Improving Operations and Administrative Management at Luton Town Residence

This report provides recommendations for improving operations and administrative management at Luton Town Residence, including addressing data silos and improving internal communication and collaboration.

Operations and Project
Management

Executive Summary
The report is conducted in order to improve the operations and administrative management of
Luton Town Residence which have been dealing with the major issue such as data sharing and
storage, internal communication and collaboration among the different departments and team
members. Company was using data silos which cause severe problems into their operational
activities and now have implemented slack system in replacement of e-mail, which avoids the
delay in receiving message and improves efficiency of the company.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
Business Report...............................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Overview of the current Operational system...................................................................................2
Reasoned Recommendation.............................................................................................................5
Project Plan......................................................................................................................................9
Implementation of “RingCentral and Asana”.........................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References:.....................................................................................................................................12
Books and Journals...............................................................................................................12
Appendix A....................................................................................................................................14
Appendix B....................................................................................................................................15
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Business Report
Introduction
Operations management deals with the overseeing, managing, directing and controlling the
activities of business operations such as production, marketing, manufacturing, accounting,
maintenance and software support. The prime objective of operations management is to ensure
that resources are allocated efficiently to produce the maximum output with a high quality and
meet the expectation and needs of customer (Parente and et. al., 2019). On the other hand project
management looks into the matters of organising project, defining scope and objectives, planning
the project stages for execution, allocation of resources and finalizing the project. The objective
of below mentioned project is conducted to provide the optimum solutions to Luton Town
Residence, which is a leading housing association in Luton, England providing affordable
housing to support vulnerable people of society. Company is presently facing problems in data
storage and collection, internal communication and collaboration.
Overview of the current Operational system
Data Storage and collection
Data Silos are regarded as the immense source of inefficiency and unproductivity in an
organisation, here Luton Town Residence had been adopted Data Silos in to their operations
which have created a biggest hurdle into their management operations due to the loss of cost and
time. Data Silos, basically is situation or source of data which is generally accessible to the one
group or department of different functions and are not easily accessible to the other department
or group. Luton Town Residence is one the leading housing association in Luton, England,
providing housing and accommodation services to the young people, mothers and many other
people in terms of hostel rooms and transitional flats, especially to provide support to the
vulnerable sections of the society (Leonard and Van Zyl, 2019). Luton Town Residence have
different sections or functional departments such as facility maintenance, customer services,
finance, supported housing personal coaches, general administration and senior management and
coordination of each department is very much essential.
Data Silos takes place naturally and stem out from the conditions of LTR business such as,
business culture as each department are responsible and accountable for their each operational
activities, organisational structure where each department in Luton Town Residence have their
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own policies, procedures and customer to manage their own operations and finally the
technology as each of the department make use of different tools and techniques to support their
actions. For instance, facility maintenance team make use of 360 cloud based system to manage
and support their activities as the department is responsible for the providing necessary
assistance to the residents (Calvo, Cui and Serpa, 2019). Another example is Supported housing
coaches who are assigned personally to each family resident to address their problems quickly,
data silo prevent the customer service department to maintain the private and confidential
information about the customer and support the ethical business practices. The objective behind
adoption of data silos in their management by LTR was to prevent the relevant data from being
shared as the departments within the LTR are clear with their roles and responsibilities are bound
to share any information with each other due to the privacy concern of the customer and
employees within an organisation.
However there were many challenges faced by the Luton Town Residence with the Data
Silos in their operations and projects. No doubt Data silos are perfectly fit for some organisation
to a limited extent but it tear down the organisation as it have a negative affects over its
performance, productivity and decision making abilities of each functional department within an
organisation. Here are some reason why Data Silos are resulted to be wrong for Luton Town
Residence:
 Incomplete view of business: As the data silos are created and developed naturally as
each department collect and manage the data for their own purpose and uses. Luton Town
Residence have data silos in their management where each department is working
independently as per their mission, plans and procedure (Thies and et. al., 2019). As the
company is growing and data silos are becoming an issue to deal with as it become
difficult for each one of the department to have a access to the information which is of
their use which develops a sense of isolation and emerges numerous structural issue.
Data silos does not reveal a 360 degree view of the business activities and there is lack of
holistic approach as different department have different information and seems like a
jigsaw puzzle and creates ambiguousness in the company. For instance there must a
strong link between customer service department and facility maintenance department as
the issues faced by the customer will be spotted by customer service department and is
resolved by the facility maintenance department.
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 Less collaborative environment : Each one of the department in Luton Town Residence
end up working with their own data silos and does not have a view of big picture as what
other is going into the other departments (Walker and Lloyd-Walker, 2019). Taking an
example of Supported housing personal coaches in Luton Town Residence where they
are responsible for addressing the issue faced by the each transitional flat resident. In
order to get their issues addressed they need to connect with the facility maintenance
department and prior to this customer services department needs to make coordination
with all the departments working.
 Bad customer experience: As the customer have a several touch points within an
organisation during their overall buying procedure. Customers of Luton Town Residence
are youngsters and mothers, their interaction with different department such as finance,
sales, customer support etc. have a history of their buying process. Having data silos in
the management Luton can lose the track of the customer as their interaction and their
issue are restricted to each department and are not discussed further which can bring
dissatisfaction among the customers and may lead to the bad experience with the
company. For instance, any issue or complaint is registered by the customer services
department that should be further communicated to facility maintenance department or
supported housing coaches, failure of which may bring bad reviews from customers.
 Slow down the pace of LTR: Data silos keeps the pace of the organisation slow and
steady as rather than being able to free flow of the data, information is isolated with the
other functional department and may lead to the loss to time and money. This means team
members need to wait until they realize that the data they need is not in their department
and they need to look where the data actually lies within the department and does that
data really fulfil their purpose (Zhang and et. al., 2019). Sometimes the data is no longer
valid by the time it is had been collected. For instance, finance department may need the
customer data for the collection of maintenance fees, due to the data silos, the department
does not have sufficient information and there is delay in receiving payment from the
customer.
Internal communication and collaboration
Internal communication and collaboration in the Luton Town Residence need to be effective and
efficient to conduct their daily operational activities. Communication is an integral part of any
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business as it involves the transfer of message from one team member or one department to
another. Sharing an information forms as basis of effective organisational culture and success of
each firm. Luton Town Residence make use of e-mail for communication within each
department and with the outside world, supplier and customers (Behl and Dutta, 2020). This is
one of the significant methods to be adopted by many firms as a tool to share information and
communicate with each other and to make aware team member about the recent changes and
challenges company is facing.
Luton Town Housing is communicating with their employees and customer by means of e-
mail which have led to the emergence of several issue. As the internal team member were
complaining about the inefficiency of the e-mail as a mode of communication. Most of the
employees need to be all time pending to their e-mail account due to the heavy influx of e-mail
and chats daily. Sometimes the quantity is too immense that important message are left unread
and ignored. Use of e-mail as a mode of communication have cause them a great amount of
distress and unease with the working in their daily operations which have declined their
productivity and inefficiency within an organisation. Apart from this many employees are
complaining that they have to wait for 2-3 working days to get a response from some other
department which makes delay in the business activities and decrease the overall performance
level of Luton Town Residence.
Customer services department of Luton also facing issue with the e-mail procedures to
communicate with the customers and other staff members especially with the Supported staff
members who are at the on-site constantly to address the issue personally of each resident of
flats. No doubt e-mail is regarded as the most effective mode of communication but in the
context of LTR it is resulting to be unproductive and affecting their overall business operations
(Maskuriy and et. al., 2019).
Reasoned Recommendation
Background and scope
The below mentioned project has been conducted with the objective of improving
operational system of Luton Town Residence due to which overall performance and productivity
have declined to a certain extent. Management is presently dealing with the data storage and data
collection due to the wrong implication of the data collection method such as data silos which
tear apart the company in several ways.
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Approaches used for managing the project
The approaches used in the project are based on the numerous tools and techniques
recommended to improve the overall operational activities such as use of Slack, mobile phones,
Poof Hub, Yammer, Mail.com, google Hangouts, Yandex.Mail etc. for improving the
communication network in Luton Town Residence (Taber and Taber, 2020).
Project Milestones
Suggested recommendations are effective and efficient in improving the performance level
of Luton Town Residence, it is anticipated to be deliver its result within 3 weeks from the time
off being implemented within Luton Town Residence. Major Key challenges in the
implementation may be cost, rigid and complex nature of employees, inflexibility of
organisational culture.
Guiding Principles
Recommended project management framework will enable Luton Town Residence to
conduct their operational activities with more ease and flawless as the suggested method of
communication will not only bring the productivity and efficiency but also will improve the
working culture and relationship among the different functional departments (Bortoluzzi and et.
al., 2019).
On the basis of the above identified problems here are few recommendation that will help
Luton town Residence in improving their operational and project related activities along with
enhancement of their profitability, performance and productivity. Different department in LTR
use different software which generate the data in their use of format and are not compatible with
the other softwares used by the different departments. Here are few recommendations that can
break the data silos in LTR:
 Cloud based approach: In place of data silos LTR may make the use of cloud based
system which collects and gather data at one place and is accessible for each and every
department. The idea behind is to create a holistic environment at workplace and no
department is isolated from a unified organisational structure (Lin and et. al., 2019). For
example, with the SAAS, software as a services application, LTR can distribute the data
online and is easily accessible from any kind of device. Another example is having
centralized data base system such as DBMS or MIS which is a data collecting and storage
methods through which company can collect the relevant data whenever in need.
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However there may be several challenges such as implementation of these software requires a
high amount cost and time but are beneficial in breaking the data silos. These softwares requires
proper infrastructure to be run and managed which could be a difficult task for LTR. On the hand
having an integrated information systems like MIS or DBMS which are cost effective and
require less time LTR can improve their data collection and storage issue which affect their
operational activities and creates isolation of each department (Cheliotis and et. al., 2019).
 Data Governance policies: This is not the methods rather a solution for eliminating data
silos and promote collaborative working environment at Luton Town Residence. Through
data governance policies and procedure LTR can maximise the effectiveness of data and
information and can bring synergies into the distinct functional departments. These
policies describes the ownership, rules and structure for the data management within LTR
so that there is always free flow on data within each department to avoid any data silos.
 Omni-channel infrastructure: Omni-channel infrastructure is basically unification and
integration of multiple systems and application that have a different data formats. Having
this type of structure at LTR can help in improving the work pace which has slow down
the pace of functional department because of the high-dependency over the other
department for the access of data (Gopalakrishna and et. al., 2019). For instance, Flow
Magic is a kind of workflow automation software used by many multinational companies
in the world to have a common platforms for different types of data format.
Evidently, employees at LTR dealing with the mode of communication adopted by the company,
i.e. e-mail which have become reason for stress and decline in their productivity. They have been
pending all the times to the e-mail boxed waiting for the response and not miss any important
message. Customer service department is also dealing with the several challenges due to their
over dependency on single mode of communication. Employees of different department does not
get the response even after 2-3 days due to which there is mismanagement within the different
department of Luton Town Residence. Below mentioned are some recommendations with
regards to improvement in the communication process of LTR:
 One of the best suitable methods for communicating internally with the team members
instant messaging is a best option to opt for. However, they are not as formal as the e-
mail but are safe, easy and convenient as e-mail (Wang and et. al., 2020). Employees
with the use of instant messaging can communicate with the other team members on a
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real time basis and without delaying. These messages are useful for the Supportive
Housing Coaches and facility maintenance team members who need to stay in touch with
each other frequently. Additionally, employees can work with comfort and peace without
any heavy influx of e-mail which were the main reason for declining productivity and
increasing stress at work.
For instance “RingCentral” is highly recommended for Luton Town Residence as an
alternative to e-mail as people like to engage more with the phone, this an application which
comes with a several features such as team- messaging, video conferencing, phone calling
and with an additional features of sharing files, events, task among the team members to have
a more collaborative working environment (Cohen, Zeff and Herman, 2020).
The application is easy and reliable and empower the employees to have two way
communication without any delay such as employees can use the screen sharing tool, video
meetings, and initiate group messaging at the same time to deliver a message instantly.
Supportable assistance coach work individual for the each flat resident and to help the in any
issue, with the use of RingCentral application coaches can get instantly connected with the
facility maintenance team who look after the maintenance and proper functioning of
equipment in the residential properties.
For effective collaboration at Luton Town Residence among the employees, company
may opt for another software which is designed with the aim of keeping track of the
employees and making them more accountable and responsible the task they are executing.
“Asana” for instance is a platform which will act as a centralized location for the tasks,
projects and work carried out by each employees (Gupta and et. al., 2019). The software is
capable to keep the records of each and every details such as type of work, responsible
person, timelines for completion, keeping status updates, people involves and total time
involved. Being a leading housing association it is imperative for LTR to have a proper
collaboration and collaboration among the each functional department to deliver exceptional
quality of work and experience to their customer. Implementation of this software brings the
company in more unified form and have a 360 degree view of the business activities to keep
a track of overall success and growth of LTR.
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Project Plan
Implementation of “RingCentral and Asana”
Overview of project
By analysing the issue in operational and project management of Luton Town Residence which
is improper communication and collaboration among the team members due to wrong mode of
communication that is e-mail. E-mails are the most effective a formal way of communication
however the employees were dealing from several issue such as delay in response, pressure from
influx of emails, stress and unproductivity (Carlsson‐Wall and et. al., 2019). In order to deal with
the issue which were emerging due to e-mail, it is highly recommended for Luton Town
Residence to integrate the use of RingCentral and Asana application. RingCentral is as effective
and fast as the e-mail but an interactive way of communicating within internal management. And
Asana is a software which is a centralized platform which provides a clear picture of the work
carried out in an organisation, by whom, when and what is the current status to improve
accountability and responsibility of the employees.
Organisational structure suggest under the project RingCentral and Asana is functional
structure where employees are divided as per their areas of expertise. Managers give direction
within their defined power and limits and employees are more accountable towards their work
and work with more productivity. Core component of this project are communication, resource
management, risk register, budget and change management (Parente and et. al., 2019). In order to
implement the project it is essential to download the Asana software and installation of
application RingCentral on the mobile phones of the employees.
Project charter
Luton Town Residence Project Charter
Project name: Developing “RingCentral and Asana”, replacement of e-mail.
Project Description: The application and software is aimed at improving the internal
communication and collaboration among the team members.
Business case: The application is designed to improve the communication among the team
member and increase their productivity by 75% at the end of this quarter (Zhang and et. al.,
2019). And to have a cooperative and collaborative workforce to deliver an exceptional quality
of services to the customer.
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Project deliverable: Launching of an application.
Necessary training for the uses and benefits.
Implementation of new communication network at Luton Town Residence.
Project Risk: Technical difficulties.
Non-compatibility of devices and equipment.
Resistance of employees.
Project Budget: Not more than $2500
Project Milestones: Launching of an application: 15 June 2021
Implementation into business: 16 June 2021
Communication Management
Communication plays a key role in successful of a project as it helps in communicating the
necessary information to the stakeholders and the necessary participants (Leonard and Van Zyl,
2019). For the successful of the project Luton Town residence need to conduct several meeting
on a daily or weekly basis to understand the view of the employees and other participant for the
project especially the top management who is key is management decision making process.
Formal e-mail, meeting over phone and through video conferencing, survey are the methods to
be adopted to know about the success of the project.
Document management
For the success of a project carried out for the Luton Town Residence depend on the how
effective and properly all the documentation is done (Walker and Lloyd-Walker, 2019).
Document management is concerned with preparing all the necessary document such as budget,
approvals, policies, procedures, guidelines and all the necessary document required in project
planning, execution and successful implementation.
Resource Management
RingCentral and Asana softwares are going to improve the internal management of the LTR as
they are concerned with improving the communication and collaboration among the employees
(Calvo, Cui and Serpa, 2019). IT department of LTR is responsible for installing and updating a
software into their electronic device and make their devices more compatible with the software
and application. Additionally, manager of the each respective department is responsible for the
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proper training and education programmes with regards to the use and benefits of these
technology based system into organisation.
Change management and changes control
As the company is going to face a major change, communication which was taking place earlier
by means of e-mail is now going to replace with RingCentral application and all the project
status will be tracked by Asana which is a central platform help in keeping the track of the work
done by the employees (Thies and et. al., 2019). The objective of this department at LTR is to
educate the employees about the project and provide them necessary skills, knowledge and
competencies that will help them in embrace the changes. Having a good relations with the
employees help those to accept the transition takes place due to change in external environment.
Conclusion
. From the above report it is concluded that the business firm come across the several
challenges in order to manage their operational and project activities that can affect their overall
productivity and performance level. However if these problems are addressed on time can
contribute towards enhancing the profitability of a company in long run, therefore, a good
operational and project management act as a guidance for the employees and management for
running the business operations efficiently and effectively.
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Appendix A
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Appendix B
No. Risk Effect Possibility Mitigation
1 Technical failure Moderate High Before implementing the plan
it is necessary to check
whether the devices are
compatible enough to work
with these software and to have
an updated version of the
software and application.
2 Safety and
Security
High Moderate Having a specified guidelines
and protocols related with the
use of the application and
having end-end encryption
prevents from the loss of data.
3 Resistance Moderated Low By educating employees and
management about the benefits
and uses of the project and how
it add value to their work life.
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