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1. Executive Summary
If the business has to compete effectively,
there is a need to move beyond the historical and rear-view of the knowledge of
the business performance as well as customer behavior so that they can become
more proactive. That is the essence of business analysis. Carrying out business analysis in an
effective manner will make the company gain vital information and insight that
can be helpful to them in detecting the patterns and trends. The organization
will also have the ability of anticipating events. Forecast; learn the changes
in customer behavior so that it can be possible to take actions that result in
the achievement of the desired business outcomes. The success of a company can
only be predictive and proactive, and that can offer an opportunity for making
changes in business that may lead to improvement of many functions and
operations, marketing and sales, and better financial management. Business analyzes
also provide predictive analytics that can bring a great potential into a
business regarding predicting for events that are useful to the business’
success. Without carrying out business analysis, a company will not know its
position in the market and the areas that are causing low performance to occur
in the business (Blais, 2012). Therefore, this project on business analysis for
the company is of paramount importance and should be fully supported by all
stakeholders.
2. Introduction
2.1 Purpose of Business Case
The understanding of a new system is vital and
relatively easy. however, to gain an
in-depth understanding of why it is in requirement, the benefits that will
accrue from the same and the impact they will have on the performance is far
more difficult. That is where the business case comes into play. It is used to
explain the reason for making an investment and how the firm will see a return
on investment for that project at some point in the future.
The business case is intended to be used by the
stakeholders of the company including the business owner and senior management.
3. gENERAL Project iNFORMATION
4.
Project Description
4.1.
Business Need
Many firms and enterprises
fail to conduct business analysis for their organizations, and that can be
risky because they cannot have the knowledge of many crucial things regarding
their position in the market and their competitive trend. The organization has
been losing a lot of funds because they cannot adequately measure the outcome
of their actions. They lack to conduct a thorough analysis of their decisions
before they can move on to the new decisions. Also, many enterprises do not
have the knowledge of the competition that exists in the market and for that reason;
they implement ineffective technologies that make them not to have a commanding
power in the market that can, in turn, help them to compete favorably with the
rest of the enterprises.
The knowledge of the market
would have helped them to understand their competitive position and implement
solutions that can see them having some commanding power in the market and
perhaps beat their rivals. The other issue that is prevalent with the lack of
doing business analysis is that the investments in companies are failing to
give the favorable return on investments. They may also give a return on
investment, but they do not do it as quickly as they should, therefore
resulting in the waste of many resources as they continue to pump in a lot of
funds with the aim of trying to recover from the failure.
The other issue in the market is that the
enterprises no not have the ability to achieve then required standardization
because they cannot understand the standards required for their many processes,
technologies, and operations. The lack of carrying out business analysis also
makes businesses to lack necessary collaboration that is aimed at making the
business move forward through improved performance (Cadle, Paul & Turner,
2010). They cannot
identify the areas that they have to improve on so as to make sure that each individual
and department fully exploits their potential to make sure that the company has
high performance.
4.2.
Goals/Scope
The aim of
doing this business analysis is to help an organization understand its market
position so that they can know the areas that they need to improve on so as to
make sure that they make an improvement. It is also intended to help the
organizations know the issues that are bedeviling them so that they can
effectively address them and therefore progress to better heights in their market
position. The other goals for carrying out business analysis are to help the
organization to make meaningful investments that can have a quick return on
investments. The project is also aimed at helping the organization to know the
areas in which they need to coordinate efforts internally and externally so
that they can work as a team and have the quick achievement of their enterprise
vision.
The project
is also aimed at helping the organization to achieve the required standards in
their processes, operations, and technologies. By meeting the required
standards, auditing can be easy and they not have to be ineffective in their
performance (Cravens & Piercy,
2006). The other aim of doing this project is to create a strategy that
will help organizations to use the best approach towards addressing the
performance issues and also make well-informed decisions to achieve high
performance. The project will help the organization to achieve value from their
investments because they will know the areas they are doing well and those
areas that they are not doing well. By so doing they will improve on the areas
they are doing well and change the areas they are not doing well so as to chive
desired value.
The project
will also help the organization to have the knowledge of all the costs that
they may incur while making their investments. That is because many times
business lacks the knowledge of all the costs they would incur, thereby failing
to set apart enough resources to accomplish their projects. That, in turn, leads
to failures of projects. The project is also intended to help the organization
to reduce the overall costs of projects. The costs that are reduced include the
costs of rework, the reduction of requirements churn, and investing in less
cost-effective solutions. The project will also help the organization to
prioritize the stakeholders’ efforts to ensure that they invest their efforts
in the requirements to achieve most potential benefit. The project is also
aimed at providing a framework that can help the IYT team to scale.
The goals and
objectives of any organization are to maximize profit while minimizing son
costs. The development of projects in organizations is also commonplace because
it is those projects that help the organizations to make improvements in areas
in which it is ineffective. The essence of the business analysis to support the
business strategies, goals, objectives and needs cannot, therefore, be ignored.
The project will give them the facts upon which they will have to make well-informed
decisions on their investments in operations. It is through business analysis
that the companies will get to know about their status and make intelligent
business decisions towards the betterment of the situation (Dyllick, & Hockerts, 2002). The
project will give an organization the facts upon which it should reflect on the
actions and avoid repeating the actions that did not bring any change before.
There many
benefits that will accrue from the project and they include the following:
·
It will help
the organization to identify the real pro4belsm fo opportunities it faces
through the engagement of the correct stakeholders in the discussion.
·
It will also
aid to articulate a common goal and scope of work on which they should frame
and focus the future activities.
·
It will help
the organization to determine the stakeholder requirements that should address
the identified problem or opportunity in an effective way.
·
It will
facilitate the choosing of the best alternative among the alternatives
available for the problem solution of opportunity for improvement.
·
It will help
the organization to validate that the end product or result is in line with the
original goal or the intent of the project being undertaken.
·
The project
on business analysis will help to reduce the time it takes to carry out the
work by ensuring that the right standards and tool are applied across the
initiatives.
·
It will help
the organization to deliver consistent and highly quality results that will
make it stand out in the market.
4.3.
Risks/Issues
Risks of the failure to execute
There are
many risks that many accrue from the failure to properly execute effective
business analysis for business. The first risk is a waste. When an organization
fails to carry out business analysis, it will risk wasting resources such as
time and money. The lack of awareness of the exact problem an organization is
trying to move will make it spend much time revisiting the portfolio and
guiding decisions. The other risk is that the organization is likely to rework its
many activities. If an organization only focuses on the wrong problems, the
project development team is likely to go back and redo most of the activities
they have been doing to solve the actual problem (Palepu & Healy, 2013). It
means that they will have to rework and waste many resources in the process.
They may also leave many projects incomplete, or they may lack to realize other
crucial projects.
The third
risk so the failure to effectively execute the business and analysis project is
that there will be missed opportunities. The missed opportunity will be as a
result of solving the wrong problem. That will, in turn, impact the resources
and keep the enterprise from finding a solution to the wrong problem. Lastly,
there will be the risk of scope creep. The lack of a clear idea of the benefits
a new product will bring the company, which only business analysis can inform,
can result in overdoing the solution.
Risk of
doing the business analysis project
There are
also some risks that accrue from doing business analysis project. The project
will inform an organization about what it has been doing wrong. That
information may hurt an organization after finding out the opportunities that
they have missed while they were solving the wrong problem using valuable
resources.
5.
High-Level Business Impact
5.1.
Impact to Business Functions/Processes
The business
analysis project will impact many company business processes/functions if the
success has to assure. One of the functions that will be impacted is the
project selection, implementation and management procedures and leadership.
Some leaders may need to be retrenched for their failure to direct the project
selection and development processes properly. Some new force may also be
brought in so as to address the challenges that the organization has been
facing in their investment activities and projects. Some business processes
will have to be brought in to ensure that the past failures are not repeated or
that the new opportunities are effectively seized. The lengthy processes of
making decisions and doing guesswork will be eliminated and instead they will
be replaced with more concise and cost-effective processes that will not waste
much time and resources (Carkenord, 2009).
5.2.
Plans for addressing ongoing operations and future growth
There will be
a need to have some additional hardware and software that are aimed at making
the tasks of business analysis more effective than before. For instance, the
organization will need to have in place the hardware for managing big data such
as Hadoop to help with the analysis of the business and deliver the desired
reports that will help to make well-informed business decisions. There will
also be a need to have a business intelligence system such as the Oracle
business intelligence as it will help to analyze the company information from
the many systems and report them to the decision makers. There will be a need
to install the platforms and software such as the dashboard to help present the
performance reports in a variety of ways to allow the decision makers and other
stakeholders to understand the trend. The dashboard will also help the decision
makers to collaborate their efforts and communicate effectively concerning the
required decisions to be made.
All those new
hardware and software will require funds for purchase and installations
including the funds for training those that will work on them. They may also
require additional staffs in case the organization lacks adequate staffs that
will work on them. Since the funds will not be much, the organization will have
to produce the funds, and if the funds are not enough, they will have to get
loans from the partners of the financial institutions because they are sure
that the new investment will bring many benefits. They will have to advertise
the new job positions on the relevant media so as to get as many applicants as
possible from where they will then select the best professionals that will
deliver the desired value to the organization.
The
investment performance will be measured by putting place the key performance
indicators against each goal or objective of the business.
6.
Alternatives and Analysis
Alternative
A: Manual Business Analysis
The company needs to make a decision of
whether to have the business analysts be making the analysis of the business’
performance or to have the help of software such as Hadoop, Oracle Database,
dashboard and other intelligent systems. Each alternative is associated with
its costs, benefits, payback period, return on investment and security. Going
manual may help in making the decision that requires critical thinking, but the
process is prone to making errors and wasting a lot of time and resources. They
will also have to incur additional costs of hiring the auditors to help in
achieving the required standards. The manual process will also require other
additional costs of employee training to meet the ever-changing needs of
customers and the technology.
Alternative B: Automated Business Analysis
On the other hand, the automated analysis
swill also helps to analyze the business in the most cost-effective and timely
manner properly. It will also help to eliminate many of the security issues and
errors prevalent in manual analysis. However, the initial cost of implementing
the software and the hardware for automated analysis will be high as compared
to leveraging manual business analysis. There are also other additional costs
of maintenance and upgrading of the system. But despite the fact that the
benefits that will accrue later will make the investment more economical as
compared to the manual process, it is worth opting for it.
Alternative C: Outsourcing
Outsourcing is another alternative that the
company can leverage whereby it will have an external auditor firm or
individual to carry out business analysis from time to time. That will help the
company to transfer the risk to the other party, and it will avoid the costs of
purchasing and implementing costs hardware and software in its premises. The organization will also avoid incurring
the additional costs of getting new staffs to carry out the analysis. However,
there are also other costs that accompany the outsourcing of business analysis.
The external party does not have in-depth knowledge of the business and its
operations and therefore they may not help much in ensuring effective analysis
of the business. Also after their analysis, an organization will still have to
incur additional costs for implementing the solution identified by the external
party. Also, business analysis is a continuous process that requires the
company to monitor the operations continually and in case, there is any
deviation from the normal they can take actions swiftly.
Choosing Between the Alternatives
From the above analysis, the alternative
that can be most beneficial is the alternative B where the automated process is
being used to achieve business analysis. The alternatives bring a quick return
on investment, and the costs reduce by a great deal over the period of five
years.
7. Preferred Solution
7.1.
Financial Considerations
The funds for
the automation process as identified before are to come from the company (70%),
grants from NGOs (20%) and business partners (10%). those finances will cover
the operations costs, purchasing of hardware and software, payment for the
workers, and other miscellaneous expenditures.
7.2.
Preliminary
acquisition strategy/plan
The system
and business analysts will have to examine the costs thoroughly by conducting a
feasibility study of the proposed solution. They will then present the costs to
the executives and other funding agencies of individuals. Those will help to
scrutinize the projects against the anticipated benefits before the funding can
be approved. The procurement of materials should be done immediately after the
money is released.
Preliminary Work Breakdown Structure
Business Analysis Project
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Business Analysis Project
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8.
Assumptions
and Constraints
I.
The company has enough funds to support the project by 70
percent
II.
The project will lead to performance improvement of the
company
III.
The project will have completion within the specified time
IV.
The project will have approval by company executives
Constraints
I.
The costs estimation may not be accurate hence resulting in
cost overrun
II.
The organization may not have enough funds to support the
project by 70%
III.
The company may fail to find a willing NGO to support its
project
IV.
The analysis may not identify all the problems and
opportunities
References
Blais, S. (2012). Business analysis: Best
practices for success. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Cadle, J., Paul, D., & Turner, P.
(2010). Business analysis techniques: 72 essential tools for success. London:
British Computer Society.
Carkenord, B. A. (2009). Seven steps to
mastering business analysis. Ft. Lauderdale, Fla: J. Ross Pub.
Cravens,
D. W., & Piercy, N. (2006). Strategic
marketing (Vol. 7). New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Dyllick, T., &
Hockerts, K. (2002). Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability. Business strategy and the
environment, 11(2),
130-141.
Palepu,
K. & Healy, P. (2013). Business analysis and evaluation: Using financial
statements. South-Western, Cengage Learning.
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Signature:
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Date:
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4.18.2016
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Print
Name:
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Lincoln
Jose
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Title:
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Business
Owner
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Role:
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Approving
investments
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Signature:
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Date:
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4.18.2016
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Print
Name:
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Jesse
Mohamed
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Title:
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Project
manager
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Role:
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Managing
project implementation
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Signature:
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Date:
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4.18.2016
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Print
Name:
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Margaret
Teresa
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Title:
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CEO
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Role:
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Proving
legal advice and approving projects
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Definition
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Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in research paper company if you need a similar paper you can place your order for pre written essays.
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