Reminton Peckinpaw Davis Project Management

Remington Peckinpaw Davis Project Management

Jorge Baro

June 20, 2011

Problem solution: Remington Peckinpaw Davis Incorporated

Remington Peckinpaw Davis is an asset group experiencing difficulties with its attempt to update its services and products to attract Internet savvy customers. Their online trading website (eRPD) had technical problems from the onset because of an informal plan that included unorganized daily tasks, lack of effort, and the common practice of guessing at the cost of projects. RPD has to resolve the problem with its mission diagram particularly as it compares to supply management and accessibility. "A good system balances the needs of both organization and the project/program appropriately through defining the line of demarcation between the project/program and the organization in terms of authority, distribution of resources, and ultimate integration of project/program results into mainstream operations (Gray & Larson, 2006. p. 55)

Describe the Situation

Issue and Opportunity Identification

RPD visionary Sam Remington was instrumental in establishing what the Wall Street market is today. Originally targeting American upper income echelon it was in need of growth and following the 1990s Internet and Real Estate boom it began catering to the middle class. To capture this Internet savvy customers it developed a strategic plan to develop the company's entry into online trading called eRPD. This plan however has turned into a liability as it has caused the company $1.7 million in damages due to a hardware crash. Online customers have been experiencing lengthy lag times in opening accounts, sporadic and inaccurate confirmation of trades, and errors in account information tracking and recording. All of this is causing and erosion in consumer confidence.

RPD's issues and opportunities are a result of problems in the eRPD project plan including a lack of project scope, sound project management structure, an absence of metrics to design and maintain performance, and finally inadequately established project priorities that caused the project time and resources to run short. "The main aim in defining the programs scope is to define as clearly as possible the desirables for the end user and to focus project plans. Studies indicate a strong link between clear scope definition and program success. The scope document helps focus efforts on the project/program's purpose throughout its duration for the customer and project participants" (Gray & Larson, 2006, p. 100).

Stakeholders Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

The entire project is at risk due to shortcomings in the project plan and has become a fundamental stakeholder issue as lack of clarity, shortness of time and resources have putt all participants in a state of chaos and at odds with each other. The ethical dilemma is how to manage program resources effectively without alienating those who have key talents necessary to the success of the program.

Frame the "Right" Problem

Rpd has the to define eRPD's program scope; develop sound project management syste; explore methods for effective performance management and measurement; prioritize the program's key element of scope, budget, and time ensuring project resources are aligned with project needs. "RPD's program management team has the opportunity to put the eRPD program back on track by prioritizing the programs key elements: Scope - scale back the key features on the website; budget - match the budget to the revised list of site features; time - to be shortened by using fast tracking, the Critical Chain approach, or scheduling overtime (Gray & Larson, 2006, p. 285).

Describe the "End State" Vision

Remington Peckinpaw Davis has implemented a successful program management process providing online customers with the features and benefits defined in the program staying well within the program's financial and operating forecasts.

Identify the Alternatives and Benchmarking Validation

First step is to purchase and implement management software.

May 2010- TeleNav a global leader in location-based applications delivered via a mobile device. One of the first to launch a GPS navigation and mobile workforce management service on a cell phone in North America, is partnered with every significant wireless carrier and device manufacturer. Looking for a timekeeping and project management system that had control over who could define projects and when time could be charged during the project life cycle. In addition it needed a system that would help with software capitalization, due to many expensed costs in previous years.

Unanet was chosen for its time tracking capabilities and detailed control. At unanaet's Third Annual Customer Meeting, Teri Dakan, Project Manager at TeleNav, described choosing to work with Unanet for its time reporting to support software capitalization among its international staff of more than 800 users. TeleNav boasts a high level of adoption, and much more accurate data for executive management on how project effort supports strategic priorities (Unanet, case study, 2010).

The second alternative is to hire an IT solution provider. Oracle is the leader in Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Unifying Performance Management and Business Intelligence (BI), supporting a broad range of strategic, financial, and operational management processes. Oracle provides a complete and integrated system for managing and optimizing enterprise-wide performance. This allows organizations to achieve a state of management excellence-being smart, agile, and aligned- that provides competitive advantage and leverages their operational investments (Oracle, about us, 2011). Oracle E-Business Release 12.01 has enabled us to streamline our manufacturing processes and reduce the amount of manual date required. "We are now able to deliver more orders on time and can complete our month end activities 60% faster, Shanti P, IT Department, Shanti Gears Ltd." (Oracle, Case study Shanty Gears, 2011).

The third alternative is to design and administer customer surveys to measure customer satisfaction. Motivating the organization was the topic for benchmarking. Imperial A.I. Credit, a financial services company used extensive customer satisfaction surveys