
Expert
$4,800.00
32 6.2 Showing the reports
to the owner
0 days Mon
07-10-19
Mon
07-10-19
29,31 $0.00
33 6.3 Completion of the
Documentation Phase
0 days Mon
07-10-19
Mon
07-10-19
32 $0.00
34 7 Project Sign-off Phase 3 days Tue
08-10-19
Thu
10-10-19
$2,400.00
35 7.1 Collection of
feedback and making
payments
2 days Tue
08-10-19
Wed
09-10-19
33 Project
Manager
$2,400.00
36 7.2 Project Sign-off 1 day Thu
10-10-19
Thu
10-10-19
35 $0.00
37 7.3 Completion of the
phase
0 days Thu
10-10-19
Thu
10-10-19
36 $0.00
38 7.4 End Project 0 days Thu
10-10-19
Thu
10-10-19
37 $0.00
Project Manager
Project Manager
Project Manager
Project Manager
Project Sponsor,Project Manager
Project Manager,Project Sponsor
Project Manager
Subject Matter Expert
Project Manager,Project Sponsor
22-05
22-05
Project Manager
Project Manager
Development team
Development team
02-07
Development team
Development team,Database Administrator
Testing Team
03-09
Quality Analyst
Development team
30-09
Subject Matter Expert
07-10
07-10
Project Manager
10-10
10-10
M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T
01 Apr '19 22 Apr '19 13 May '19 03 J un '19 24 Jun '19 15 Jul '19 05 Aug '19 26 Aug '19 16 Sep '19 07 Oct '19
Figure 2 Gantt chart (Source: Created by Author)

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PERT/CPM Chart:
Figure 3 PERT/CPM diagram (Source: Created by Author)
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT FOR ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

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INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT FOR ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

Critical Path:
The activities, which are highlighted in red would be considered as
the critical path. The activities that have slack as zero are also
considered as the critical path activities.
Total Duration:
The total duration of the project is estimated to be 133
days. (Note: Please refer to the attached Ms Project file for the
detailed analysis)

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System Vision Document:
The system vision document is an important document that keeps
track of all the problems of the current systems and what new changes
are needed to be implemented for improving those problems. It also
documents the benefits of the given company after implementing the
solutions. The company in our case study is a small farm business
dedicated to producing organic vegetables. The business is currently
running all its marketing aspects manually, from taking orders to delivery
of products. This part of the document can be divided into the following
three parts:
Problem Description
The main problem faced by the system is in the marketing division
of the company. The farm business is still using manual methods for
taking the order from customers. This is being done with the help of
phones. This process results in the slower delivery of the goods. It
also increases the time taken for registering the order and writing it
down. This creates a problem for the customers as they have to wait
longer durations just to give an order for their goods. This also wastes
a lot of time for the owner Ian who can better spend this time trying to
increase the production of organic vegetables. Even for registering
the same orders the customers had to wait for longer duration. The
customers want a quicker way to order and simplify the process. The
farm is mainly dedicated to producing organic food so it needs to
produce a lot of paperwork as proof for its operations authenticity.
The business owners also wants to expand their business to the fruit
market by investing and producing commercial grade fruits. This
needs to be adapted to the information management system is easy
verification. Either a new system or integrating into the old system
would be fine.
So, to conclude a new information management system needs to
be created that will be capable enough of handling the marketing
operations of the farm business and also handle the organic
paperwork for easy authentication and increased customer
satisfaction.
System Capabilities
The system that is being designed should be able to do the following
tasks:
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 The system should be able to take the orders of the customer
online over the internet.
 The system should be able to keep track of individual customer’s
orders and recommend the same to them when they buy again.
 The system should also maintain a track of regular customers and
offer them discounts on purchases.
 The system should also be able to handle the transaction aspects
of the business and maintain the accounts.
 The system should be able to able to club multiple deliveries while
delivering, in order to save time and cost.
 The system should be able to devise strategies for fruits
production.
Business Benefits
If this system is implemented the following benefits can be achieved:
 The business would be able to take orders from more customers
thus resulting in increased profit.
 The owner of the business Ian would be able to give more time to
production thus increasing his produce.
 The business would be able to keep track of the payments and
recover dues on time.
 The business would be able to provide faster processing times
thus increasing customer satisfaction by decreasing wait time.
 The system would be able to notify the customers about their
favourite products when restocked, thus increasing sales.
 The expansion of business to the fruit market can generate extra
revenues.
Policies:
The following policies can be implemented for the following categories of
people:
1. Customers:
 The customers should be provided with faster processing
times in case of repeated orders every week.
 The regular customers can be provided with extra discounts
when purchasing products to retain them.
 The customers can be provided with home deliveries as this
will be convenient for them.
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2. Employees:
 The employees of the farm can be given extra incentives for
doing work with extra dedication.
 Employees who are helping in two different departments
should be paid more to retain them.
 The employees can be provided with a token of organic
vegetables every week.
Risk Analysis:
There are many risks associated with the project. The main ones are
listed below:
 The “organic” tag of the food is the main reasons people are
buying from the farm. The food must be kept organic at all costs.
 The project will need a proper budget to be developed which
needs to be decided beforehand.
 The requirements for the project must be clear as per the system
vision document.
 Technical assistance from trained individuals should be used while
developing the information management system.
 The project must be planned properly and any missing
requirement either functional or non-functional may result in the
failure of the system.
 Valid documentation should be kept aside for proving that the
production is organic.
 All organic manure should be used so as to not risk the “organic”
production tag.
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Cost Benefit Analysis:
Year of Project
year 0 year1 year 2 year 3 year 4 year 5 TOTALS
Net economic benefit $0.00 $40,000.00 $40,000.00 $40,000.00 $40,000.00 $40,000.00
Discount Rate 8% 1 0.9259 0.8573 0.7938 0.7350 0.6806
PV Of Benefits $0.00 $37,037.04 $34,293.55 $31,753.29 $29,401.19 $27,223.33
NPV of all BENEFITS $0.00 $37,037.04 $71,330.59 $1,03,083.88 $1,32,485.07 $1,59,708.40 $5,03,644.98
One Time Costs $95,600.00
Recurring Costs $0.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00 $100.00
Discount Rate 8% 1.0000 0.9259 0.8573 0.7938 0.7350 0.6806
PV Of Recurring Costs $0.00 $92.59 $85.73 $79.38 $73.50 $68.06
NPV Of All Costs $95,600.00 $95,692.59 $95,778.33 $95,857.71 $95,931.21 $95,999.27 $5,74,859.11
Overall NPV ($71,214.13)
Overall ROI = (Overall NPV / NPV Of All Costs -0.12
Break-Even Analysis
Yearly NPV Cash Flow $0.00 $36,944.44 $34,207.82 $31,673.91 $29,327.69 $27,155.27
Overall NPV Cash Flow $95,600.00 ($58,655.56) ($24,447.74) $7,226.17 $36,553.86 $63,709.13
Project break-even occurs between years 2 and 3
Use 1st year of positive cash flow to calculate break-even fraction 2.7719 years
Figure 4 Cost benefit analysis (Source: created by author)
Expected cost:
Project Initiation 62480
Procurement of Materials and Technical Planning 33120
Development of the Information System 70600
Quality Check Phase 21680
Documentation of the Information System 4800
2400
Total Cost for the project 195080
Total Cost for the project
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT FOR
ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTION INDUSTRY