Reference no: EM132400405 , Length: word count : 750
Assignment - eProcurement Software Acquisition Project– Management Development Department
1. Organization Information:
SaseCo is a Saudi food and snack corporation headquartered in Riyadh. SaseCo has interests in the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of grain-based snack foods, beverages, and other products.
2. Project Profile
I. Name of Project - eProcurement Software Acquisition Project
II. Project Location
City: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
III. Problem Statement:
The collaborating companies will work together on documenting each company’s procurement business processes, defining common requirements for a new system, undertaking a solicitation to the vendor community, evaluating and scoring proposal received, selecting a product, and negotiating a contract for its purchase.
Procurement software in many companies is outdated and much of the entire process — from purchase request to vendor payment — is not automated. The result is that companies rely on inconsistent manual, paper-based processes that are time consuming, error prone, difficult to track and measure, and not easy to integrate with other systems. As a consequence, shadow systems have been developed to fill in the gaps and duplicate data entry has become common. Moreover, reports that are produced manually, are not consistent, and are often inaccurate.
IV. Project Purpose
The purpose of this project is to obtain an end-to-end eProcurement software product that includes best practices in procurement, that can be used to meet our company procurement needs, and that will alleviate many, if not all, of the problems and risks described in the “Problem Statement” above. A group of companies will collaborate to define common needs and acquire a Commercial Off-The-Shelf Software (COTS) product so that companies can change their business processes to comply with best practices in procurement rather that
automating their current inefficient practices. This COTS will be available to the companies as a shared service with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) as a delivery option.
V. Expected Outcome
The project will allow the collaborating companies to expand their ability to use best practices in procurement because of increased automation of the procurement process. They will be able to reverse many of the problems and risks inherent in the current way of doing procurement. Each agency will be able to obtain the data needed to effectively manage its procurement function, report to DAS and the Legislature, and improve service to its consumers of procurement services and to its vendors.
VI. Total Project Cost: NA
3. Business Case Overview:
i. Project Benefits:
Transaction benefits
Compliance benefits
Management information benefits
Price benefits
Payment benefits
ii. The cost elements:
License
Resourcing
Maintenance
Cost of creating and maintaining content
Cost of connecting to the suppliers
Programming management
Process design
Configuration / customization
Training
iii. Project Approach:
The project team will include subject matter experts in procurement, finance, and information technology from across the collaborating agencies. They will work together to identify and obtain a procurement product that meets collaborating agency needs.
The project team will:
1. Gather information about the eProcurement market place and implementations in other jurisdictions
2. Document procurement business processes in the collaborating agencies to ascertain what is being done currently
3. Come together and collaborate to create common requirements that would be included in a new end-to-end system
4. Rather than require system customization, collaborate on, acknowledge, and accept changes to business processes to comply with best practices contained within the end-to-end eProcurement solution
5. Work together to develop a solicitation for a new system
6. Evaluate proposals and vendor demos to select a system which best meets the needs of the collaborating agencies
7. Negotiate a contract for the new system
After contracting is complete, each collaborating agency may implement and pay for its new system. Even though each agency will implement independently, the other collaborating agencies will provide support to those collaborating agencies implementing later. They will share lessons learned and implementation documents from their own implementation experiences.
4. Project and Organization Strategy:
Overview of the e-Procurement Strategy:
The e-Procurement has been identified as a key strategic tool in increasing productivity by understanding how various systems interact and reducing procurement costs. Many countries have placed a major focus on e-Procurement as part of their e-Government strategies. International experience has clearly shown that the fundamental benefits of e-Procurement are related directly to changes in strategic sourcing, business processes, user behaviors and relationships with suppliers.
The overall procurement objectives, targets and priorities for the organization should be linked to the overall strategy of the company. E-Procurement strategy includes objectives in relation to the appropriate Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) necessary for successful implementation of such a strategy.
5. Project Charter
Project Name: eProcurement Software Acquisition Project
Project Number: 2413
Revision Number: RV-234
1. PROJECT GOALS
The goal of the project is to allow our company and other collaborating companies to expand the ability to use best practices in procurement because of increased automation of the procurement process.
2. SCOPE DEFINITION
The scope of this project includes:
Bringing together a group of companies (the collaborating companies) to work together to acquire end-to-end eProcurement software that could be used by those companies.
Collaborating to develop common requirements for the new software
A solicitation process to acquire the new software
A selection process to obtain the software which best meets the needs of the collaborating agencies
Negotiating a contract for the software
4. PROJECT TIMEFRAME
5. THREATS
- Need for visible executive sponsorship
- Achieving senior management support
- Motivating end-users to adopt the new systems
- Re-engineering internal processes and dealing with cross-company cultural differences
- Effort will be needed to avoid being seduced by the technology.
7. STAKEHOLDERS
Chief Executive Officer
Project designers, programmers and developers
Designated Procurement Officer collaborating companies, Partners
Accountant
Procurement Services
Business Development Manager
Chief Information Office
Legislative Fiscal Office
Other Staff, CFOs, and Budget Officers
PROJECT AUTHORIZATION