Business Project: CRM Implementation Plan for Third Way Interior - HND

This project plan details the implementation of a CRM system for Third Way Interior, a small-scale business. It includes a comprehensive project management plan, outlining project aims, objectives, scope, resource allocation, budget, and a detailed schedule. The plan incorporates a work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart to visualize the project's timeline and milestones. The project's objectives include increasing sales and profitability through enhanced customer relationship management. The plan also involves conducting small-scale research and data analysis to support the project's goals, with recommendations based on the research findings. The project aims to implement CRM software to boost customer loyalty and retention, resulting in increased sales and profitability. The plan covers all aspects of the project, from initial planning to final deployment, and emphasizes the importance of effective communication and risk management throughout the project lifecycle. The project is expected to be completed within a specified timeframe and budget.

PROJECT PLAN

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1 Devise project aims and objectives........................................................................................1
P2 Produce a project management plan.......................................................................................3
P3 Produce a work-breakdown structure and a Gantt chart to provide timeframe......................6
P4 Carry out small scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research method. .11
P5 Analyse research and data using appropriate tools...............................................................13
P6 Communicating appropriate recommendations as a result of research and data analysis....20
P7 Reflect value of undertaking the research to meet stated objective and own learning.........21
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................25

INTRODUCTION
In the world of technological advancement, digital technology revolutionized significant
level of changes in the business operations. It dramatically changed traditional corporate model
and transformed their daily activities by providing them a wealth of choice and opportunity. It
help corporations to improvise their existing products to make it more profitable and introduce
innovative goods as well which leads to create diversified product portfolio. Advancement of
technologies not only impact company's production process but also have a huge impact in the
area of administration, storage and distribution and the way of communication as well. However,
implementing such advanced technologies also bring various challenges to the firm Thus,, the
present research targeted at finding out several key challenge that might face by an entity which
is operating in an environment where digital technology is under-utilized. Taking into account
project management principle, the report will design a work-breakdown structure, research and
also construct a plan for implementing digitalization.
P1 Devise project aims and objectives
M1 and D1
In today’s period of ultra competitiveness, each and every business organization needs to
introduce innovation in every field of their operations in order to stay competitive in the sector. It
is equally important for all large, middle and small-scale firms operating in the world. However,
digitalization in big companies is considered quite simple because they have sufficient resources
to satisfy necessary requirement for technological advancement, however, SMEs face numerous
challenges to introduce new techniques such as lack of resources i.e. fund, skilled workers and
others (Schwalbe, 2015). Moreover, it makes it necessary for the firms to deal with the change
management, hire and sustain creative talent and respond increasing competitive environment in
a sound manner. Today, advancement of new and updated technologies made it possible for the
entities to automate their routine work carried out by personnel. Internet of Things, Artificial
Intelligence, Big data analytics, mobile technology, cloud computing are the wonderful examples
of digitalized era.
Looking to Diallo, Patel and Wrelton (2015), report, it is found that in current tough
times, around 4.8 million small business entities need to innovate their business functions to
maximize efficiency and effectiveness and thereby ensure a long-run survival in competitive
world. It is really important for them to introduce the best possible technology like e-commerce,
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interior social media marketing and others to grab benefit of existing opportunities and remain
competitive. UK SMEs are not enough proficient in harnessing new and advanced techniques
and around only 1/3rd of the firms have digital presence & 14% companies are involved in
online trading. However, tech savy will assist SMEs to grow faster and attain success. Tech
revolution radically changed and transformed the way how business carries out activities.
Third Way Interior is a small scale business organization founded in year 2009 and offers
innovative construction design to the people as per the client specification. The mission of the
entity is “To become champion by building client-focused designs” and vision is “To grow in the
market by offering cutting-edge, transparent and unique office fit out alternatives satisfying
client requirements. The key aim of the organization is to address client requirement and thereby
construct office interior with superb design. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) plays
really an important role in identifying consumer requirement and maintain good relationship with
them to boost loyalty (Burke, 2013). It is not just about introducing new technologies but helps
firm to learn more about consumer needs so as to create long-lasting communication and build
sound relationship with the clients (Kerzner, 2013). Nevertheless, sound and successful CRM
depends upon the use of advanced technologies. Thus, it is decided to implement CRM software
in ThirdWay Interior with the aim to maximize loyalty. CRM is an integrated and holistic
process to identify, attract and retain consumers by providing them enhanced value at each and
every point (Choudhury and Harrigan, 2014).
Project overview: The Project is about implementing CRM software in the Third Way
Interior. It is expected to take an initial investment of £10,950 as a cost and projected benefit is
sales would be increase by 10% or above every year. It is decided that project will be complete
within 3.5 months.
Costs: £10,950
Time frame: 3.5 months
Targets:
 Sales would be increase by 10% from the existing level in beginning 3 years after CRM
implementation through maximizing consumer retention rate by 15%-20% and attracting
prospective buyers
 Profit would be increase by 8% from the existing level in starting 3 years after the
implementation of CRM through higher sales
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Project aim: “To implement CRM software as an information-enabled system for boosting long-
lasting consumer loyalty & retention”
Objectives:
 To understand consumer need, desires and wants to adopt consumer-centric approach
 To maximize consumer retention rate by 15%-20% p.a. by providing them great value
through regular interaction
 To maximize sales by at least 10% per annum through vigilant contact with the user to keep
update with the market trend and improve brand equity
 To maximize profitability by minimum 8% every year through satisfying consumer need.
Success criteria: The completion of CRM implementation within decided schedule and
time-frame of 4 months within the budgeted cost limit of £10,950.
Consumer Relationship Management
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Find out existing and prospective consumers
Identifying consumer requirements and desires
Communicating useful information to the clients
Deliver value to the consumers what they actually
expected
Ensure proper delivery of consumer value

CRM will work as a 360 degree interaction management tool with the users which helps
marketing division to perform demographic analysis whereas sales department can forecast
demand and identify opportunity to boost overall sales results (Werro, N2015). However, consumer
services like call centres and others can be automated. The software will also integrate and
aggregate all the client specific information on a single platform which provides ease data access
and helps in effective decision-making.
P2 Produce a project management plan
M1 and D1
Scope: The prospective project of CRM implementation in Third Way Interior involves
hardware and software purchase, planning, testing and configuration, training key people like
end-user, administrator, managers and data integration. All these activities and functions will
assist the entity to examine client-specific information and make decisions to satisfy their need
for deriving successful results.
Resource: The process of CRM installation required talented workforce, funds, hardware
(i.e. network equipment, server) and software as well. Its personnel requirement is detailed
below:
HR
requirement
Name Roles and Responsibilities
Project
Manager
John Innes  Create project management plan including cost,
time, communication and resources
 Identify risk and create risk management plan
 Lead all the team members involved in project
execution
IT manager John
Michael
 To ensure proper installation of Hardware and
software
 To test and configure the system
 To determine technical failure and resolve it
Training lead Wilfred
Rocky
 To identify training need for all the people
 To arrange training schedules i.e. time/location for
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administrator, end-users and others
 To report designed training schedules to the project
manager
Functional
manager
Rory
Sinclair
 To identify resource requirement and ensure its
proper supply
 To examine performance in terms of both cost and
time and report to PM
 To maintain coordination among all the staff
members
Budget/cost: CRM project incur expenses on hardware and software purchase,
installation, data integration, configuration, training, customization and reporting as well.
Particulars Expected cost (GBP)
Personnel hiring 2000
Hardware & software 5000
Installation 250
Training 1000
Consultation fees 1500
Implementation 1200
Total cost 10,950
Schedule/Time: The project will start on 8th November and expected to complete within
96 days. The Milestone schedule for the plan is designed below:
Milestone Starting date Finishing date
Planning 8th November 2017 21st November 2017
Documentation 22nd November 2017 19th December 2017
Acquisition of hardware and
software
13th December 2017 28th December 2017
Implementation 22nd November 2017 22nd February 2018
Deployment 23rd February 2018 21st March 2018
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Communication matrix: Every project involves smooth flow of essential information
among all the stakeholders involved in project implementation. (Stein, Smith and Lancioni,
2013) Thus, for the current plan, communication matrix is constructed beneath:
Type Objective Medium Frequency Owner Audience Deliverables
Kick-off
meeting
Introducing
all the team
members
and
presenting
planned
objectives
Direct
(face to
face)
Once at the
beginning of
the project
PM  Manager
 Team
members
 Meeting
Minutes
 Agenda
Team
meetings
Review
work Status
Conference
hall
meeting
Once in a
week
PM  All the
team
members
 Meeting
Minutes
 Schedule
 Agenda
Technical
meetings
Develop
technical
solutions for
the problem
encountered
Direct
(face to
face)
As per
requirement
IT
manager
 Technical
staff
 Meeting
Minutes
 Agenda
Work
progress
meeting
Review
progress of
the project
Conference
Hall
Once per
month
PM  All the
heads
 Project
schedule
 Progress
updates
Project
status
meeting
Examining
status in all
aspects like
activities,
time, cost
incurred and
others
E-mail Once per
month
PM  All team
members
 Schedule
 Status
reports
6

P3 Produce a work-breakdown structure and a Gantt chart to provide timeframe
M1 and D1
Ganntt chart graphically presents all the planned project activities with their scheduled
duration and also present its interrelationship with the other activities.
WBS Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors Total
Slack
1 Customer relationship
management 96 days Wed
11/8/17
Wed
3/21/18 0 days
1.1 Planning 10 days Wed
11/8/17
Tue
11/21/17 0 days
1.1.1 Scope 1 day Wed
11/8/17
Wed
11/8/17 0 days
1.1.2 Resource 1 day Thu 11/9/17 Thu
11/9/17 3 0 days
1.1.3 Budget 1 day Fri 11/10/17 Fri
11/10/17 3,4 0 days
1.1.4 Schedule 1 day Thu 11/9/17 Thu
11/9/17 3 0 days
1.1.5 Risk 1 day Mon
11/13/17
Mon
11/13/17 4,5,6 0 days
1.1.6 Test plan 1 day Wed
11/15/17
Wed
11/15/17 7 0 days
1.1.7 Training plan 1 day Fri 11/17/17 Fri
11/17/17 8,6,7 0 days
1.2 Documentation 20 days Wed
11/22/17
Tue
12/19/17 6 0 days
1.2.1 Document of existing
processes 3 days Wed
11/22/17
Fri
11/24/17 0 days
1.2.1.1 Audit control 3 days Wed
11/22/17
Fri
11/24/17 8,9 0 days
1.2.1.2 Security plan 2 days Wed
11/22/17
Thu
11/23/17 9 0 days
1.2.2 Document automation
and process optimization 4 days Mon
11/27/17
Thu
11/30/17 12,13,9 0 days
1.2.3 Preparing product &
service data 5 days Fri 12/1/17 Thu
12/7/17 14,12,13 0 days
1.2.4 Defining data source 3 days Fri 12/1/17 Tue
12/5/17 14,15,13 0 days
1.2.5 UI specification 4 days Fri 12/8/17 Wed
12/13/17 15 0 days
1.2.6 customization of CRM
platform 5 days Wed
12/6/17
Tue
12/12/17 15,16 0 days
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1.2.7 CRM reporting need 4 days Thu
12/14/17
Tue
12/19/17 17,15,16 0 days
1.3 Acquisition 12 days Wed
12/13/17
Thu
12/28/17 0 days
1.3.1 Hardware 7 days Wed
12/13/17
Thu
12/21/17 0 days
1.3.1.1 networking
equipments 3 days Wed
12/13/17
Fri
12/15/17 18 0 days
1.3.1.2 Servers 4 days Mon
12/18/17
Thu
12/21/17 22 0 days
1.3.2 CRM software
purchase 5 days Fri 12/22/17 Thu
12/28/17 22,23 0 days
1.4 Implementation 45 days Fri
12/22/17
Thu
2/22/18 0 days
1.4.1 Verification of
prerequisites 4 days Fri 12/29/17 Wed
1/3/18 22,23,24 3 days
1.4.2 Hardware 6 days Fri 12/22/17 Fri
12/29/17 22,23 0 days
1.4.3 Software 3 days Thu 1/4/18 Mon
1/8/18 24 0 days
1.4.4 UI construct 3 days Tue 1/9/18 Thu
1/11/18 26,27,28 0 days
1.4.5 Customization 4 days Fri 1/12/18 Wed
1/17/18 29 0 days
1.4.6 Data integration 5 days Thu 1/18/18 Wed
1/24/18 30 0 days
1.4.7 System integration 4 days Thu
1/25/18
Tue
1/30/18 0 days
1.4.7.1 Electronic mail 4 days Thu 1/25/18 Tue
1/30/18 30,31 0 days
1.4.7.2 Inventory 3 days Thu 1/25/18 Mon
1/29/18 30,31 1 day
1.4.7.3 Order delivery 3 days Thu 1/25/18 Mon
1/29/18 30,31 1 day
1.4.8 Support 5 days Wed
1/31/18 Tue 2/6/18 35,33,34 0 days
1.4.9 Integration of work
flow 4 days Wed 2/7/18 Mon
2/12/18 36 0 days
1.4.10 User set-up 3 days Tue 2/13/18 Thu
2/15/18 36,37 0 days
1.4.11 Test 5 days Fri 2/16/18 Thu
2/22/18 37,38 0 days
1.5 Deployment 19 days Fri 2/23/18 Wed 0 days
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3/21/18
1.5.1 Organizing training for
end-users 7 days Fri 2/23/18 Mon
3/5/18 38,39 0 days
1.5.2 Managerial training 3 days Fri 2/23/18 Tue
2/27/18 39 4 days
1.5.3 Training for
administrators 4 days Tue 3/6/18 Fri 3/9/18 39,41,42 0 days
1.5.4 Integration for network
monitoring 8 days Mon
3/12/18
Wed
3/21/18 42,43 0 days
ID WBS Task Name
1 1 Customer relationship management
2 1.1 Planning
3 1.1.1 Scope
4 1.1.2 Resource
5 1.1.3 Budget
6 1.1.4 Schedule
7 1.1.5 Risk
8 1.1.6 Test plan
9 1.1.7 Training plan
10 1.2 Documentation
11 1.2.1 Document of existing processes
12 1.2.1.1 Audit control
13 1.2.1.2 Security plan
14 1.2.2 Document automation and process
optimization
15 1.2.3 Preparing product & service data
16 1.2.4 Defining data source
17 1.2.5 UI specification
18 1.2.6 customization of CRM platform
19 1.2.7 CRM reporting need
20 1.3 Acquisition
21 1.3.1 Hardware
22 1.3.1.1 networking equipments
23 1.3.1.2 Servers
24 1.3.2 CRM software purchase
11/21
12/19
12/28
T T S M W F S T T S M W F S T T S M W F S T T S M W F S T T S M W F
Nov 5, '17 Nov 12, '17 Nov 19, '17 Nov 26, '17 Dec 3, '17 Dec 10, '17 Dec 17, '17 Dec 24, '17 Dec 31, '17 Jan 7, '18
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