Reference no: EM132287829

GREEN COMPUTING RESEARCH PROJECT

Part 1: Project Integration Management

You are working for We Are Big, Inc., an international firm with over 100, 000 employees located in several different countries. A strategic goal is to help improve the environment while increasing revenues and reducing costs. The Environmental Technologies Program just started, and the VP of Operations, Natalie, is the program sponsor. Ito is the program manager, and there is a steering committee made up of ten senior executives, including Natalie, overseeing the program. There are several projects underneath this program, one being the Green Computing Research Project. The CIO and project sponsor, Ben, has given this project high priority and plans to hold special interviews to hand-pick the project manager and team. Ben is also a member of the program steering committee. Before coming to We Are Big, Inc., Ben sponsored a project at a large computer firm to improve data center efficiency. This project, however, is much broader than that one was. The main purpose of the Green Computing Research Project is to research possible applications of green computing including:

Data center and overall energy efficiency

The disposal of electronic waste and recycling

Telecommuting?Virtualization of server resources

Thin client solutions?Use of open source software, and

Development of new software to address green computing for internal use and potential sale to other organizations.

The budget for the project was $500, 000, and the goal was to provide an extensive report, including detailed financial analysis and recommendations on what green computing technologies to implement. Official project request forms for the recommended solutions would also be created as part of the project.

Ben decided to have a small group of people, five to be exact, dedicated to working on this six-month project full-time and to call on people in other areas on an as-needed basis. He wanted to personally be involved in selecting the project manager and have that person help him to select the rest of the project team. Ben wanted to find people already working inside the company, but he was also open to reviewing applications for potential new employees to work specifically on this project as long as they could start quickly. Since many good people were located in different parts of the world, Ben thought it made sense?to select the best people he could find and allow them to work virtually on the project. Ben also wanted the project manager to do more than just manage the project. He or she would also do some of the research, writing, editing, and the like required to produce the desired results. He was also open to paying expert consultants for their advice and purchasing books and related

Tasks

Prepare the financial section of a business case for the Green Computing Research Project. (Use T2). Assume this project will take six months to complete (done in Year 0) and cost $500,000, and costs to implement some of the technologies would be $2,000,000 for year one and $600,000 for years two and three. Estimated benefits are $500,000 the first year after implementation and $2.5 million the following two years. Use the business case spreadsheet template from the LMS to help calculate the NPV, ROI, and the year in which payback occurs. Assume a 7 percent discount rate, but make sure it is an input that is easy to change.