Business Case
1. Introduction/Background
Johnson & Johnson’s core business goal is to bring bringing innovative ideas, products and services to advance the health and well-being of people. Employees of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies work with partners in health care to touch the lives of over a billion people every day, throughout the world. Our team is convinced that we can improve communication and streamline operations by enhancing the way the employees and personnel in the company communicate and connect with their fellow co-workers.
2. Business Objective
Johnson & Johnson’s strategic goals include future innovation and growth. The Social Networking Enhancement Project will support these goals by simplifying the way employees communicate with one another, and providing all the information they need to complete their work efficiently within accessible reach. This system will also improve the company’s growth by maintaining its affordability and suitability, thus it has the potential to be used for many years without any costly changes.
3. Current Situation and Problem/Opportunity Statement
Johnson & Johnson possesses multiple social media tools to drive collaboration, communication and overall effectiveness of their corporation. The company currently uses Universal Search to provide search capabilities across a number of internal sources of information. Also, Johnson & Johnson has utilized a search engine for locating internal expertise within the company called LINK. There is an opportunity to provide a more efficient, and more rewarding social network experience that allows users to utilize all information at their disposal, and communicate with their team and co-workers straightforwardly. Multiple employees of Johnson & Johnson require a more efficient and more user-friendly tool in order to work to their potential. Users feel that the tools at their disposal are underutilized and not as efficient as other tools out there. Other users find keeping contacts and relationships alive are crucial to their and in turn the company’s success, and the tools provided are not enough to accomplish this fully. And even more users require a way to see projects that have been completed and others that are in progress in order to make conscientious decisions regarding their own projects. There is an opportunity to provide the company with a new social networking tool that utilizes existing tools while also making it extremely easy to communicate and connect with other users. The Social Networking Enhancement Project will provide employees with an easy way to keep in contact with their team and other employees of the company, while also providing them with the tools they need to complete their projects effectively and within their designated timelines.
4. Critical Assumption and Constraints
The proposed social networking tool must be a valuable asset for Johnson & Johnson. Current employees and contractors must actively support the project, and it must pay for itself within one year by providing the users with an easier and more productive work output. The contentment of the employees who are using this tool must drive them to accomplish their projects on time, and at a relatively low cost to the company. The new system will run on existing hardware and software, and it should require minimal technical support. It must be easily utilized by employees and contractors of the company and be secured from unauthorized users.
5. Analysis of Options and Recommendation
There are three options for addressing this opportunity:
Based on discussions with stakeholders, we believe that option 3 is the best option.
6. Preliminary Project Requirements
The main features of the Social Networking Enhancement Project will include the following:
7. Budget Estimate and Financial Analysis
A preliminary estimate of costs for the entire project is $68,704. This estimate is based on the project manager working about 240 hours during the course of this project, and the project team members working about 1200 hours. The total cost for the project manager will be $12,638 and the total cost for the project team members will equal $45,960 during the course of this project. The hardware required will be laptops and desktop computers. The required amount of laptops will be 6; the total sum of the laptops will equal $4,366. The amount of desktop computers required is 1; the total sum of the desktop computers will equal $900. Software is required, and the software developer will be working 80 hours, at a cost of $55 per hour, equaling out to $4,400.
Exhibit A summarizes the projected cost and shows the estimated net present value ( NPV ), return on investment ( ROI ). It also lists assumptions made in performing this preliminary financial analysis. The NPV is $50,333.26, and the discounted ROI based on a four-month system life is -100 percent.
8. Schedule Estimate
The sponsor would like to see the project completed within four months. We also assume that the new system will have a useful life of at least three years.
9. Potential Risks
There are several risks involved with this project. The foremost risk is that the users will not embrace the new system fully, and use only the bare bone portion of our new system to the fullest of their extent. The reason is that with all these new tools at their disposal, the users’ lack of taking full advantage would prove the features of the new system useless. The main business risk is investing the time and money into this project and not realizing the project benefits.
10. Exhibits
Johnson & Johnson’s core business goal is to bring bringing innovative ideas, products and services to advance the health and well-being of people. Employees of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies work with partners in health care to touch the lives of over a billion people every day, throughout the world. Our team is convinced that we can improve communication and streamline operations by enhancing the way the employees and personnel in the company communicate and connect with their fellow co-workers.
2. Business Objective
Johnson & Johnson’s strategic goals include future innovation and growth. The Social Networking Enhancement Project will support these goals by simplifying the way employees communicate with one another, and providing all the information they need to complete their work efficiently within accessible reach. This system will also improve the company’s growth by maintaining its affordability and suitability, thus it has the potential to be used for many years without any costly changes.
3. Current Situation and Problem/Opportunity Statement
Johnson & Johnson possesses multiple social media tools to drive collaboration, communication and overall effectiveness of their corporation. The company currently uses Universal Search to provide search capabilities across a number of internal sources of information. Also, Johnson & Johnson has utilized a search engine for locating internal expertise within the company called LINK. There is an opportunity to provide a more efficient, and more rewarding social network experience that allows users to utilize all information at their disposal, and communicate with their team and co-workers straightforwardly. Multiple employees of Johnson & Johnson require a more efficient and more user-friendly tool in order to work to their potential. Users feel that the tools at their disposal are underutilized and not as efficient as other tools out there. Other users find keeping contacts and relationships alive are crucial to their and in turn the company’s success, and the tools provided are not enough to accomplish this fully. And even more users require a way to see projects that have been completed and others that are in progress in order to make conscientious decisions regarding their own projects. There is an opportunity to provide the company with a new social networking tool that utilizes existing tools while also making it extremely easy to communicate and connect with other users. The Social Networking Enhancement Project will provide employees with an easy way to keep in contact with their team and other employees of the company, while also providing them with the tools they need to complete their projects effectively and within their designated timelines.
4. Critical Assumption and Constraints
The proposed social networking tool must be a valuable asset for Johnson & Johnson. Current employees and contractors must actively support the project, and it must pay for itself within one year by providing the users with an easier and more productive work output. The contentment of the employees who are using this tool must drive them to accomplish their projects on time, and at a relatively low cost to the company. The new system will run on existing hardware and software, and it should require minimal technical support. It must be easily utilized by employees and contractors of the company and be secured from unauthorized users.
5. Analysis of Options and Recommendation
There are three options for addressing this opportunity:
- Do nothing. The company is doing well, and can continue to operate without this new project.
- Purchase access to specialized software to support this new capability with little in-house development.
- Design and implement the new social networking tool in-house using mostly existing hardware and software.
Based on discussions with stakeholders, we believe that option 3 is the best option.
6. Preliminary Project Requirements
The main features of the Social Networking Enhancement Project will include the following:
- The Social Networking Enhancement Project will provide employees with a basic, short profile that includes certain security privileges depending on their position and status. This profile will contain their title/position, a picture of the employee, current projects and past projects that they are working on, and have already completed.
- These projects will be linked to similar projects done, or in progress, throughout the company. Also on this profile will be basic information about the user such as “Time worked for the company” and a small bio containing past work experiences and qualifications.
- The Social Networking Enhancement Project will also include a tool similar to Communicator that provides instant messaging with chat room capabilities, along with the ability to send attachments via the messenger.
- Employees will also have the ability to add fellow employees and contractors belonging to the company to their “Friends List”, share their desktops with those on their “Friends List”, and make conference calls easily.
- Everyone with a profile will also have a vivid, easy to use calendar that will be visible to those on their “Friends List” in order to maintain a strict timeline for their work.
- This tool will also utilize Live Meeting in order to provide employees with another easy and affordable way to communicate with their team and fellow employees.
7. Budget Estimate and Financial Analysis
A preliminary estimate of costs for the entire project is $68,704. This estimate is based on the project manager working about 240 hours during the course of this project, and the project team members working about 1200 hours. The total cost for the project manager will be $12,638 and the total cost for the project team members will equal $45,960 during the course of this project. The hardware required will be laptops and desktop computers. The required amount of laptops will be 6; the total sum of the laptops will equal $4,366. The amount of desktop computers required is 1; the total sum of the desktop computers will equal $900. Software is required, and the software developer will be working 80 hours, at a cost of $55 per hour, equaling out to $4,400.
Exhibit A summarizes the projected cost and shows the estimated net present value ( NPV ), return on investment ( ROI ). It also lists assumptions made in performing this preliminary financial analysis. The NPV is $50,333.26, and the discounted ROI based on a four-month system life is -100 percent.
8. Schedule Estimate
The sponsor would like to see the project completed within four months. We also assume that the new system will have a useful life of at least three years.
9. Potential Risks
There are several risks involved with this project. The foremost risk is that the users will not embrace the new system fully, and use only the bare bone portion of our new system to the fullest of their extent. The reason is that with all these new tools at their disposal, the users’ lack of taking full advantage would prove the features of the new system useless. The main business risk is investing the time and money into this project and not realizing the project benefits.
10. Exhibits
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