Case Study (Risk Management) Tech Advancement Program

Project Context

EZY Travels is one of the worlds largest tours and travels company. The group company is privately owned and was formed over the years through mergers and acquisitions. Currently the has more than 100 small and large companies all over the world, primarily in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific(including Australia-New Zeeland). The group offers its products and services all over the world.

The products can be broadly grouped into two categories;

1) FIT i.e. Free and Independent Traveller. These products, as the name suggests, are bought as stand alone and the customer avails these services(like a hotel room or an airline ticket)

2) Escorted Motor Coach Tours(MCT): These products are designed as a complete package. A typical product will have a certain duration ranging from 5 to 20 days, and would cover multiple locations. A single motor coach may carry about 50 passengers and has a dedicated guide who accompanies them on the entire tour. All hotel stays and food are included in the cost of the tour product.

Due to historical reasons the various companies have their own processes and systems implemented on various technologies, some of them on legacy.

Given the growth the company has witnessed and is expecting over the coming years, EZYs management has decided to undertake a Technology Advancement Program to replace it various systems by a single and modern system.

The key modules that will be part of application solution under scope are:

1) Product Definition: This system will allow the user to define the various travel products in the system.

2) Sales/Reservations: This system will be used by the travel agents to see the various EZY products to its end customers.

3) Vendor and Contract Management System: This system is used for contracting various components that make a tour, like motor coach, hotel rooms etc.

4) Operations: This system is primarily used for operating the MCT. It prints the names of the people expected on a particular tour, the detailed itinerary, vouchers for the hotels where passengers will stay etc.

5) Quality control and passenger complaint/feedback: This system will be used for processing feedback and complaint from the passengers.

The new system will system will address the following:

1) A single process flow for all the group companies

2) Reduced time for product creation(allowing them to offer new products mid-season based on trends)

3) Better utilization of inventory(like available hotel rooms) across group companies and products

4) Better customer data collection to improve customer service and quality assurance

5) Improved last minute booking management

A high level requirements document was prepared by another software services vendor. This requirements document was part of the RFP to building the product.

EZY Travels is simultaneously also outsourcing a project for defining and implementing the infrastructure required to host the application. It is also simultaneously implementing a new ERP system.

Following are the project facts:

Current Status:

Your company has bid for the project based on the High Level Requirements, on a Fixed Price basis and

won the contract

The infrastructure vendor has given its recommendation for the hardware and network. The vendor is in the process of implementing the new infrastructure.

To reduce the cost of clients, EZY will be deploying a Citrix based solution across its global offices and travel agents.

The first phase of your companys project will be gathering detailed requirements specifications from the key global end user(from each of the company for the systems they will use) at the clients office in London

The client wants the system to be ready by the following September, so that new products can be defined for the coming season and bookings can be started by January. If the system gets delayed by a few months, it will be used only in the following year.

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Assignment Questions: Enterprise Change Management

You are a project manager of GeoSoft and have been asked you to manage this migration project. Answer the

following questions that you need for managing the project risk.

1. Risk Planning

Describe the high level approach for managing the risk of this project.

2. Risk Identification

Identify at least ten risks you foresee with this migration project.

3. Risk Analysis

Analyse and prioritize the risks identified above using RE.

4. Risk Response Strategy

Describe the risk mitigation plan for the identified and prioritized risks.