NCC Education

Postgraduate Diploma
in
Strategic Business IT

Task Management

Candidate Name:
NCC Education Candidate NO:
Title: Fast-track
Examination Cycle: March 2007

Candidates attempting to gain an unfair advantage or colluding in any way

whatsoever (other than on joint assignments) are liable to be disqualified.
Plagiarism is an offence.

Exceeding the word count

You could lose marks if you exceed the recommended word count by more than
10%.

Reference your work correctly

Always reference your work correctly as it is a vital part of your assignment and
you may lose marks for incorrect referencing. Authors’ work which is used in your
assignment and not referenced, is plagiarism.

Information on referencing is available from:

http://efn.hud.ac.uk/studyskills/referen.html

Expected candidate time allocation: 80 hours

Mark Moderated Final

Mark Mark

Marker's comment

Moderator's comment

Task Management HW March 2007 22/08/2006 Final ©NCC Education 2007

Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic Business IT Task Management

Introduction and Aim

This assignment aims to give the candidate the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and
understanding of Task Management.

Introduction
The managing director of Fast-track Couriers Ltd, Laura Price, has recently recognised that the
company is facing a critical stage of development following a successful period of expansion
during the 1990's. Fast-track, part of a larger diversified group, is now in position to offer both
courier and contract distribution services throughout most of Great Britain. Whilst not in position
to challenge market leaders, they can offer services which can be tailored to the needs of smaller
and medium sized companies and to individuals. This is achieved through concentration upon
geographical markets based around regional distribution centres, with trunk links providing for
national coverage. Currently, Fast-track does not operate outside Great Britain.

Because Fast-track has historically grown by amalgamation of several regional companies, the
process of which has taken much management resource, they have not been in a position until
recently to look closely at their operational systems on a company-wide basis. The feeling has
been gathering that Fast-track are losing out in relation to investment in new technologies and,
because they have grown in a rather haphazard fashion, are failing to gain the expected
advantages of scale such growth should bring. Thus, although sales growth has been maintained
within a tough market, margins are under severe pressure.

Regional Structure
The company is organised into six regions across the country. Distribution is based upon small
vans and light goods vehicles for regional deliveries and articulated lorries for trunking between
regions. Each regional centre has a regional manager supported by a depot manager, an office
manager, a transport manager and personnel, sales and finance departments. Within this basic
system it can be seen that regions are able to operate reasonably independently. The work to be
done is dictated by the business generated locally from both contract and ad-hoc customers and
work received via the overnight trunk deliveries. Each of the regions has its own computer system
with large variations in software and hardware.

The majority of the staff have been working for Fast-track for a number of years; the average age
is just over 45 years and most of the staff have been with the company for more than 10 years,
and are reluctant to adopt any new practices. Furthermore, the company-wide training and
development plan has been shelved for the last two years due to the restructuring of the Personnel
department.

Sales & Marketing

The company is constantly seeking to expand both its contract distribution and credit customer
base. This is achieved through sales representatives based at each regional centre. The
representatives are responsible both for generating new contract business and customers and
looking after existing customers. There is only limited national account co-ordination via
headquarters; local sales representatives are responsible for looking after allocated contracts in
their area.

Task Management HW March 2007 22/08/2006 Final ©NCC Education 2007

Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic Business IT Task Management

The UK parcel industry has seen a significant rise in its business over the last five years; it is
expected that this trend will continue. Furthermore, there are potential business opportunities in
Europe and America. The company is considering both of these options. If successful the
European market could bring in between £5M and £10M per annum, whereas the American
market could generate between £20M and £25M per annum.

In addition to the sales efforts, the company advertises in ‘Yellow Pages’ and other local
directories. Occasionally local advertising campaigns are conducted, mainly as a means of
attracting new credit customers. The marketing department has requested large funds to support
their desire to expand the international markets mainly through the use of web systems.

Information Systems and Technology

The information system at the company headquarters is capable of dealing with finance, payroll,
trunk route operation and vehicle fleet records. These are run on a medium sized minicomputer.

Operational systems are based at the regional centres with weekly and monthly reporting back to
headquarters. In the case of financial and payroll data this is achieved via "CD" transfer. Most
other information systems use paper forms to capture information.

All regions use their own PCs that are connected via servers and information is passed between
centres via e-mail.

However, the information system needs replacing as it is unable to process all the data quickly
and the software ‘crashes’ on a regular basis. The management is considering bringing in IT
consultants to advise and implement a new information system. This has upset the small IT team,
but the management are eager to press forward quickly. Laura Price has proposed 6-8 months to
develop and implement a new information system.

Current Information Systems

All systems are 2 to 5 years old and run as "online" systems with reporting and reasonable query
facilities. Each system effectively has its own database. User interfaces are largely menu driven.
Fast-track has mostly bought in the systems, the exceptions being Personnel and Trunking
Operations systems that have been developed in-house in the past 2 years.

Laura Price recently commissioned a number of feedback sessions with staff and customers to
ascertain their views on quality of service offered by Fast-track.

Staff Focus Groups

The following issues were identified through staff focus groups:
• Lack of staff to handle enquiries and bookings
• No web pages for online bookings or information on products and services offered by Fast-
track
• Lack of co-ordination between regional centres
• New computer systems may lead to job losses
• Need to develop international markets if Fast-track is to secure its financial position
• Lack of information on company initiatives

Task Management HW March 2007 22/08/2006 Final ©NCC Education 2007

Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic Business IT Task Management

Customer comments
A number of customer surveys were conducted. The following list provides some of the key
points:
• Parcels not delivered on time
• Parcels went missing – could not be located
• Prices do not match the advertised prices
• Customers were not aware of the services being offered by Fast-track
• No international service available
• No web pages available (for information or booking online)

Laura Price has decided to update the information system within Fast-track. External IT
consultants are to be employed to carry out the work.

Task 1 – 20 Marks
Identify the possible information system requirements for Fast-track. Provide a short discussion on
the constraints within which information system requirements will be specified (for example: time,
money, priorities). Your answer should address technical and non-technical issues.

Task 2 – 20 Marks
Using a systems life cycle model, develop a project plan for Fast-track that will meet the stated
aims (from Task 1). It is not necessary to provide a detailed project plan but more important to
identify and provide a succinct summary of the key stages.
a) In broad terms discuss how your plan will meet the stated aims of the project.
b) Provide a short summary of each of the key stages of your project plan.
c) Provide a short discussion on the importance of timescales and resource allocation.
d) Identify the resources and timescales for each activity of your project.

Task 3 – 20 Marks
Identify the potential problems that may occur (technical and non-technical) during
implementation. In relation to your project plan, explain how effective leadership can overcome
some of the problems that are likely to occur in implementing your plan.

Task 4 – 20 Marks
It has been suggested that many of the problems associated with project management can be
overcome by effective means of communication.
• Identify and summarise key principles of effective communication.
• Identify and explain the types of communication problems your plan may encounter and explain
how effective communication methods can alleviate these.

Task 5 – 20 Marks
Mentoring and coaching can be useful tools to assist in overcoming potential non-technical
problems. Identify the difference between ‘mentoring’ and ‘coaching', and explain how they can be
used to overcome non-technical problems in your plan.

Task Management HW March 2007 22/08/2006 Final ©NCC Education 2007

Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic Business IT Task Management

Guidance
Consult with your tutor if you are uncertain about any aspects of the assignment.

Submission Requirements
To pass the assignment candidates must:
• Complete all five Tasks above and submit these in business report format.
• Submit their work in a single word-processed document of no more than 4000 words in length.
• Produce clear and specific reasoning and argument to justify answers.
• Make appropriate reference to relevant concepts, techniques and theories.
• Appropriately cite all information sources.
• Include project plan in the appendices.

The document should be submitted both in paper form and in digital form on a disk.

Warning: All media must be virus free!

Media containing viruses, or media which cannot be run directly, will result in a FAIL grade being
awarded for this module.

All candidates must read and understand NCC Education’s policy on ‘Academic Dishonesty
and Plagiarism’ and complete the attached form ‘Statement and Confirmation of Own
Work’. You must attach the completed form to your assignment.

Task Management HW March 2007 22/08/2006 Final ©NCC Education 2007

Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic Business IT Task Management

Statement and Confirmation of Own Work

Programme/Qualification name:

Each NCC Education assessed assignment submitted by students must have this
statement as the cover page or it will not be accepted for marking. Please ensure that this
statement is either firmly attached to the cover of the assignment or electronically inserted
into the front of the assignment.

Student declaration

I have read and understood NCC Education’s Policy on Academic

Dishonesty and Plagiarism.

I can confirm the following details:

Student ID/Registration number:

Name:

Centre Name:

Module Name:

Module Leader:

Number of words:

I confirm that this is my own work and that I have not plagiarised any part of
it. I have also noted the assessment criteria and pass mark for assignments.

Due Date:

Submitted Date:

Task Management HW March 2007 22/08/2006 Final ©NCC Education 2007