SWOT Analysis Presentation

Slices 11, 12 & 13

PEP Sales and Accounting Project
 SWOT Analysis

IFSM 461 6380

PEP Sales and Accounting Project Background
Purpose of the briefing
Business Strategy/goals
Factors or influences that determine SWOT
Controls 
Solution overview
Technology-People roles & functions
Integrated
Modernized
Efficient

The brief will analyze the existing factors or influences that PEP Inc. Has and what it would take for them to achieve their end state. Identifying strenghts and weaknesses, opportunities, or threats will give them awareness into improvement or steps to fix.

The solution is to replace the old system with a Sales & Accounting platform that will automate taskings and conform to commercial standards. This will reduce cots and allow PEP to perform other functions or continue growth.
2

SWOT Analysis: Strengths

Strengths a are internal factors that the company will leverage to gain the competitive advantage over peers or market

Strengths of the company help sustain their growth as they will be able to effectively build upon past successes
3

Unique, low-cost, and efficient products for the industry

Established process and defined roles for the business

Single and centralized access database for all users 

Expansion of sales staffing & manufacturing capacity
Engagement with leadership and managers for adopting changes

SWOT Analysis: Weaknesses

Weaknesses for SWOT are areas that PEP struggles with due to complacency, lack of training, or lack of up-to-date IT systems. They also have growth that they did not plan for and are establishing new requirements.
4

Outdated and time-consuming processes by staff 

Prone to human error and bottlenecks due to inefficiencies

Limited ability to extract data for manager analysis

SWOT Analysis: Opportunities

In a SWOT analysis, Opportunities are identified based upon external factors. External factors include business impacts that originate from outside of the organization and its influence. (Schooley, 2023) Opportunities also relate back to strengths and weaknesses. A strength could combine with a market situation to create an opportunity. Weaknesses that the organization intends to address can lead to an opportunity in the market. This is especially true where a weakness is consistent across an industry. 

New Market Expansion:
PEP has demonstrated that it can successfully capture a new market. What is has done successfully once should be used as a model for identifying new markets and partners to fuel future growth. 

Process Improvement:
Focusing on resolving the deficiencies in existing business processes will create an opportunity to take advantage of major improvements in process automation. This will have a leapfrog effect compared to large manufacturers with greater investment in legacy solutions than PEP has made to date. 

Volume Discount Offering:
PEP can push the market further to its products by creating incentive to buy more products at a time. Creating a deeper sales pipeline helps to secure cash flow and the future of the company.

New Product Expansion:
Expand the scope of engineering research to identify markets where our innovative offerings can create competitive advantages. The technology and patents at the core of PEP’s success should be leveraged to continue to refine and expand the products offered by the company.
5

Continue expansion into new markets with additional Sales staff

Leverage industry standard solutions to address process inefficiency

Marketing campaign for the Volume Discount offering

Expand product offering through engineering innovation

SWOT Analysis: Threats

The Threats category of a SWOT analysis accounts for external threats to the success of the company. Threats can relate to weaknesses such that a combination of a weakness and a threat represents a serious risk to the company. (Schooley, 2023) The threats to PEP come from a competitive market from larger organizations and overseas competition. Aside from competition, the other major area of concern is regulations and laws, especially as PEP expands into new and less familiar markets.

Excess Demand:
If PEP is unable to meet the demands of the market, customers will be encouraged to seek alternatives or forgo the benefit’s of PEP’s products. Growing the customer base also creates greater demand for regular improvements to existing products to address industry or technology changes.

Competitors with better B2B offerings:
PEP’s competitors are currently ahead with their Business-to-Business (B2B) customer experience. Competitors that provide a better sales and purchase experience could succeed in winning contracts even considering PEP’s superior technology. Partner channel integration allows customers to efficiently manage their supply chain and could be a requirement for some organizations.

Loss of Technical Advantage:
PEP has cornered a market, but strong competition could erode the technical advantage. Competitors will work aggressively to respond to the threat of losing their customers. Continued success will be impacted by competitors moving to retain or reacquire customers lost to PEP.

Regulatory Risk:
Expanding into new markets creates compliance risks from new regulations and laws. The cost of non-compliance can be heavy fines, production stoppage, or criminal charges. Ensuring that products and PEP itself meets requirements is a costly activity that could impact short term profitability or the speed with which PEP can enter a market. Competing with companies already operating in this space is a significant disadvantage for PEP due to lack of experience.
6

Failure to meet market demand creates opportunity for competitors

Larger manufacturers offer more modern customer interfaces

Established manufacturers surpass PEP offering

Expansion into the medical equipment market creates significant compliance exposure

SWOT Analysis Matrix

Strengths

Unique, low-cost, and efficient products for the industry

Established process and defined roles for the business

Single and centralized access database for all users 

Weaknesses

Outdated and time-consuming processes by staff 

Prone to human error and bottlenecks due to inefficiencies

Limited ability to extract data for manager analysis

Opportunities

Continue expansion into new markets with additional Sales staff

Leverage industry standard solutions to address process inefficiency

Marketing campaign for the Volume Discount offering

Expand product offering through engineering innovation

Threats

Failure to meet market demand creates opportunity for competitors

Larger manufacturers offer more modern customer interfaces

Established manufacturers surpass PEP offering

Cashflow lagging demand creates budget shortfalls in the short-term

Engagement with leadership and managers for adopting changes
Expansion of sales staffing & manufacturing capacity

Bridging the Gap Between Strengths and Weaknesses
Update their technology systems and train staff to operate & maintain
Integrate their product development and sustainment operations (sales, invoicing, shipping, and billing)
Real-Time system access and updating
Automatically generated reports and actions
Customer Account interface
Invoice interface
Payment processing interface

Pep Inc. Managers and executives should identify ways to improve their services or processes. They can establish training and documentation for new technology and new hires. Reports will provide them all the data but they must quantify and assess the metrics to see if there is gain or loss in performance. They must continiously re-assess their performance and ask for feedback from supervisors and the job performers and even customers.
8

Mitigating Threats and Risks
Identify consumer targets and focus on them.
Adopting consumer-friendly products and interface variations.
Increased learning about their competitors. 

One major step ITSC and PEP can take that will allow them to deal with cases of inability to meet market demands and extra competition ( results from a situation where your customers shift allegiance) is to identify their consumer targets and focus on them. If PEP has a 20 % base of a population consuming its products, then they can plan well for this number and their demand trends that will allow them to all the time meet their demands.
In cases of when consumers are tempted to change to a more desirable manufacturer, PEP knowing its consumers can plan well for expansions and any variation in taste that will prompt any switch to the competition. PEP can do this by adopting consumer-friendly products and being able to design their systems to adapt to consumer tastes and consumer-preferred interfaces. Thus, having an interface that variable enough for all kinds and types of consumers to use. 
PEP can mitigate the competition of established manufacturers by learning more about them. What makes them different? What do they do that PEP doesn’t do? Where did they come from and how they got where they got to? PEP can study their products, services and the experiences they give their customers and strive to do better. For instance, if the more established competitors have more income flow and that supports their established efforts, what makes it easier for them to balance their cashflow and revenue? And if found out, how or what could PEP do to become better. Knowing their competitors will help PEP make informed decisions to be able to stay I the competition and ousted by the competion. 
9

Strength Leveraging Steps
Steps PEP can take to leverage strengths. The following steps to leverage strengths has been determined
Establish a process
Define business roles
Centralize data access
Product efficiency  
Cost reduction 
Apply discounts

SWOT Analysis Matrix

Action Plan
Marketing and Organizational Enhancements

Summary/conclusion slide (keep in mind the purpose of the briefing is to obtain executive approval to implement the SWOT Analysis process)

References

Alouffi, B., Hasnain, M., Alharbi, A., Alosaimi, W., Alyami, H., & Ayaz, M. (2021). A systematic literature review on cloud computing security: threats and mitigation strategies. IEEE Access, 9, 57792-57807. 

Mishra, S., Anderson, K., Miller, B., Boyer, K., & Warren, A. (2020). Microgrid resilience: A holistic approach for assessing threats, identifying vulnerabilities, and designing corresponding mitigation strategies. Applied Energy, 264, 114726. 

Schooley, S. (2023, February 21). SWOT Analysis: What It Is and When to Use It. Business News Daily. How SWOT Analysis Can Help Grow Your Business (businessnewsdaily.com)

Zhang, N., Mi, X., Feng, X., Wang, X., Tian, Y., & Qian, F. (2019, May). Dangerous skills: Understanding and mitigating security risks of voice-controlled third-party functions on virtual personal assistant systems. In 2019 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP) (pp. 1381-1396). IEEE.

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Stage 4 – System Report

Information Systems Management: IFSM 461 6380

February 21, 2023

Table of Contents
I. Introduction 1
A. Background 1
B. Subject of the Investigation 1
C. Project Scope 1
D. Project Justification 2
II. Current System 2
A. Current System Overview 2
B. Purpose of the Current System 2
C. Problem Statement 3
D. Current Operating Expenses 3
III. Proposed System 4
A. Proposed System Overview 4
B. Improvement Project Scope 4
C. Benefits of the Proposed System 4
D. Feasibility Analysis 5
E. Improvement Project Time and Cost Estimates 6
F. Requirements 6
G. System Data Models 10
H. Process Models 13
I. System Design Specification 15
J. Recommended Acquisition Strategy 24
K. Implementation Plan 25
IV. Financial Information 27
A. Current System Operating Costs 27
B. Estimated Implementation Costs 27
C. Estimated Operating Costs 28
D. Proposed System Benefits 28
V. Summary 28
References 29

2

I. Introduction

A. Background

Over the past year, Precision Electronic Parts’ (PEP) explosive growth into new markets has exceeded the capacity of its business processes and now-dated technical solution. To keep pace with current and anticipated growth, both processes and technology require modernization. The CIO, Mark Temple, requested this preliminary investigation report to accelerate the implementation of a modern business solution. All relevant details are sourced from interviews of the Information Technology Steering Committee (ITSC) and analysis of the existing system.

B. Subject of the Investigation

PEP is a specialized electronics manufacturing company with an experienced leadership team. The company implemented an IT Steering Committee (ITSC) to set technology strategy and manage associated processes. The current system workflow depends on direct participation from the Sales, Invoicing, and Accounts Receivable departments. Other operational support tasks are performed by the IT, Marketing, and Ordering & Shipping departments. The affected departments report to the CFO, the VP of Business Administration, and the CIO. Given the cross-functional nature of the project, a project manager should be appointed by the ITSC to coordinate efforts between the different areas of the company.

C. Project Scope

The most effective way to scope the improvement project is to focus on addressing the end-to-end business process and associated data rather than individual departmental activities. Narrowly focusing on just the pain points in the process can create new bottlenecks in other departments if the entire workflow and supporting data is not brought into the new system. The scope will include the sales process from account creation to customer payment processing. The inclusion of each step in the workflow limits duplication of data between the old system and the new one as well as creating more opportunities for process automation. One of the risks of the current system, frequent data entry operations, is largely eliminated by bringing each step of the process into the new system. The system will not address the full accounting, inventory management, and shipping requirements of PEP during the implementation phase. The inclusion of all manufacturing and financial operations would significantly extend the duration of the project. The demands of keeping PEP operational under current demand is already stretching resources that would be needed to support such an endeavor.

D. Project Justification

The current process relies upon a complex lifecycle of report creation and data entry by the Ordering & Shipping, Invoicing, Marketing, and Accounts Receivable departments. The ability to support ad hoc reporting on the fly for leadership will also provide real-time insights into the business. Significantly reducing the risk of human error is a major benefit of adopting an end-to-end solution. The ability to take advantage of modern, electronic invoicing and payment options is assured through the adoption of a cloud-based solution. The planned features for volume discounts, electronic billing, and electronic payments that are currently targeted for implementation in six months are out of the box features for the popular cloud-based solutions.

II. Current System

A. Current System Overview

The existing Microsoft Access solution is a flat-file database implemented on the corporate network, and it currently supports all business operations for PEP. Microsoft Access, an Office Suite application, does not support integration with custom or cloud solutions, but it can export and import data using standard text formats. PEP may need to adopt short- and medium-term workarounds in lieu of system integration.

B. Purpose of the Current System

PEP’s current, Microsoft Access-based system supports all its major core business activities. The system is the repository for all sales, accounting, and fulfillment data. The data and reports stored in and generated by the system are integral to back office activities including customer account management, sales, pricing, billing, shipping, and payment processing. All business operations teams use the system and its reports to complete business processes.

C. Problem Statement

PEP’s accounting and business processes are unable to keep pace with current growth in demand. Manufacturing and Sales teams have been expanded to support demand but back office operations have not been similarly expanded. As evidenced by the short-term fix of assigning additional staff to support the process, invoicing and payment work requires significant manual effort to complete in the current system. The existing system, built using Microsoft Access, was never designed or intended to scale to the level of operations currently required by the company. While the current pain points are being experienced at the end of the sales process, there is more overhead in other areas of the workflow that can be optimized with better flow and more automation. In resolving the highest priority issues, PEP will also be in a better position to achieve the strategic business goals for the Invoicing, Marketing, and Accounts Receivable departments.

D. Current Operating Expenses

The costs of the current system include direct and indirect costs. The system was developed and maintained by the IT department. The direct IT costs include software licensing, hardware and software maintenance of the file server hosting the file server, updates to the Access database application, and managing database backups. Updates to the application include the creation of new reports and user support activities. The indirect costs come from time spent performing manual operations that the application does not support as well as rework to resolve issues. Access databases can have data integrity issues with multiple users actively working in the system at the same time.

III. Proposed System

A. Proposed System Overview

The proposed system will encompass the Sales and Accounting processes that form the entire sales lifecycle from customer account creation to payment processing. The proposed Sales and Accounting system is a process of processes that have areas of overlap. The proposed system focuses on automating current labor-intensive activities to best address the problems identified in the existing system. Adoption of a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) product or service is a core component of the proposed system.

B. Improvement Project Scope

The PEP Sales and Accounting System improvement project includes the creation of new interfaces and processes for new account creation, invoicing, and payment processing. The System Design Specification builds upon the foundation of the requirements detailed in the System Requirements Specification to define the shape of the solution. The design incorporates functional and data requirements into mockups, interfaces, and data diagrams. The design is a transitional step between requirements gathering and development work in the SDLC. The design process also supports refinement of requirements before development or build time is invested. Leadership and stakeholders can provide additional meaningful input with the artifacts created from the system design process.

C. Benefits of the Proposed System

The benefits of adopting a standard accounting package will come from the time saved in performing standard business processes. Adopting a system that supports automated workflows and automation of the sales cycle reduces the time spent just entering data into the system and generating reports. Shifting staff responsibilities from data entry to data verification reduces the possibility of errors and the time it takes to complete tasks. COTS products will follow a standard release cycle allowing technical staff to focus on customization and configuration rather than maintenance activities.

D. Feasibility Analysis

The two key factors to address in identifying a technically feasible solution are in the areas of technical complexity and ability to execute. The technical complexity of building a custom solution to meet PEP’s growing operational requirements is high, however, the company is part of a well-known industry and the processes in question are established parts of that industry. These factors in combination mean that there are system replacement options to choose from on the market that can be configured rather than customized. With the understanding that buying a solution is the only technically feasible approach, the determination of ability to execute shifts greatly. The IT Department does not need to evaluate its technical ability to replace the current system with a new one based upon a different development platform. The IT Department’s subject matter expertise in maintaining the data and reports in the existing system then becomes a key asset to successfully and quickly implement a replacement system.

The software industry uses two methods of delivering software and services to customers, on-premises and cloud-based. The key difference from a cost perspective is the licensing model used for each approach. On-premises software is typically licensed by product and number of users in combination with one-time costs for acquisition and annual costs for user support and software patches or upgrades. The cloud model aligns more with system and resource utilization. License fees are typically paid monthly for active users, system feature availability, and resource utilization. This a la carte approach to software provisioning allows companies to limit their costs to just the features they need with the ability to expand over time. Often, cloud providers separate user licensing costs into separate roles and responsibilities creating potential savings for users that only need limited access.

Change management and organizational adoption are the key intangible factors in successful implementations. The capacity for the organization to change how it operates and the tools it depends upon needs a strong commitment from leadership and among the users. Given the strong motivation to improve efficiency at the leadership level, consistent and frequent messaging should reduce resistance among staff. Setting expectations for the target state and staffing levels will alleviate the concerns usually brought about by changes like process automation.

E. Improvement Project Time and Cost Estimates

The system replacement project duration and cost depend upon the PEP’s requirements compared to the out of the box features of the selected platform. The project could be completed in as little as 10 weeks with close adherence to standard accounting practices and industry standards. The cost is dependent upon the number of active users required for initial implementation of the system. The scope of the recommended replacement solution is fully covered by the accounting packages offered by solution providers such as Oracle NetSuite and Intuit QuickBooks. Vendor selection should focus on alignment with current requirements and future strategy. Oracle NetSuite can scale to accommodate small, medium, and large organizations where Intuit QuickBooks is focused on the small-medium business market. (QuickBooks, 2021) Depending on the selected feature set and number of users, QuickBooks will cost anywhere from $2400 to tens of thousands of dollars per year. (Fan & Crawford, 2023) The base starting price covers the scope of the current system replacement project and allows for upgrades and expansion in the future. Initial implementation support is sometimes included with the service, provided as part of an initiation fee, or in complex scenarios professional consulting services. PEP’s needs can be met using out of the box features of the software platforms to handle standard accounting practices.

F. Requirements

The functional requirements of the Sales and Accounting system summarizes the key features of the system as defined by PEP. The purpose of the functional requirements is to ensure that the system behaves as necessary to replace the existing system while improving the process to achieve PEP’s stated goals for the project. System requirements have been gathered from the departments taking part in the business process as well as based upon data stored in the existing system.

1. Output Requirements

1. The system shall output customer bills in paper and electronic format on the last business day of every month.

2. The system shall generate reports of accounts that are 30 days and 60 or more days past due.

3. The system shall generate and send customers an electronic receipt on completion of payment processing.

2. Input Requirements

1. The system shall provide an interface for entering customer account information supporting at minimum all existing customer metadata.

2. The system shall provide an interface for generating new customer invoices including products and services.

3. The system shall provide for the entry of customer payments and the processing of electronic payments.

3. Processing Requirements

1. Customer invoicing processing requirements:

a. The system shall calculate product cost based on quantity, price, and volume discounts.

b. The system shall determine the customer’s preference for electronic or paper invoicing and transmit.

c. The system shall generate the invoice with the required customer account information.

d. The system shall generate the invoice Including past due and new charges.

2. Past due accounts reporting processing requirements:

a. The system shall calculate days past due for each customer account.

b. The system shall notify the Invoicing and Accounts Receivable departments of all past due customer accounts.

c. The system shall provide separate reports for 30 days past due and 60 days or more past due customer accounts.

d. The system shall include the required account information for proper notification to Sales associates.

3. Electronic receipt generation processing requirements:

a. The system shall generate the receipt with a combination of payment, invoice, and customer account data.

b. The system shall calculate the remaining balance for the customer account.

4. Technical Requirements

The technical requirements of the Sales and Accounting system represent the aspects of the system that are needed to ensure it works as expected. These non-functional requirements are not related to the behavior of the system from a business perspective but still relate to meeting business requirements. The categories that typically fall into this area of requirements gathering are security, compliance, and availability. The technical requirements help ensure that the system can perform as required by the organization.

5. Security Requirements

1. The system shall have sufficient granularity of permissions management to support the creation of least privileged system roles.

2. The system shall enforce two-factor authentication for all users.

3. The system shall encrypt all sensitive data including all system communications.

6. System Control Requirements

1. The system shall keep an audit log of all user operations including user identification, date and time, and the operation performed.

2. The system shall perform automatic verification steps to ensure the validity and accuracy of data for key operations including account information, invoice generation, and payment processing.

3. The system shall provide an approval process for users to perform sensitive system changes to accounts, invoices, and payments.

7. Performance Requirements

1. The system shall present an interface that responds in less than 5 seconds per screen.

2. The system shall complete the monthly invoice process in less than 4 hours with individual reports generated in less than two minutes.

3. The system interface shall support a minimum of 40 concurrent users.

8. Business Continuity Requirements

1. The system shall provide high availability with geo-diverse hosting.

2. The system shall support restoration of data from backup with a 4-hour response time.

3. The system shall support remote connectivity for mobile workforce and emergency scenarios.

G. System Data Models

The Accounting and Payment System scope diagram supplies a high-level overview of the proposed replacement for the existing PEP system. The diagram is intended to capture important stakeholders and system components for the replacement system. (Wiegers, 2019) The system scope diagram gives a general shape to the project in terms of participants, data, and processes rather than trying to capture the full details.

Diagram 1 – Context Diagram

Diagram 2 – Use Case Diagram

IFSM 461 Stage 4 System Report – Peters 2

The data flow diagram illustrates user interfaces with the system in conjunction with the management of the data required to support the operations. The relationship between actions and data helps to define what data is needed for what processes rather than representing the actual data architecture of the system. The diagram supports the review of data requirements and improves understanding of process dependencies and interactions. (Post, 2022) The PEP Sales and Accounting data flow diagram shows the user interactions with the system and data usage through the process lifecycle. The data flow diagram is specific to a narrow scope of functional requirements to support review of the information by the stakeholders.

Diagram 3 – Data Flow Diagram

H. Process Models

Process models provide multiple ways to capture the details of a given business or system process. Rendering a process through multiple models helps to account for process complexity and reduce the risk of important requirements details being missed or misunderstood. Each process model has strengths and weaknesses as well as potentially different target audiences. (Gallia, 2019) For example, software developers or system architects may prefer a structured English or universal markup language (UML) model for the ease of translation into code requirements. Business executives may prefer a decision tree for the straightforward representation of business logic. Large processes tend to make process models hard to consume, creating the need for the separation of functions or creating sub-processes to improve comprehension. For example, the PEP invoicing process models are scoped to the presentation of late fee calculations rather than a more inclusive model comprised of late fees and volume discounts. Separating similar functions allows business analysts and systems analysts to focus on a narrower set of requirements.

Model 1 – Structured English

COMPUTE-LATE-FEE

Subtract invoice date from today’s date

IF invoice is unpaid

And – IF DAYS-UNPAID is greater than or equal to 30

And – IF DAYS-UNPAID is less than 60

THEN: Notify Invoicing team

Notify Accounts Receivable team

Apply 2% late fee to AMOUNT-OWED

ELSE IF DAYS-UNPAID is greater than or equal to 60

THEN: Notify Invoicing team
Notify Accounts Receivable team

Notify Sales team

Apply 2% late fee to AMOUNT-OWED

Else (DAYS-UNPAID is less than 30)

So: no late fee is applied to AMOUNT-OWED

Model 2 – Decision Table

Conditions

Payment Late >= 30 days and < 60 days T F F Payment Late >= 60 days

F

T

F

Actions

Late Fee Applied

T

T

F

Invoicing Team Notified

T

T

F

Sales Team Notified

F

T

F

Model 3 – Decision Tree

I. System Design Specification

1. Output Layout

The design process benefits from starting with establishing the presentation and data elements of the system outputs. The outputs, such as reports, dashboards, or communications, can be considered goals of the system which drive data requirements and structures. Working backwards from a system output is an effective way to ensure that the required data is available as needed for each step in a process. Looking backward from a complete product to decompose data and processing can be less complex than trying to piece the product together from start to finish. Finalizing the output as much as possible up front reduces the likelihood for significant changes in the process to create the product.

a. Customer Invoice

The customer invoice includes all existing data elements from the PEP Sales and Accounting and adds support for the application of volume discounts in the future. The layout follows standard invoicing conventions to align with customer expectations. Space is allocated to present late fees as well as language for standard payment terms. All data elements are maintained in the system, making the invoice output a configurable representation of system data. The invoices will be generated as PDFs for record keeping purposes, email invoicing, and customer records. Printing from PDF format will keep the fidelity of the document. Invoices will be generated monthly from the database.

Diagram 4 – Invoice

b. Late Account Report

The Late Accounts report is a combination of configurable charts and tabular data that brings focus to PEP’s primary points of interest for managing late accounts. The three key points of information are the financial impact, breakdown of accounts by payment status, and an average of days past due for late accounts. Internal PEP notifications and alerts will provide direct links to the report. The tabular data includes direct links to customer account information as well as associated invoices. Date selection on the report supports reviews of historical data as well as forecasting. Setting future dates will allow the report to present PEP with invoices nearing a late payment status.

Diagram 5 – Late Account Report

c. Electronic Receipt

The electronic receipt is the confirmation for customers that payment has been received and processed. An appropriate selection of metadata from the order and invoice are displayed for context. The confirmation also includes shipping data to give a comprehensive view of the transaction. For partial payments, the remaining balance is provided. Similar to invoices, the receipt is generated by the system as a PDF file for record keeping purposes, email transmissions, and customer records requirements. Finally, contact information is included to direct inquiries to the proper PEP department and staff.

Diagram 6 – Payment Receipt

2. Input Layout
a. New Customer Account Interface

One of the most important interfaces is at the very start of the sales process where customer information is entered into the system. Each field supports validation for the appropriate data type. Future iterations of the system can consider adding the option for customers to request an account to further streamline the process, however, at this time, new account creation will continue to the be the responsibility of the Sales team. The interface provides tabbed selection options for entries with matching metadata requirements. An account completion progress bar supports the creation of an account for lead tracking without all required metadata. The system automatically generates account numbers to ensure uniqueness. Customer preferences for billing are captured from the outset with electronic options requiring primary and secondary points of contact. Finally, each account can have a Lead Sales Associate assigned to support ease of access by staff.

Diagram 7 – New Account Interface

b. New Invoice Interface

The new invoice interface provides a streamlined interface for product, service, and account selection. The interface flows from left to right and top to bottom for ease of use. Inline autocomplete streamlines the number of dialogues and pop-ups required in the system. The builder interface allows staff to quickly add and remove line items to create an invoice. Product selection supports lookup by name or SKU number. The discount value is managed by the system and cannot be modified in this interface. Service selection is by dropdown due to the narrow list of offerings. Additional lookup capabilities can be added based upon user feedback. The account lookup supports searching by account number or organization name. Billing and shipping addresses are presented upon selection. The default shipping address can be used to process shipping or an alternate address can be manually entered. Shipping and travel charges are automatically calculated by the system based on shipping address. Invoices can be saved as drafts or submitted to customers directly.

Diagram 8 – New Invoice Interface

c. Payment Processing Interface

The payment processing interface supports the manual entry of check or credit card processing as well as the acknowledgement of electronic payments. Starting with invoice lookup, the system returns pertinent invoice and account details to either side of the main interface area. The invoice details are pulled from the database with a link to view the full invoice. The account details information includes a visual indicator of account payment status, invoice history, and contact information. Payment information is entered with the minimal data requirements. Electronic payments are automatically populated for processing based on the system directly associating payments to invoices.

Diagram 9 – Payment Processing Interface

3. Database Design Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERD)

Entity relationship diagrams provide a visual representation of the data required to support data input and output. The PEP Sales and Accounting system improvement project addresses inefficiency in existing processes by making information readily available for each step in the business processes. For this to be possible without manual intervention by staff, the system manages the relationship of entities, or collections of metadata, in the database. The relationships between entities enable efficient storage of data and retrieval of related data such as all of the invoices for an account or the account associated with a specific invoice. The ERD is also a key design step in the process of creating the logical architecture of the system database. While ERDs are technical in nature, the combination of visualization, metadata labels, and relationship information bridges the gap between stakeholders, business analysts, and developers.

Diagram 10 – Customer Account & Invoice ERD

Diagram 11 – Late Payment & Invoice ERD

Diagram 12 – Payment Processing & Receipt ERD

J. Recommended Acquisition Strategy

The acquisition requirements for the Sales and Accounting Improvement Project are defined by the combination of industry standards, organizational capabilities, and cost. Purchase of a product to meet PEP’s needs for its business processes is a viable approach, however, it places additional work, training, and maintenance costs on the IT department. A modern product or platform will have more complex implementation, customization, and maintenance requirements than the existing solution supported by IT today. The cost of implementation support for a product is rarely included in the price of software. Similar points can be made in terms of COTS versus highly customized software. PEP would need to pay for professional services to implement and then face risks associated with maintaining the custom software over time.

PEP will gain the most benefit from a cloud-based, COTS solution. The manufacturing industry is well understood in terms of business operations, and PEP’s sales and accounting needs are not unique to the organization. Cloud offerings do have startup options that include support for the onboarding and implementation phases without the need for professional services charges. This includes the migration of data from the current solution to the new, cloud platform. Cloud-based, Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions do require constant connectivity and require subscription fees for users and utilization. The risk of loss of availability can be mitigated through a number of approaches such as adding backup internet connectivity or supporting mobile connectivity. Subscription costs are easily balanced against the cost of software maintenance and expanding the IT department to support an additional system infrastructure. Finally, a cloud service provider will have more dedicated IT personnel to support the platform due to its economies of scale.

K. Implementation Plan

One of the core benefits of choosing a cloud-based, SaaS solution is the reduction in implementation and maintenance costs. PEP benefits from the experience the vendor has with onboarding every customer that has come before. The most technical work on setting up the SaaS solution will fall to the onboarding support provided by the vendor. The key contributions from PEP to the process come from knowledge that is inherent to current staff, namely how the business operates today. The IT Department will be responsible for the initial onboarding processes that establish the report and metadata requirements on the new platform. Since all of PEP’s requirements fall in line with standard business operations, the task will focus on mapping existing data and reports to the offerings from the vendor. Conducting a pilot of mapping existing PEP data to the new platform’s data model will be the next major step in moving the project forward. IT will work with the vendor to coordinate user acceptance testing for the major functional teams prior to creating a training program for PEP. Representative ‘Change Champions’ will be identified for each department to establish a primary point of contact for support and expertise before escalating support and training issues.

The implementation of the new SaaS solution and the migration effort to adopt it can be completed with a 10 week duration. The initial configuration and data migration pilot will take two weeks with focused vendor support. Each of the core stakeholder departments, Sales, Marketing, Invoicing, and Accounts Receivable, will get a week for Change Champion training and user acceptance testing (UAT) for a total of 4 weeks. IT staff will take part in all UAT activities for continuity. The project has two weeks set aside for rework and retest from user feedback during UAT. One week will be devoted to delivering training to the broader user population. Following the migration to the new system, one week of focused user support and minor system adjustments will conclude the project.

Department

Activities

Hours

IT

· Migration (2 staff)
· Report Creation/ Review (2 staff)
· Department UATs (2 staff)
· Department Training (2 staff)
· Production migration (2 staff)
· Department Support (2 staff)

80 hours
80 hours
320 hours
80 hours
80 hours
80 hours

Sales

· Change Champion (1 staff)
· Sales UAT (2 staff)
· Team Training (10 staff), Full Day

20 hours
40 hours
80 hours

Invoicing

· Change Champion (1 staff)
· UAT (1 staff)
· Team Training (3 staff), Full Day

20 hours
40 hours
24 hours

Marketing

· Change Champion (1 staff)
· Marketing UAT (1 staff)
· Team Training (2 staff), Full Day

20 hours
40 hours
16 hours

Accounts Receivable

· Change Champion (1 staff)
· AR UAT (1 staff)
· Team Training (3 staff), Full Day

20 hours
40 hours
24 hours

Total

1104 hours

IV. Financial Information

A. Current System Operating Costs

The operating costs of the current PEP sales and accounting solution are a combination of on-premises maintenance and supporting labor costs. The existing costs are described in Part II, Section D of this document. The pertinent cost considerations relative to the cost of the proposed replacement system are the costs over time associated with upgrading the system as well as the inherent limitations of the platform. The current system lacks that capacity to grow with the needs of the organization, limiting PEP’s ability to gain internal efficiencies or offer new features to customers.

B. Estimated Implementation Costs

The system replacement project duration and cost depend upon the PEP’s requirements compared to the out of the box features of the selected platform. As currently scoped, the project could be completed in as little as 10 weeks with close adherence to standard accounting practices and industry standards. The cost is dependent upon the number of active users required for initial implementation of the system. Initial implementation support is sometimes included with the service, provided as part of an initiation fee, or in complex scenarios professional consulting services. PEP’s needs can be met using out of the box features of the software platforms to handle standard accounting practices. The critical piece of the implementation is the activity most heavily supported by SaaS vendors, migrating existing data from the current system to the cloud. Accordingly, this phase of the implementation has the most time allocated to ensure existing data is properly loaded to the new system.

C. Estimated Operating Costs

The estimated operating costs of the new system are limited to the cost of the software platform modules, user subscription licenses, and administrative support from the IT Department. The scope of the project keeps the replacement system narrow from a vendor offering perspective by focusing on sales and accounting activities. Accounting SaaS packages are comprehensive in addressing all of the PEP system improvement requirements. The scope of the recommended replacement solution is fully covered by the accounting packages offered by solution providers such as Oracle NetSuite and Intuit QuickBooks. Vendor selection should focus on alignment with current requirements and future strategy. Oracle NetSuite can scale to accommodate virtually any size organization where Intuit QuickBooks is focused on the small-medium business market. (QuickBooks, 2021) Depending on the selected feature set and number of users, QuickBooks will cost anywhere from $2400 to tens of thousands of dollars per year. (Fan & Crawford, 2023) The base starting price covers the scope of the current system replacement project and allows for upgrades and expansion in the future.

D. Proposed System Benefits

The estimated operating costs of the new system are much easier to predict due to the selection of COTS SaaS solution. The monthly and annual costs for the software are strictly defined by the vendor and set in the license agreement for the term of contract. The onboarding process provides PEP technical staff with the opportunity to learn administrative tasks and establish internal SLAs for customizations and support. The expected out-of-the-box features of the platform also facilitate greater self-service opportunities for staff. The elimination of on premises hardware, software, and infrastructure support balances out the transition to a subscription model. Factoring in the reduction in risk of data loss, system downtime, and infrastructure maintenance activities, the cloud-based solution could create cost savings over time.

V. Summary

The proposed Sales and Accounting Improvement Project will deliver technical and business process improvements that PEP will realize immediately upon system adoption. Major system migrations often present serious risks for businesses, however, the industry standard nature of the project scope limits PEP’s exposure to common sources of project failure. The project avoids the complexity of a fully custom solution, managing the infrastructure of a new on-premise platform, and project delays from fine-tuning a fit for purpose solution. The main points of consideration that the company needs to prepare for are the availability of staff to participate in the effort with current resource constraints. A 10-week project duration is aggressive, but a prolonged implementation will exacerbate the resource management challenges of the effort rather than ease them. Appropriately timing resource availability and training over a longer period will only prolong the challenges the company is facing today. Aggressively targeting the implementation timeline gives the organization and staff light at the end of the tunnel of their current high-stress mode of operation.

References

Fan, K., & Crawford, H. (2023, January 3). How much does QuickBooks cost?. Nerdwallet.com.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/small-business/business-software/how-much-does-quickbooks-cost

Gallia, A. (2019, April 19).
A simple guide to process modeling & optimization with UML diagrams. Process.st.

https://www.process.st/uml-diagram/

Post, J. (2022, August 5).
Data flow diagrams: What they are and how to make them. The Ascent.

https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/small-business/project-management/articles/data-flow-diagram/

QuickBooks. (2021, April 19). NetSuite ERP vs. QuickBooks Enterprise 2021 comparison. Intuit.com.

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/desktop/enterprise/compare/netsuite/

Wiegers, K. (2019, August 7).
Defining project scope: What’s in, what’s out. Medium.com.

https://medium.com/analysts-corner/defining-project-scope-whats-in-what-s-out-aa8031f6a904

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