Information System Project for Eat Organic Food Business (2019)

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This project details the development of an information system for Eat Organic Food.

Information System
(2019)
Part A

Index
Contents
Eat Organic Food.............................................................................................................................2
Initial Investigation......................................................................................................................2
Activity 1.................................................................................................................................2
Activity 2.................................................................................................................................4
Activity 3.................................................................................................................................5
Risk and Cost Analysis Benefits......................................................................................................9
Activity 4.................................................................................................................................9
Recommendations & Conclusion..................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
List of Figures
Figure 1: Organisational Chart....................................................................................................3
Figure 2: PERT Chart....................................................................................................................7
Figure 3: Gantt Chart.....................................................................................................................8

Eat Organic Food
Initial Investigation
Activity 1
Eat Organic Food is a small-scale business that has a very high growth rate. This company was
initiated at Ian’s backyard where Ian started growing organic vegetables. The business grew
considerably by the introduction of Ian’s family land into farming. The main focus of this
business is to grow organic food without using any artificial fertilizers and pesticides. To grow
good quality vegetables the company uses various planting and crop cycling techniques were
implemented. The quality crops generated grown by Eat Organic Food quickly gained popularity
in the local market and the business started thriving. The daily customer count of the business, as
well as the on-site crowd of customers for picking their order, are growing day by day. The
organic food business is a huge success but it also needs a good information system to manage
this growing business.
Organization Chart
Figure 1: Organisational Chart

Areas of the organisation to be affected by the information system.
The need for having an efficient information system in a small-scale organisation is the same as
that in a multi-national organisation. It plays an important role in developing many business
functions. It is necessary for “Eat Organic Food” to implement an information system which will
help in the upliftment and easier management of the business. The information system will
handle and improve the following business functions of “Eat Organic Food”:
1. Ordering and Distribution: The application developed along with the Information
System will make the ordering process more flexible and can also be used to get
customer’s information for proper food delivery.
2. Sales and Marketing of the Eat Organic Food: The information system can be used to
find the ordering pattern and preferences of the customer which will be useful for
developing a marketing plan.
3. Accounting & Salary Distribution: Proper documentation of the payment and salary
status will provide a definite idea about customer’s payment status and will also help in
managing salary distribution to the workers.
4. Managing the workforce: Managing the staff information and distribution of tasks to
the workers will become easier (Cassidy, 2019).
Background Information
The information system proposed for the business is going to require the integration of some
hardware, software, and network components. These requirements are as follows:
1. Hardware and computing system for developing application and database. The hardware
includes a smartphone, a laptop, a PC, connecting cables, routers for network
distribution, etc.
2. Software for accessing the database and integrate the hardware. The software can be an
application, web page, user interface, etc.
3. Telecom Services or the Internet which will be used to connect the hardware devices with
one another or with the online database (Walsham, 2015).

4. Data warehouse for storing the data generated daily. It can be physical storage devices or
cloud services outsourced from other organisations.
5. Hardware and Software experts who are the most important entities in the development
of the proposed information system.
Activity 2
Functions of “Eat Organic Food” Information System
Sr.
No.
Functions Description
1. Web Application To access the information system using a browser.
2. Mobile Application To access the information system using a Smartphone.
3. Database For storing customer & business information
4. Data Analysis System Data in the database can be analyzed for knowledge
discovery
5. Data Processing Converts data into useful information
6. Control Loops Repeats a process to detect an issue.
7. Knowledge Presentation Graphical and statistical representation of data.
System Vision Document
Problem Description- Eat Organic Food is growing at a very fast rate. The expansion of the
farming land and the production of some fine quality vegetables have boomed the business in the
last few years. The food distribution, packaging, pick-ups, and salary documentation is getting
difficult day by day. There is a great need for a system to assist the business process.
System Requirement- The proposed information system for Eat Organic Food is going to
require various functionalities and devices for its implementation. The requirements include a
computing system for accessing the software, web and mobile application for the ordering the

food and customer profiling, database and a database management system, network and telecom
services to connect multiple systems, and some connecting cables and peripherals.
Business Implementation & Benefits- The implementation of an information system will help
the company to simplify its management work. The information will provide flexibility to the
food ordering and distribution system helps in the documentation of the staff and customers
information, helps in efficient accounting and salary distribution and will also provide storage
facility to store important information about the agricultural strategies and methodologies
followed by Ian (Pearlson, 2016).
Activity 3
Task Table
Tasks to be carried out in this project are (Fehrenbacher, 2017):
Task
No.
Tasks No. of Days Dependencies Predecessor
Tasks
1. Meeting with farm staff 2 days On the owner’s permission
2. Staff Interviews 5 days Staff availability and their
permission.
1
3. Review farm records 2 days Owner allowance and guidance 2
4. Observe Business
Operations
2 days Proper communication with the
owners, and the accounting and
production teams.
3
5. Customer Interview 1 day Depends on customers interest 1
6. Analyze accounting
process
2 days Guidance of the accounting team 4
7. Study of Orders and
Payments
2 days Study of operations and ordering
process of the company
5

8. Fieldwork for home
delivery service
2 days Study of the delivery timings and
staff.
4
9. Report preparation 1 day Depends on a detailed execution of
all the processes given above.
7, 8
Gantt Chart & PERT Chart
1 2 3
4 5 7
8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19
0
6
Figure 2: PERT Chart
The PERT chart shown above shows the flow of processes to be conducted by the project
manager before initiating the development of the information system. It shows the critical path to
be followed by the project manager for the understanding of the system requirements and
necessary components of the information system to be developed.
The Gantt chart for the process to be completed for the information system is given below. The
chart gives a detailed understanding of the process and helps in scheduling these processes. It is
necessary to develop a plan and a schedule to provide a good idea to the owners about how the
information will work and what will be its requirements.

The overall duration of the Information System project is expected to be around 18-26 days. This
estimate is generated by using the Gantt chart and the processes described in the task scenario.
ID Task
Mode
Task Name Duration Start Finish
6 2.2 Customer Interviews 1 day Wed 4/10/19Wed 4/10/19
0 EatOrganicFood 19 days Mon 4/1/19Thu 4/25/19
1 1. Conducting meetings 2 days Mon 4/1/19 Tue 4/2/19
2 1.1 Meeting with the Farm
Staff
2 days Mon 4/1/19 Tue 4/2/19
3 1.2 Meeting complete 0 days Tue 4/2/19 Tue 4/2/19
4 2. Interviews 6 days Wed 4/3/19Wed 4/10/19
5 2.1 Conduct a seeries of staff
interviews
5 days Wed 4/3/19 Tue 4/9/19
7 2.3 Interviews complete 0 days Wed 4/10/19Wed 4/10/19
8 3. Record Observation 4 days Thu 4/11/19Tue 4/16/19
9 3.1 Review farm records 2 days Thu 4/11/19Fri 4/12/19
10 3.2 Observe business
operations
2 days Mon
4/15/19
Tue
4/16/19
11 3.3 Complete 0 days Tue 4/16/19Tue 4/16/19
12 4. System Analysis 6 days Wed 4/17/19Wed 4/24/19
13 4.1 Analyse current accounting
process
2 days Wed
4/17/19
Thu
4/18/19
14 4.2 Study order & payment
transactions
2 days Fri 4/19/19 Mon
4/22/19
15 4.3 Fieldwork to understand
Home Delivery service
2 days Tue
4/23/19
Wed
4/24/19
16 4.4 Analysis complete 0 days Wed 4/24/19Wed 4/24/19
17 5. Final Report 1 day Thu 4/25/19Thu 4/25/19
18 5.1 Report preparation 1 day Thu 4/25/19Thu 4/25/19
19 5.2 Complete 0 days Thu 4/25/19Thu 4/25/19
4/ 2
4/ 10
4/ 16
4/ 24
4/ 25
28 30 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 1 3 5 7 9
March 2019 April 2019 May 2019
Figure 3: Gantt Chart

Risk and Cost Analysis Benefits
Activity 4
The risk associated with this project
There are a lot of risks associated with the implementation of any new technology. In the current
scenario of the Information System implementation, there are several types of risk identified and
shown in the below table along with their likelihood of occurrence (Yu, Chen & Jiang, 2015).
Sr.
No.
Risks Likelihood
1. Poor design due to the introduction of new technology. High
2. Insufficient experts and staff members. Medium
3. Application size and complexity Medium
4. Conflicts between organisational departments Low
5. Lack of Management Medium
6. Incomplete user acceptance and involvement High
7. Insufficient knowledge and requirements High
8. Funds and capital not available Medium
9. Networking and internet issues Low
10. Changing project requirements and scope Medium
11. High implementation and maintenance cost of the project High

Tangible and Intangible benefits of the Information System
Tangible Benefits:
 Increase in productivity- The information system is going to provide a proper schedule
and task distribution in the business process. This will directly affect the productivity of
the system as there is no wastage of time and manpower in this process.
 Low consumption of Time & Cost- Once the information system is implemented, the time
that was earlier wasted on the ordering and delivery of the food on the site can be utilized
in product improvement and documentation. This will also reduce the amount of
manpower used and will affect the overall costing of the business in a positive way.
 Fewer workforces and onsite management- With the help of an information system, a lot
of tasks can be completed on the computer systems. This will reduce the requirement of
the staff at the production site and will reduce the traffic on the site as well as in the
office (Searle, 2014).
Intangible Benefits:
 Improvement in the utilization of the resources and assets- The distribution of the assets
and the resources can be improvised using an information system. Proper scheduling and
distribution plan can be developed to provide an optimal asset distribution technique.
 Better planning and flexibility in the business- The system will provide a real-time
understanding of the activities and practices in the business which will help in developing
a better plan and will also provide flexibility in the execution of various business
processes.
 Better Decision Making and efficient operation- The knowledge generated by the
information is reliable and will give a better idea of how the business is working and will
also help to understand how the business should run in the future.
 Client and Staff satisfaction- The reduced workload and pressure in the business will help
in encouraging the staff members to put their best effort into production and
management. This will provide job satisfaction to the workers. The easy ordering and
delivery of the food, provided by the information system, also improve customer
satisfaction in the business (Alencar, 2013).

Estimated Costs
The estimated costs of various components of the information system development process can
be identified by developing a Gantt chart. It will give detailed information about scheduling, task
distribution and the utilization of resources. The estimated cost structure is as follows:
 Planning and Analysis Cost = $6,000 (approx.)
 Human Resource Cost = $ 8,000 (approx.)
 Cost of the Resources and System Requirements = $ 5,000 (approx.)
 Outsourced Services Cost = $ 5,000 (approx.)
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Whether a large-scale enterprise or a small business, all require a decision-making technique to
determine the success of a system. The cost-benefit method determines all the benefits of the
system and the costs associated with them. It helps the project manager to choose a method to go
ahead with. The methods of cost-benefit analysis that should be used in this project are
(Razzouk, 2017):
 Net Present Value Model (NPV)- It is calculated by taking the difference between total
cost and total benefits of the project. If the calculate NPV is greater than 0, then the
project can go ahead.
NPV= (Total value of Benefits) – (Total value of corresponding Cost)
NPV= $ 30,000 -$ 24,000
NPV= $ 6,000
 Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR)- It is the ratio of total benefit value with the total cost value of
the proposed project.
BCR= (Total value of Benefits) / (Total value of corresponding Cost)
BCR= $ 30,000 / $ 24,000
BCR= 1.25
On the basis of the results from the above methods of Cost-Benefit Analysis, it is Feasible to
proceed with the project.

Cost assumptions
The cost and value assumptions of the project are as follows:
 Total value of the project benefits = $ 30,000
 Total value of the project cost = $ 24,000
 Estimated project cost = $ 18,000 to $ 26,000
Recommendations & Conclusion
The Information System is developed to provides stability, consistency, and flexibility to the
“Eat Organic Food” and to its business process. To develop a successful information system, we
have used various planning, requirement gathering, risk and cost analysis techniques which will
check the feasibility and efficiency of the system.
The information system will be of great help to the “Eat Organic Food” and it is feasible to
implement it. The proposed project has a significantly strong business case because it will
improve some major departments of the business and will also help in future business analysis.
This report will provide a deep understanding and idea of how to proceed with the
implementation of the information system in the business process.