Pecon Case Study

Background

Pecon is an Australia$-$based travel agency that specializes in the rental of high$-$quality self$-$catering accommodation in Australia. For the summer months, it offers a wide selection of g$$tes $($holiday cottages$)$ and, for the winter, apartments and chalets in various ski resorts. The company was founded by three friends who still own it$,$ Emeka Steven, Daniel Okw and Ric Nelson, and the company has been in business since $2000.$ It has grown rapidly to achieve a turnover of some AU$$35\mathrm{.}75$ million per annum and employs more than $200$ staff at three of$$ces$,$ one in the Greater Sydney area, one in Melbourne and one in Brisbane $.$Pecon has a website, but it is not functionally effective. Pecon currently uses three main sales channels:

$$ Direct selling to customers through mailshots of its brochures and customer support centres $(60$ per cent of sales$).$

$$ Sales via high street travel agents $(22$ per cent of sales$).$

$$ Sales via phone calls $(18$ per cent of sales$)$

However, the company is aware from press coverage and from surveys on its own customers that there is a growing public demand to be able to book holidays via the internet. This is particularly true as its customers are precisely the sort of people who are $$net aware$.$ Pecon does have a website, but this is just its latest brochure in electronic format, and it does not have links to up$-$to$-$date availability data or the facilities for customers to make secure bookings online. Consequently, Pecon has decided to implement a new internet$-$based booking system. This will be linked to its existing computerized booking system, which contains data on the availability of properties, and to its customer database as well as having secure links over which credit card data can be received. In addition, the company wants its management information system $($MIS$)$ enhanced so that it can trawl its databases and send targeted information to customers on properties that are likely to be of interest to them.

Pecon Organization

The current organizational structure of the company is shown in Figure $1\mathrm{.}1.$ The three founders have divided the business among themselves. Emeka Steven $($who has a sales background$)$ looks after the sales and operations side, Daniel Okw, an accountant, takes care of $$nance and administration and Ric Nelson who is a lawyer and experience in IT takes care of the IT and company$$s legal matters. The small IT department within the administration function consists of the IT manager, Peter Clay, three analyst$/$programmers and a computer operator$/$trainee programmer.

The project

Because of the small size of its IT department, and since the department lacks skills in the design of e$-$commerce applications, Pecon has decided to entrust the development of its internet service to a consultancy company, Eagles iTechnology. This firm has tendered for the following services:

$$ Analysis of the requirements.

$$ Production of a detailed requirements specification.

$$ Design, development and implementation of the internet systems, including a new website and secure communications links.

$$ Training Pecon staff in the use of the new systems.

$$ Specification of the interfaces required from Pecon$$s existing customer database and booking system $($the development of the links at the Pecon end to be done by its own IT department$).$

$$ Specification of the additional hardware required to support the new system $($to be obtained from Pecon $$s usual suppliers, the procurement to be managed by the IT department$).$

$$Skills transfer$$ to Pecon$$s IT department, so that ongoing maintenance and development of the new system can be handled in$-$house. The development of the MIS aspects of the new system will be dealt with by Pecon$$s IT department.

The date now is $1$ November $2020$ and Pecon wants to have the new system up and running for the start of the winter season$$s bookings at the end of June $2021.$

The internet booking project is a result of a recent strategic review of Pecon undertaken by its senior managers $$ the three directors and their direct reports.

suggested that an additional AU$$90,000$ of business might be secured each year via the internet. Assessing the likely amount of additional business $($from new customers$)$ is more difficult but a recent travel industry survey concluded that firms could attract $1015$ per cent new customers through e$-$commerce.

RequirementThe Applied Project assignment includes the following tasks:

$1.$ Based on case study provided, explain phases of the Project Life Cycle $($PLC$)$

$2.$ Create a Stakeholder Register $($SR$)$ and Communication Management Plan $($CMP$)$

$3.$ Create a Project Charter $($PC$)$ that would approved$/$signed

$4.$ Create a Project Network Diagram $($PND$)$

$5.$ Calculate the project cost and the Net Present Value $($NPV$)$ download the project costs and examples from Canvas

$6.$ Create the Project Work Breakdown Structure $($WBS$)$