Project Management Implementation of E-Commerce within BHP STEEL

Question: Discuss about the Project Management for Implementation of E-Commerce within BHP STEEL. Answer: Introduction Project management is one of the important aspects that need to be planned and implemented well within any organization in order to gain sustainable outcomes in consideration with the goals and objectives of the organization. In contrast with this E-Commerce Implementation within BHP STEEL is considered in this report to be elaborated as one project management and implementation aspect (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). The areas that are being elaborated within this report include project objectives, project environment, risk assessment and important tools and techniques used in this project. Organizational Setting and Project Environment Organization culture and environment should be studied in order to plan the project development plan and to achieve successful results after the project completion. In this report the selected organization is Broken Hill Proprietary Limited which is the Australias largest steel manufacturing company (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). This is one of the subsidiaries that manufacture various type of steels and which helped them in grabbing their target markets. The organization has broad range of consumers all over the world, in spite of this, they have to deal with many corporate complexities that were reducing their effectiveness within the competitive market (Kerzner 2013). In contrast with their internal demands about their customer satisfaction as well as maintenance of organizational goals and objectives they decided to incorporate E-Commerce facility within their organization. This will benefits their corporate structure as well as their business perspectives (Burke 2013). They had implemented the Electronic Data Interchange policies in order to make their work structure more effective. There were 20,000 employees with billions of customers within BHP STEEL around the world. Therefore, it was mandatory to incorporate the E-Commerce activities within the organization in order to deal with their customers in better way (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). The project environment of the organization was demanding and effective for the implementation of the B2B E-Commerce Process. Objectives and importance of the project within BHP STEEL Definition of B2B E-Commerce Implementation Project The E-commerce is nothing but the process of buying and selling of products and goods over an electronic network. In addition to this, the organizations also can transmit their data with the help of internet in the process of E-Commerce. BHP STEEL is worlds largest steel manufacturer company that wanted to expand and flourish their business over broad range of market segment (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). They chose E-Commerce for flourishing their business and to be communicated with their customers as well as organizational members. The transactional process needed a network support within organization that will be providing them easy transferring medium for not only communication but also business transactions (Chan, C. and Swatman 1999). The organization wanted to implement the E-Commerce facilities within it. The concerned assumptions for this implementation were good enough to support their goals and objectives. Objectives of BHP STEEL in Implementing E-Commerce Following are the objectives behind implementing E-Commerce within the organization: To manage their worldwide expanded business To increase their competitive advantages To incorporate strategic movements for having a signature step towards improvement To assists new challenges that were being involved within the organization To incorporate the business benefits as the result of E-Commerce implementation To incorporate new trends in the sector of business improvisations The above mentioned facts needed to be incorporated within BHP STEEL. The business expansion was possible for the organization with respect to their business needs and developmental perspectives (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). With the help of the above mentioned achievements, the organization can easily expand their business process within their target market. This report is elaborating the implementation and improvement of the conventional business process. Improvised Objectives in Implementing E-Commerce BHP STEEL has implemented E-Commerce within their organization in order to achieve competitive advantage and to maintain their improvements (Burke 2013). In spite of these aspects, the organization missed out some facts that may be helpful in implementing E-Commerce in a better way. Therefore, in order to achieve these advantages BHP STEEL should incorporate the following objectives: To do the planning of electronic commerce initiatives To incorporate more specific strategies for developing electronic websites for their organization To manage the electronic commerce implementations To incorporate new advertising strategies for their products and services To establish a new set up for implementing strategic steps for E-Commerce applications BHP STEEL can implement these strategic objectives in order to incorporate advanced version of E-Commerce implementation. In contrast with their organizational demands and goals, these objectives would be helpful for their improvement (Schwalbe 2015). If these strategic objectives were achieved by the organization, their competitive advantages would be much higher than the present one. There was lack of concentration in the technical part of the implementation process. BHP STEEL does not focus enough in technical concepts of the E-Commerce implementation process; as a result, web site designing and other concepts like this were not so much compatible with the organizational goals and objectives (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). Project Plan Discussion on the Project Plan of BHP STEEL This report is elaborating the project management concepts and descriptions about the implementation process of Business-to-Business E-Commerce within BHP STEEL. The organization has followed the conventional process of implementing E-Commerce (Doeden, Pugazhendhi and Digital River 2016). This conventional project planning shows the implementation of E-Commerce within BHP STEEL. At that time of implementation of E-Commerce, the main concern was centred into three areas: identification of the perfect literature for implementing E-Commerce, Developing and initial model for it and refining process of the model. In spite of these three considerations, the organization focused on the second part of these prospects: development of the initial process model for E-Commerce Implementation. In addition to the above mentioned phases, BHP STEEL focused on three separate stages for implementation of E-Commerce: Early Implementation, Electronic Trading gateway and Bar-Coding and Internet based E-Commerce (Chan and Swatman 1999). Early implementation This was the first stage to implement E-Commerce. This stage was taken into account in order to replace the manual system that was incorporated within BHP STEEL (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). This was started in 1989. The firsts designed system invented in this stage was the PC-Based purchasing system that has built-in EDI capabilities within it. Many negative aspects were replaced by this system. Electronic Trading Gateway After the first stage covered by BHP STEEL, they decided to control the electronic trading gateway (Chan and Swatman 1999). This was done to add value to the relationship of trade partners according to the electronic documentation and communication standards. Internet based E-Commerce This was the last stage that made the entire business process of BHP STEEL online. All the transactions were operated through internet. Project Stages Time Spans Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Early implementation Electronic Trading Gateway Internet based E-Commerce A Project Plan for Improving E-Commerce Implementation The project plan followed for BHP STEEL was not specific in consideration with the developmental aspect. They could have focused more in website designing (Wang, Li and Wang 2015). Web site designing is one of the most effective and important feature of the E-Commerce implementation. This not only increases the brand value but also attract the customer for its innovative features. Therefore, there must be some additional factors for website designing (Sudia 2013). First two stages should be there in the improvised project plan but in some detailed manner and there will be some additional factors in the third stage of the conventional project plan that will suggest the web site designing concept. Project Stages Time Spans Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 1.Early implementation 1.1 PC-Based purchasing system set up 1.2 Technical Knowledge development training program 1.3 Technological Innovation Development 2.Electronic Trading Gateway 2.1 Establishment of an external gateway 2.2 Implementation of EDI 3.Internet based E-Commerce 3.1 Online Transactions 3.2 Website designing 3.2.1 Planning 3.2.2 Project Creation and Resource Levelling 3.3.3 Design 3.3.3.1 Strategy Design 3.3.3.2 Home page design 3.3.3.3 Interior Page deign 3.3.3.4 Blog post and roll design 3.3.3.5 Cart and wish list facility The above table shows the project planning details for the E-Commerce Implementation (Abou-Shouk, Lim and Megicks 2016). The above elaborated stages of website designing can be implemented within the project plan of BHP STEEL. A website is one of most attractive feature that increases the competitive advantages of the any organization those are interested in online e- business activities (Poggi et al. 2014). Therefore, the following stages will be helpful in designing the web for perfect E-Commerce implementation within BHP STEEL: Planning, Project Creation and Resource Levelling, Design, Strategy Design, Home page design, Interior Page design, Blog post and roll design, Cart and wish list facility. Relevant Project Management Concepts, Tools, Techniques Demonstrating Knowledge and Understanding of Project Management within BHP STEEL Project for Improvisation Scheduling Resources and Costs Scheduling the resources and analysis of the cost involved within project plan is very important in order to check if there are any kind of crisis of these resources. This pre-determining stage will be helping BHP STEEL to arrange their resources before starting their project (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). The resource scheduling helps the project manager to arrange the products and services in order develop the E-Commerce implementation project within their organization. In contrast with this aspect, two Resource scheduling and cost analysis is provided in this part of the report. Scheduling of resources and cost analysis with respect to the organizational goals and objectives of BHP STEEL are being elaborated as follows, which will be providing the difference between the advanced project planning and conventional project planning for the implementation of E-Commerce within BHP STEEL: Conventional Scheduling of Resources and Cost Project Stages Time Spans Resource Name Cost Involved Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Early implementation Project Manager, Software designer $10,000 Electronic Trading Gateway Software designer, coding expert $20,000 Internet based E-Commerce Coding expert, Software developer $30,000 Improvised Scheduling of Resource and Cost Project Stages Time Spans Resource Name Cost Involved Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 1.Early implementation Project manager $5000 1.1 PC-Based purchasing system set up Software developer $2000 1.2 Technical Knowledge development training program Technicians, software developer $3000 1.3 Technological Innovation Development Project manager, Technical head $1000 2.Electronic Trading Gateway Project manager $5000 2.1 Establishment of an external gateway Project manager $2000 2.2 Implementation of EDI Project manager, Coding experts $1000 3.Internet based E-Commerce Technical head, Software developer $3000 3.1 Online Transactions Project manager $5000 3.2 Website designing Software developer $2000 3.2.1 Planning Project manager $3000 3.2.2 Project Creation and Resource Levelling Project manager, project administrator $5000 3.3.3 Design Software developer, coding expert $1000 3.3.3.1 Strategy Design Designer $3000 3.3.3.2 Home page design Designer, software developer $6000 3.3.3.3 Interior Page deign Software developer, coding expert $4000 3.3.3.4 Blog post and roll design Software developer, coding expert $2000 3.3.3.5 Cart and wish list facility Software developer, coding expert $5000 Management of Risks within B2B Implementation of E-Commerce Project within BHP STEEL Identified Risks Risk assessment is very important for any kind of project management measures. These risks are nothing but the factors or incidents that reduce the effectiveness of project development. Both the conventional and improvised E-Commerce implementation process involves almost same kind of risks within project (Clemons et al. 2013). These are classified as follows: Risks/ Identified Issues Descriptions Technical Issues Complexity: Different technologies have various complexity involved within it. These factor affects the successful implementation process of the project (lo Storto 2013). EDI is one of the complex systems and web site designing is also complex structure. Compatibility: Inter-organizational activities are considered in case of the E-Commerce implementation process (Monteiro, Swatman and Tavares 2013). Therefore, compatibility is one of the most effective issues within this consideration. Management Issues Management commitment and support: The commitment can be raised as the effective risk within BHP STEEL (Bhpbilliton.com 2016). Resistance to change: Resistant to change is also one factor that is recognised as risk. Business Issues Business relationship: This aspect also harms the project implementation process. Cost involved: Cost effectiveness should be there in order to maintain effectiveness of the project implementation (Kerzner 2013). Mitigation of risks Mitigation of risks is an important part of risk management concept. These aspects will results into the successful completion of the project. Therefore, mitigation of risks also needs focus of the project manager. All the above mentioned risks should be mitigated in order to get good and optimal solution and successful results. Identified Risks Mitigation Policies Technical Issues Complexity Recruitment of high skilled technicians will be helpful in identifying the technical issues and also complexity can be reduced (Schwalbe 2015). Compatibility Best suitable platform for this project will be helpful in reducing the impact of compatibility. Management Issues Management commitment and support Management should take step to be more flexible with their employees (Leach 2014). Resistance to change: Employee training should be properly incorporated within BHP STEEL (Bhpbilliton.com 2016) Business Issues Business relationship Cost involved International business standards should be followed by the BHP STEEL Performance Management of B2B Implementation of E-Commerce Project within BHP STEEL The performance management of any kind of project involves few set of stages that specifies effectiveness of the project and its results. These stages are planning, monitoring, and strategy selection for project development, improvement scope analysis, and measurement of effectiveness (Marchewka 2014). In case of E-Commerce implementation process, within BHP STEEL must incorporate these stages in order to check their internal and external performance with respect to the concerned target market. Planning: The planning of the E-Commerce implementation should have to be done first in order to analyse the circumstances of the implementation process. Monitoring: The monitoring measure involves study of working principle for the project development (Turner 2016). This helps the project head and BHP STEEL to measure their effectiveness in implementing E-Commerce. Strategy selection for project development: In this case, website improvisation will be the best strategic decision for making the E-Commerce implementation more successful. Improvement scope analysis: In each stage of the project development, the improvement scope should be analysed (Anderson et al. 2013). Measurement of effectiveness: This stage should be repeated after every stage of the project development. Conclusion E-Commerce is transforming the business process into an electronic media based process of transaction. This involves transaction of goods and services as well as the electronic data. BHP STEEL has incorporated a new project implementing E-Commerce within their organization but this does not involves any specific improvisation standards. In this report, based on this earlier project on specific project management is done on the website designing for implementing E-Commerce within BHP STEEL. In contrast with these aspects, the entire new project has described in this report for improvisation of the implementation of E-Commerce within BHP STEEL. This report will be providing an outline of successful implementation of E-Commerce within BHP STEEL. In addition to this, the organization will be guided about the improvisation scopes and areas within their E-Commerce implementation plan. Overall, all the important aspects that are needed for successful implementation of E-Commerce has been di scussed within this report. References Abou-Shouk, M.A., Lim, W.M. and Megicks, P., 2016. 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