University Project: Customer Chat Support in Retail Business

This project explores the implementation of a customer chat support system within a retail business, specifically focusing on GARMCO, a large aluminum facility. The paper outlines the project's framework, utilizing the waterfall methodology across seven stages, including requirements gathering, design, implementation, verification, and maintenance. It also discusses the application of a portal model to provide personalized customer service and integrate corporate information. The project highlights the benefits of adopting project management, such as improved efficiency, enhanced customer satisfaction, flexibility, and team growth. The critical activities within the project are illustrated, and the conclusion emphasizes the usefulness of the chat support system and the project management approach taken. References support the methodologies used in the project.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Providing customer chat support in a retail business
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction of product...............................................................................................................2
2. Project framework.......................................................................................................................2
3. Application of portals model for aligning it in project................................................................3
4. Benefits of adopting project management...................................................................................3
5. Critical activities..........................................................................................................................5
6. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction of product
The paper mainly reflects on providing customer chat support in GARMCO which is one
of the largest aluminium facilities in MENA. It is found that the organization aims to exceed the
expectations of the customers and therefore they have introduced chat support system so that the
customers can easily raise their queries before the organization. The developed chat support
system not only helps in improving customer service but it also helps in reducing expenses,
increases sales as well as helps in improving customer services as well as loyalty.
2. Project framework
Waterfall methodology is one of the linear project approaches where both customer as
well as stakeholder requirements are generally gathered at the starting of the project plan and
then proper project plan is developed for accommodating the project needs (Chari and Agrawal
2018). The waterfall methodology is utilized for developing chat support in order to give proper
customer service and the entire work gets executed in seven different stages that are elaborated
below:
Requirements: The various needs of the customers are gathered at the initial stages of
the project by allowing other phases to be properly planned with proper involvement of the
customers.
Design: The entire design phase gets generally broken into proper logical design as well
as physical design so that the entire system gets properly developed (Khalil and Kotaiah, 2017).

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Implementation: The project implementation phase starts when the programmers
generally assimilate various types of requirements as well as project specifications from the
previous phases of the project.
Verification: In this particular phase, the customer generally reviews the product
properly for making sure that the project generally meets various requirements that are generally
laid ta the starting of the project (Kerzner 2017).
Maintenance: In this step, proper maintenance is undertaken for discovering bugs,
improper features as well as different types of errors which occur during production.
3. Application of portals model for aligning it in project
The portal business models generally help in providing entry of the content as well as
services on the internet. It is found that the search engines are generally considered as portals
business model that generally include a number of contents as well as services (Tavares and
Oliveira 2016). The portal model is mainly integrated within the project in order to provide
personalized as well as integrated view of corporate information as well as application-based
reports on the information management website. Furthermore, the model is used in the project
for providing a number of personalized chat support facility to the customers so that the
customers can be able to resolve their queries with the help of the system thus providing better
services to the customer.
4. Benefits of adopting project management
The benefits of adopting project management in implementing chat support system for
providing better customer services are mainly listed below:

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Better efficiency: Project management helps in providing proper roadmap that is mainly
followed within the project that leads to successful project completion.
Enhanced customer satisfaction: Whenever the entire project gets completed on time
as well as under budget then the client generally walks away happy as well as satisfied
(Marchewka 2016).
Better flexibility: One of the most significant benefit of project management is that it
helps in allowing proper flexibility in the project. Furthermore, the project management helps in
allowing an individual to properly mapping out the strategy so that the entire project gets
completed on time.
Improved growth within the team: It is analyzed that positive results not only helps in
commanding respect but they generally inspire the entire team for performing quite efficiently in
the project (Joslin and Muller 2015).

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5. Critical activities
The figure that is provided helps in reflecting the critical activities in the chat support
system project for providing better services to the customer.
Figure 1: Critical activities
(Source: Created by Author)
6. Conclusion
It can be concluded from the entire paper that chat support system is helpful in giving
better customer service. It is found that waterfall project methodology is mainly utilized in the

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project for proper management of the project. In addition to this, the paper reflects on the
application of portals model for aligning the model within the project. Furthermore, the benefits
of adopting project management are properly elaborated in this paper.

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References
Chari, K. and Agrawal, M., 2018. Impact of incorrect and new requirements on waterfall
software project outcomes. Empirical Software Engineering, 23(1), pp.165-185.
Joslin, R. and Müller, R., 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology and
project success in different project governance contexts. International journal of project
management, 33(6), pp.1377-1392.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Khalil, M.A. and Kotaiah, B., 2017, August. Implementation of agile methodology based on
SCRUM tool. In 2017 International Conference on Energy, Communication, Data Analytics and
Soft Computing (ICECDS) (pp. 2351-2357). IEEE.
Marchewka, J.T., 2016. Information technology project management: Providing measurable
organizational value. John Wiley & Sons.
Tavares, J. and Oliveira, T., 2016. Electronic health record patient portal adoption by health care
consumers: an acceptance model and survey. Journal of medical Internet research, 18(3), p.e49.