Kudler Fine Foods Background Information

Kudler Fine Foods- Coupon Project

Bacchus Brodis

CMGT575 - CIS Project Management

Facilitator: Dan Cohen

March 22, 2006

Kudler Fine Foods Background Information

Kudler Fine Foods is a local upscale specialty food store located in the San Diego metropolitan area. The company has three locations (La Jolla, Del Mar and Encinitas). The stores are stocked with the very best domestic and imported foodstuffs. Kathy Kudler, working in another career was looking for other opportunities and to expand her horizons. As it happened, Kathy relieved her stress through gourmet cooking and on a shopping trip for ingredients for a gourmet repast; she suddenly realized that there was an opportunity for an upscale epicurean food shop in La Jolla. Thus, began the creation of Kudler Fine Foods.

Project Justification

Ms. Kudler realizes that in order to facilitate ongoing growth with her company. Kudler Fine Foods needs to find new ways to continue growing and entering new markets; they need to focus on their customer base. Based on our conversations with Ms. Kudler a key goal is to gain improved activity on promotional products and determine the effectiveness of private label coupons.

Project Objective

Utilizing the demographic data from the customer database, create a system that will generate a monthly newsletter with coupons for promotional products. The promotional products will be identified by the purchasing manager each month including the details of the coupons such as quantity, cost and expiration date. The project will also provide reporting on coupon usage and related product sales, therefore, development of a system that uses the current customer demographic database to generate coupons and a monthly newsletter for promotional products. With this in mind facilitating these objectives we need to follow certain steps to get the project back on track.

Define the Problem

We have decided to set up a meeting with Yvonne Reynolds, Director of Store Operations. This will allow us to get a full scope of exactly what Ms. Reynolds is trying to accomplish. When this is complete we can review the database and draft a project plan. Once the plan is documented then we can submit the project plan to management for approval.

Analyze the Situation

It was ascertained that we need to analyze the current sales, marketing and customer base of Kudler Fine Foods for this project. This will assist in determining the requested newsletter requirements. Another meeting will be conducted with Ms. Reynolds on the coupon requirements. We will review prior coupons and sales history of the firm. Additionally, we have decided to send surveys and questionnaires to select customers to provide us with some feedback. It is pertinent to interview sales and marketing managers and supervisors and then conduct a project team meeting.

In order to determine database modifications it is important to meet with IT staff for infrastructure schematics. During this meeting we will review the existing database design and structure. This will allow us to develop ERD/DFD diagrams based on our analyzed results. A major requirement for us is to review the utilization of the current hardware and software. Upon completion of these items another project meeting will be conducted focusing on our analysis conclusions. Subsequently, we will compile our results in a report and submit to Ms. Reynolds and management for sign off of on our analysis report. It is our intention to keep all parties informed and make sure every aspect of this project gets approved.