E-commerce Strategy: Developing an Operational Plan for BBQfun

This assignment provides a detailed operational plan for BBQfun's e-commerce strategy, including a summary of the operational environment, research on resource requirements (financial, human, and physical), and resourcing consultations. It develops an action plan for implementation, defines performance indicators (KPIs) for operational and financial targets, and creates a balanced scorecard for customer service. The report identifies potential risks and develops contingency plans, culminating in a proposal for resourcing presented to the Operations General Manager, covering aspects like retraining existing staff, recruiting IT professionals, and addressing technical challenges such as website downtime.

Manage Operational Plan
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Contents
Brief Introduction........................................................................................................................................3
Brief summary of the BBQfun operational environment.........................................................................4
Research Resource requirements for implementation of e-commerce strategy........................................6
Arrange with your assessor to participate in two resourcing consultations role-plays.............................7
Develop an action plan for the implementation of e-commerce strategy...............................................10
Develop performance indicators for operational and financial targets and amend or develop existing
operational plans to include KPIs and financial targets related to e-commerce strategy. Develop a
balanced scorecard for an e-commerce customer service representative including three KPIs and
associated targets...................................................................................................................................11
Identify at least three risks to the implementation of the operational plan and develop a contingency
plan for each risk (you may use the contingency plan template provided in Appendix 4). Risks must
include:..................................................................................................................................................13
Contingency Plan...................................................................................................................................14
Develop a proposal for resourcing to be presented for approval to the Operations General Manager.
Include in your proposal:.......................................................................................................................15
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................17
References.................................................................................................................................................18
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Brief Introduction
In this assignment, the various skills and the knowledge that is required for developing
operational plans are discussed for the BBQfun. The operational plan is developed and the
required amendments are proposed in this assignment. The resources requirements for the
implementation of the e-commerce website strategies are also discussed and a brief summary is
provided of the BBQfun operational environment. Also, an action plan is developed which will
be required for the implementation of the e-commerce strategies. In the later part, a proposal for
resourcing is presented for approval to the operations general manager.
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Brief summary of the BBQfun operational environment
The procedures and policies developed by the BBQfun for governing and assisting the
performance management should be adhered by the service personnel as well as the customers.
The general operating hours of the BBQfun are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The BBQfun’s Performance
Management Policies were developed in 2014.
The procedures that were involved in the Performance Management Policies were the appraisals,
employees, performance management, document, endorse, managing performance, and the
required actions for maintaining discipline. This policy is directly related to the operational plan
of the BBQfun. The purpose of developing policies is to ensure the fair and consistent
performance of the employees and enhance the performance of the management with
transparency and consistency. It also helped in enhancing the working of the employees and
contractors and overall helped the performance of the management processes (Turban, et. al.,
2015).
The various legislative and regulatory Acts govern the workings of the organization which they
have to adhere in order to survive in the market. The resourcing of the BBQfun is in accordance
with relevancy and appropriate standards that are maintained by the BBQfun. All the codes of
practice and legislation along with organizational procedures, policies are followed by the
BBQfun which help the organization achieve its targets.
The operational environment of the BBQfun has been very active and has been successful in
achieving the goals through strategy implementations. The role of an operational plan is to give
the employees and the staff a clear picture of the duties that they should perform by fulfilling
their responsibilities and completing their tasks which are part of the strategic plan developed by
the management of the organization.
Successful implementation of e-commerce strategy in the BBQfun has been possible with the
help of the perfect operational plan to implement this strategy. Through this strategy, the
BBQfun stock was stored at the existing stores without any extra costs. The existing staff is
retrained for the use of the e-commerce as well as new staff for this purpose was recruited and
through this changes the performance was enhanced and the operational targets were achieved.
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The operational plan played a vitally important role in successful implementation of the e-
commerce strategy (Strauss and Frost, 2016).
A few amendments to the existing operational plan for BBQfun would help in the achieving the
targets through strategic implementation of e-commerce. A few amendments to a different model
for identifying risk and monitoring performance can be used which will help the organizational
strategies for implementation of the plan. It is important to plan a strategy for identifying the
risks and to take the responsibility for implementing the acquisition plan for trained and highly
qualified resources for achieving the company targets because e-commerce implementation
needs many skills and knowledge of this particular field so that it can be properly implemented
(Turban, et. al., 2017). After completing the documentation, planning and identifying risks, then
other changes can be implied in the organizational plan like monitoring all the changes and then
identifying the different requirements for achieving the outcomes of the business. It is very
important to have knowledge about the resources of the organization through different policies
and practices (Schoder, et. al., 2016).
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Research Resource requirements for implementation of e-commerce strategy.
E-commerce requires a sophisticated and simple management system along with the strategies.
It is the responsibility of the recruitment and planning team to develop the plan and take the
responsibility for achieving the operational goals. The research resource requirements for
implementation of e-commerce strategies are the financial resources, human resources, physical
resources.
For the financial resources, the budget required for the strategy implementation is to be
prepared. Developing e-commerce website depends on the scope of the strategies. The website
would take around 50 days to develop and with the increase in the staff the office space will need
to be restructured (Pt Joseph, 2015). All this requires funds which should be in plenty for the
smooth running of the e-commerce strategy implementation. For the human resources, the
management team of the BBQfun with the warehouse team leaders are considered. The
management team of the BBQfun has to take major responsibility for developing and
implementing e-commerce strategies. After consulting with the management team, it was
determined that there was a requirement for some people to manage the online sales. These
people should have the online skills and if not then they have to be trained which will also
require financial resources. Management has planned to retrain the existing staff in spite of
hiring new personnel (Pedersen, et. al., 2016). The physical resources like office restructure,
internet connection, website domain, and hosting, etc. should also be kept in mind for the proper
and perfect implementation of the strategies for developing e-commerce websites.
In a further report, role-play with the relevant personnel who are the sales and marketing
manager and a technology consultant is done which will help further.
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Arrange with your assessor to participate in two resourcing consultations role-plays
In this particular part of the report, consultation role-plays with the organization personnel are
done to gain more information regarding the success of the implementation of the e-commerce
website (Leong, et. al., 2016). Two resourcing consultation role-plays are prepared with the:
 Sales and Marketing manager
 Technology consultant
Role- Play1
Role-Play with the Sales and Marketing Manager is as follows:
Manager: Hello, are you available right now?
Me: Yes, I am.
Manager: I would like to discuss the target human resource requirement.
Me: Ok, is that regarding your e-commerce project.
Manager: Yes, right.
Me: I reviewed the whole documents that are related to your new project and will recommend on
the basis of the details provided in those documents.
Manager: Ok, that’s fine.
Me: I would recommend you to re-train your old staff with the new online techniques so that
you do not have to go for more staff and the old staff can be retained.
Manager: Yes, but we have recruitments for technical people in this month.
Me: Ok, that is fine as degree-holders can be more professional and will provide you with more
services but I would suggest you to re-train your old staff.
Manager: Yes, we will do that. What measures should be taken for the effective use of e-
commerce website development?
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Me: Ok, you can also provide your staff with few hours of training before leaving the office in
the evening as this will make them finish their work within time and also go for online training.
They will find it interesting to learn new techniques in their work.
Manager: Sure, Thank you. We will do our best in providing training to the old staff and recruit
IT professionals also so that they can manage a website.
Me: Yes that would be great. It was nice talking to you. Bye.
Role-Play 2
Role play with the technological consultant:-
Me: Hello, are you available right now?
Technical consultant: Yes, I am.
Me: I would like to discuss regarding the technical team requirements for the new project.
Technical consultant: Ok, regarding your e-commerce project.
Me: Yes, right.
Technical consultant: I reviewed the details of your new e-commerce project and I will
recommend on the basis of the details provided in those documents.
Me: Ok, that’s fine.
Technical consultant: Ok, for the Software projects like the one, it will require you to search for
the software developer companies or maybe the online stores who can provide you with more
features that will help you to develop the e-commerce website and can provide training to your
staff so that they become efficient enough to provide the online services.
Me: Ok, but does this require a lot of training to the staff as we don't have a technical staff.
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Technical consultant: Yes, of course, it will require a lot of training to the staff members for
operating online stores. It is very important for the staff to be familiar with a product line as well
as a lot of training required.
Me: What company should I choose for the developer process?
Technical consultant: I would suggest you go with a company who will be able to provide you
with the more featured tools and I would not suggest you go with a freelancer company because
software development requires professionalism and they will help your employees with training
efficiently with the tools and it will make easy for the employees to learn the tools.
Me: Exactly, but the staff does not understand CRM systems and ordering processes.
Technical consultant: Right, but for this, old staff needs to be retrained in this aspect and
professional recruitments will also help. The staff should be provided training regarding e-
commerce strategies implementation.
Me: What challenges are you looking forward to the implementation of e-commerce strategy.
Technical consultant: Fine, the challenges like the speed of online sales and services may
hamper the revenue of the BBQfun business for a couple of months and websites downtime also
contributes to less online sales. These technical failures can be measured and rectified on time to
increase the speed of the online sales.
Me: We will work on them. Thank you.
Technical consultant: Ok.
Me: It was nice talking to you, bye.
Technical consultant: Bye
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Develop an action plan for the implementation of e-commerce strategy.
Action Plan for implementation of e-commerce strategy:-
Milestone: Action and/or
objective (to achieve
strategic aims of physical or
human resourcing)
Date Person Responsible Budget or Resources
Risk minimizing legal
compliance
June-July 2013 Operational General
Manager
Planning strategies
Health and safety
consideration
Aug, 2013 Operational General
Manager
Safety training
programs as well as
employee assistance
programs.
Gaps between operational
requirements and current
abilities
Sept-Nov, 2013 HR manager Programs that include
diversity management
Relevant personnel in
resourcing decision making
Dec,2013-Jan,
2014
HR manager Planning strategies
Consultation methods Feb, 2014 Marketing manager Expenses related to
labor relations.
Reviewing Funds and
expenses
Mar-Apr, 2014 Financial manager Financial projection
programs.
Treating employees equally May 2014 HR manager Employee assistance
as well as recognition
programs
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Develop performance indicators for operational and financial targets and amend or
develop existing operational plans to include KPIs and financial targets related to e-
commerce strategy. Develop a balanced scorecard for an e-commerce customer service
representative including three KPIs and associated targets.
Note: The current budget and operational plan for BBQfun is located in Appendix 1. A balanced
scorecard template is located in Appendix 3.
The performance indicators for operational and financial targets are the standards that an
organization has to meet or should be achieved in order to get success. The KPIs are used to
measure the actual strategies result as well as they help in performing comparisons between the
actual and the desired results. According to the financial projection which has been prepared by
the CFO, BBQfun business is expecting profits with the e-commerce strategies after 3 years. It
means that it will take 3 complete years for the company to start earning the profits and for 3
years it has to prepare itself for this competition via training the staff with all the requirements
that are needed to get better performance online and to understand the e-commerce strategies.
There are many risks of online sales as it is not sure that the company will run in profits after 3
years also (Laseter and Rabinovich, 2016). The company has to work hard for earning profits as
there is a number of other competitors in this industry and all are compliant with the website
techniques already so it is a big challenge for BBQfun to stay in the market and achieve success.
High risk of customer service quality may also occur and hamper the operational plan of the
BBQfun.
According to the budget summary, the net expenses are more than the net profit which means
that still more hard work is required by the strategic management to imply the strategies and earn
revenues. It is important to conduct the market research in order to determine the needs of the
customers and their satisfaction level. The operational plan is almost fine to deal with the
competitors in the market segment for the BBQfun. The financial targets should be achieved in
order to gain success for BBQfun. The organizational plan includes all the important aspects like
increasing sales and revenues, supporting people, improved client satisfaction, reducing direct
and indirect costs, etc., that are needed for the organization for implementation of the e-
commerce strategies (Hoque, et. al., 2015).
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Balanced scorecard for an e-commerce customer service representative:-
Key result areas Target KPI Result
Demand Monitoring Number of tax preps
and audits
Adjust rates Audits/tax preps
Increase Market share Increasing clients Increase client base 25% growth
Financial Revenues will
increase
Focus on medium
budgets.
20% growth
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