Financial Systems offshore Outsourcing Project Plan for Riordan Manufacturing, Inc.

Financial Systems Offshore Outsourcing Project Plan for Riordan Manufacturing, Inc.

Financial Systems Offshore Outsourcing Project Plan for Riordan Manufacturing, Inc.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 3

Project Objective 4

Mission Justification 4

Project Description and Task Management 5

Resource Requirements 6

Project Communication Plan 6

Change Management Plan 7

Risk Management 8

Project Measurement 10

Best Practices 11

Project Closure Process 12

Project Audit Process 13

Project Summary 13

References 15

Financial Systems Offshore Outsourcing Project Plan for Riordan Manufacturing, Inc.

Executive Summary

Riordan Manufacturing, Inc., with corporate headquarters in San Jose, California, acquired three production facilities: located in (a) Pontiac, Michigan, (b) Albany, Georgia, and (c) a joint venture in Hangzhou, China. Currently, none of the offices use the same financial and accounting software. Although this situation remains transparent to customers because each office maintains its own invoice, billing, and payments system; Riordan needs to achieve seamless compatibility among all offices to comply with new government reporting requirements and to streamline labor intensive general ledger and income statement and balance sheet consolidated closure each month. To achieve these business objectives Riordan plans to outsource its financial and accounting processes to an offshore location. Technology offshore outsourcing can be defined as the contracting of information technology (IT) services from foreign counties. In today's marketplace, both large and small organizations use outsourcing to stay competitive.

This project plan has been developed to identify expected project outcomes, however; when a project is initially considered, there are many uncertainties in both the expected benefits and the estimated risks. Cost savings, process efficiencies, and better resource management have been designated positives in the decision to offshore outsource finance and accounting. Using an offshore vendor will save money in salaries and IT expenditures, allow for a single system that is streamlined for use by all Riordan's offices, and free resources that would otherwise be used to maintain separate financial and accounting offices in each location. This allows for more money and energy to be focused on core business strategies. The offshore vendor will be chosen via a competitive bidding process that matches proven skill to the ability to meet the requirements of this project. The vendor will be charged with the development and implementation of an enterprise-level custom software finance and accounting package along with the establishment of a joint venture offshore back office operation of the company's invoicing, revenue processing, and auditing services. The IT steering committee will be charged with managing the project, communicating with stakeholders, and selecting a data warehousing company with proven ability to provide hosting of custom software as well as the capability to maintain a consistent uptime and perform reliable backups of vital information.

Using an offshore vendor as a cost saving advantage to stay ahead of the competion is not without threats and therefore both the advantages and disadvantages need to be weighed carefully. The risk of placing responsibility for such an important aspect of the company with an offshore vendor is considerable therefore this project plan is being presented as an important first step in the planning phase of the project life cycle for the financial systems outsourcing project.

Project Objective

Create an integrated, secure and reliable finance and accounting system for Riordan Manufacturing using a central database accessible by all offices along with the establishment of a joint venture offshore back office operation of the company's invoicing, revenue processing, and auditing services.

Mission Justification

Implementing an integrated finance system is key to assisting in the corporate goal of reaching $50 million in revenue by the end of 2007. The creation of custom software will meet Riordan Manufacturing's specific needs and will allow all employees to become more productive through its use. Riordan strives to make the process of invoicing, payments, and collections efficient for their customers as well.

Project Description and Task Management

The breakdown of the project (see Table 1) outlines the primary deliverables, milestones, and stakeholders. The project involves outsourcing the development and implementation of an integrated financial and accounting system for Riordan Manufacturing along with establishing a joint venture offshore back office operation of the company's invoicing, revenue processing, and auditing services. To manage such a large, detailed, and mission-critical project, the project milestone and task management tool will be Microsoft Project. The milestones (deliverables) of the project are the significant events that identify each of the important control points used to measure the progress of the project. The tasks are the sub deliverables necessary to accomplish the deliverables. The sub deliverables will be managed via a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in Microsoft Project.

Table 1. Project Breakdown

Deliverables: Consolidate the financial data for all Riordan Manufacturing with custom software.

Use an offshore data warehouse to maintain software package and data integrity.

Create a standard external and internal audit process.

Milestones: Conduct vendor analysis and contracting.

Beta test software modules as written to maintain quality control and project timeline.

Test