Identifying issues

 

Monrah’s first task was to understand the company’s AS-IS process and interview different stakeholders to grasp the business’ specific needs. After this, we identified areas in need of improvement.

 

Firstly, there was a gross lack of visibility of the critical path for product development. For example, the Estimated Arrival Date (ETA) was a key date that wasn’t easily accessible to all stakeholders. Moreover, changes to the ETA were not communicated to all parties, generating the potential risk of missing the time to market.

 

 

Real-time communication pathways

 

Monrah understood that in order to improve Critical Path Management (CPM) the retailer needed to create effective real-time communication channels among all stakeholders during the product development process. We therefore initiated the creation of Request for Proposal (RFP) and Request for Quotation (RFQ) requirements documents for external suppliers to understand the requirement of our clients; we also created a list of needs to be sourced.

 

Supplier sourcing

 

Finally, we researched and screened potential suitable suppliers, shortlisting three to bid for the contract.

 

The evaluation criteria for these suppliers encompassed Functional and Non-Functional requirements, including but not restricted to:

 

• Sample management

• The supported features the suppliers offered

• Cost management

• Reporting

• Service Maintenance (e.g. how supportive the suppliers are if the system is down)

• The Future Role Map of suppliers’ product and service development

 

Monrah also invited suppliers on-site for feature demonstrations and technical discussions, enabling the stakeholders to easily ask key questions. We then further facilitated the selection process by cross-referencing suppliers’ bids against industry competitors. Finally, a graded feedback was carried out with the participating project committee to ascertain the supplier’s reliability. Afterwards, a calculation was created to prepare an accurate Return on Investment (ROI) estimation, enabling us to justify investment in this project.