Business Requirements

Background

ACME Plc. has operated in the retail space for over thirty years supplying goods to customers via mail or telephone. With the advent of the internet ACME Plc. quickly realised that they would have to provide an internet based sales channel in order to maintain their market position.

In 2002 ACME Plc. embarked on a project to build a web channel for their services - they did this with their in-house IT department. Whilst this solution provided ACME Plc. with a web sales channel it had several shortcomings:

  1. It did not integrate with the backoffice system.
    • It did not allow users to track orders.
    • Manual effort was spent re-keying orders into the back office system.
    • Manual effort is expended by ACME Plc. answering customer queries about their order status.
  2. Users could not create an account and had to re-type invoice/delivery address details etc. every time they visited.
  3. Usability issues were reported by end users.
  4. It is now quite dated an does not take advantage of lastest developments in technology.

Recently ACME Plc. has been losing market share to some of its competitors who have a more streamlined internet sales operation.

Business Opportunity

ACME Plc. realise that they need to invest in their online sales channel or face a further decline in their market share. They view a revamped online offering that integrates with the backend CRM not only as an opportunity to improve their online presence and thus improve sales, but also as a way of reducing internal costs such that they can offer goods and services at more competitive prices. Additionally - should they regain market share - they will be in a better negotiating position with suppliers such that they can further improve their margin.

Business Objectives and Success Criteria

  • [BO-1]To Improve UK market share by upwards of 1.5%.
  • [BO-2]Eliminate the need to re-key web order data thus saving 2 FTE.
  • [BO-3]Reduce vendor management overheads by 20%.
  • [SC-1]Achieve a 50% increase in user customer satisfaction within 6 months of go-live.
  • [SC-2]Achieve a 25% increase in vendor customer satisfaction within 6 months of go-live.

Customer/Market Needs

The online retail market is now fairly mature. There is an expectation that:

  • User's can add, remove save one or more items in a shopping cart.
  • Save some items for another visit.
  • Recommend item's to a friend or add them to a wish list.
  • Be able to review the status of current and historical orders.
  • Be able to review the products and the merchants.

Additionally purchase to pay supply chains are typically electronic with suppliers being able to recieve, process, dispatch and invoice electronically. These functions should operate seemlessly with ACME Plc.'s CRM system that interfaces with ACME Online.

Business Risks

  1. There is a risk that the adverse publicity of the existing system will mean that it is difficult to attract new users to the online store resulting in a further reduction in market share and the possibility that some suppliers will terminate their contract with ACME Plc..
  2. There is a risk that mechants/suppliers will prefer to use the existing (human) channels to track orders resulting in no cost benefit from the new system.
  3. There is a risk that poor integration between the ACME Online solution and the existing CRM system could cause issues that affect all sales channels - not just those made online.
  4. There is a risk that staff currently performing re-keying and supplier managment roles may not want to be retrained for other roles resulting in discontentment and (worst case) legal proceedings.