Case Study: White Pig Consulting

Case Study: White Pig Consulting

White Pig Consulting Ltd is a group of twenty-five consultants specialising in strategic planning, financial planning, change management and corporate governance. The group has been operating from their Nicosia offices in Ermou Street for over forty years and is a highly respected company with a long list of important clients. The company is now headed by Richard Goldbury after the recent retirement of Edward Corcoran. Under Mr.Corcoran the company operated the way it had for the last forty years: by using manual systems, a typing pool and lots of filing cabinets. Mr.Goldbury is determined to bring things up to date and has just purchased Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones for all consultants. He has engaged your company, Information Systems Implementation Services, to install a new information system. As the newly appointed Project Manager it will be your job to plan and then implement this project. Mr.Goldbury has requested that the project be complete and operational by 1st June.

Project Requirements White Pig Consulting Ltd have the following information system requirements at this time: •Install a network of computers in each professional and administrative office. The network operating system should be Microsoft.

•Mr. Goldbury does not know much about computers but thinks that PCs running Windows 10 Professional would be appropriate. He is keen that only ‘the best’ machines be used and has requested that you supply only IBM computers and HP printers. There are twenty-five consultants (including Mr. Goldbury) and ten assistants (each of whom will need a computer). The administrative office is to be re-organized(after most of the ten typists are retrenched) and will have a total of five administrative staff. Mr. Goldbury thinks that each of these staff should have their own computer. Each of the con-sultants (and assistants) will also need their own (small) laser printer. The administrative office will require two larger, faster laser printers with several paper trays. The building in which Paramount are housed is quite old, but provision can be made for network cables in the ceiling. There is no room suitable for a network server but Mr. Goldbury will authorize some building work to convert a storeroom for this purpose.

•Install Microsoft Office XP (Professional) software on all computers.

•Install broadband Internet access (via Fiber cable) and ensure all computers in the network have Internet access.•A set of Excel VBA spreadsheets macros to make up the information system that will be used by the consultants in planning their work. Mr Goldbury has detailed the requirements here and you will write these macros in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

•Install a new accounting system using MYOB. Access to this system should be available to two administrative staff to send invoices, enter payments and print accounting reports.

•Create a simple Web page advertising the company’s presence.

•Most consultants often work from the premises of their clients and, although they try to take all relevant documentation with them, sometimes need additional files from the office. The system should al Tatnall & Reyes 165 low them to download these files while ‘on the road’, using Internet access via a laptop. Purchase five Bluetooth enabled laptop computers (IBM) and set up connections to the mobile phone of each con-sultant. Set up access, via the Internet, to relevant files in the office.

Assignment 1b (The Project Plan)

You should ensure that your project has no over-allocated resources, or dangling tasks. Before submission you should save the project with a baseline. You should include:

• A letter and firm quotation to White Pig Consulting Ltd. This letter should summarise the important items in the budget and schedule, and indicate any important dates – such as when cabling work is to occur, when training is planned and when the project is to be completed. It should, however, include only information that is relevant to White Pig Consulting Ltd, and be expressed in a form that will be readily understood.

• A memo to your boss, the Director, including: table of contents and executive summary, a list of any assumptions you have made, and any special requirements for the project, a detailed Gantt chart showing the critical path, with a baseline project schedule, a Network diagram (PERT chart) with no dangling tasks: that is, every task should be on a path from the first to last task, a Microsoft Project summary report, a series of other reports showing detailed costing, and resource usage.

• Do you agree with the idea of Mr. Goldbury? What will you change in order to update the office?