Project Business Case For Equine Development Inc. And Heartland Pty Ltd

Project objectives

Equine Development Inc. is the mobile application development company which is mainly focused to develop the horse games apps for the children. The company is approached by Heartland Pty Ltd to develop an app for promoting their business operations. Heartland provides full boarding services to the riders and also accomplishes their desires of equestrian. The company covers all riding disciplines in other houses arenas which includes jumping, dressage, round yard, stables or horse wash. The company also provides complete experience of dude ranch and also trail riding to its customers.  

Equine Development Inc. gets the tender to develop mobile application in order to enhance business operations of Heartland Pty Ltd. The Equine Development Inc. will use the agile development model for developing the mobile application. The company will select two programmers and specialist in digital imaging to develop the application in efficient manner within the given timeframe (Zulch, 2014). The appropriate market analysis, stakeholders, and efficient budget estimation are also considered while developing the mobile application. The various assumptions, constraints, requirements and potential threats for the business case are also considered by the company to develop the efficient app for the Heartland Pty Ltd.

This case will help to determine the life cycle for the IT project. The value of organizations, costs, benefits, risks and feasibility will be determined with the help of this business case. The analysis of cost benefits and issues associated with present case will also be studied with reference to business objectives of the company.   

The main aim of the Equine Development Inc. Company is to develop the horse games applications for the young children and kids. The company is also emphasised to increase their overall profits by entering into other segments of market as well which includes projects related to the business marketing. The company also aims for 10% reserves for the contingent budget for the overall project on developing the mobile application for Heartland Pty Ltd Company.

• To develop a mobile application that can be optimised for the Android as well as I- phone devices.
• To develop such mobile application that can allow potential clients and other clients to pay as well as enrol for the horse boarding, riding lessons, booking for trail ridings, reservations for dude ranch and retraining.
• To develop mobile application that can enable the clients to subscribe all the upcoming events as well as newsletter of the Heartland Pty Ltd Company.
• The app should be designed in such manner so that can provide access maps for all the trail ridings to the clients as well as facilities for the videos showcasing should also be available on the mobile application.
• To provide details of all trainers and photo albums of each available horses on the mobile application.
• To provide such facilities to all the users so that can able to provide overall ranking for the equestrian centres on the basis of the services as well as the attractions on the various equestrian centres.
• To complete the mobile application project within the given time frame and budget.
• To use the model of agile development for designing the effective mobile application that includes specialist for the digital imaging as well as teams of two programmers.

The market research will be done in order to analyse the current situation for developing the mobile application for Heartland Pty Ltd Company. This analysis will consider the customer and market needs of the mobile applications. The SWOT analysis will also be done in order to determine the current marketing situation for mobile applications for the horse management content.  

The mobile development application will consider the market segmentation part for designing the effective software for the users and clients. This will depend on four factors like behaviour, psychographics, demographics and geography. The behaviour factor considers the concepts of loyalty status and usage rate among the clients (Turner, 2014). The men and mostly young aged people are believed to be the most loyal users of mobile applications related to the content of horse management. The persons who have higher wages and love for horse riding will prefer to use this mobile application in order to accomplish their satisfaction and experience level.

The lifestyle of the people or clients will also play vital role in enhancing the use of this mobile application. The persons with higher ages and who owns mobile devices which are supporting I-phone and android features will prefer to use these applications (Walker, 2015). The location factor will also play significant role in enhancing business operations of the company. The availability of horse related facilities will also help to develop efficient mobile applications for the users.       

Current situation analysis

The market research generally collects the data of persons who are using the mobile applications across the entire Australian market. The business growth of the Heartland Pty Ltd Company will depend on the design or features of the mobile application for the content of horse management (Schwalbe, 2015). The market research will also consider the market segmentation factor to develop the efficient mobile application to enhance business growth and profits for Heartland Pty Ltd Company. The main aim of the Equine Development Inc. is to develop such mobile application which can allow the clients or different users to enrol for the riding lessons, booking for the trail ridings, reservations for the dude ranch, retraining and horse boarding.

The main aim of this mobile application development is to develop such efficient tool for Heartland Company so that help it to grow its business across the entire region. For developing the effective app, the company has conducted a survey in order to get responses and expectations of the users for the horse management software application (Kerzner, 2013). The survey mainly helps to determine the amount of users which are using the mobile applications and wanted to subscribe all the events of the Heartland Company.  

This analysis mainly differentiates the quality of the products or services provided by the companies. This mainly defines the types of mobile applications available in the market which deals with the same objectives of the company. The opening of large training centre for horses nearby the location of the company is also affecting the business operations of the Heartland Company (Burke & Barron, 2014). It has also been analysed that other competitors are manufacturing home based automated mobile applications which are generally freeware in nature and can be installed without any cost. The mobile application will provide remote control over the input/output boards which are presently not provided by any of the competitor in the market place.   

This analysis will help to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with the business operations and mobile application development process of the company.

Strengths:

The model of agile development is used for developing the mobile application which is based on principles like response to change, working software, customer collaboration and interactions or individuals. The specialist of digital imaging and two programmers are selected for developing the mobile application for Heartland Company. The team of mobile application developer is very strong and have technical skills. The company is one of the first in the field to develop mobile app for the content of horse management (Yang et al, 2014). The strategies adopted for the mobile application will also help the company to enhance its business operations at the market place. The technology adopted for the application is very solid and can be easily configured according to the customer desires and their feedback. The market segmentation for this type of application is very unique which has certainly gives more competitive advantage to the company.

Weaknesses:

The company is mainly operates as technology firm which do not have the efficient marketing capacity. The company only provides interfaces on USB boards and not on the wireless boards (Heagney, 2016). The applications only run on Android and I-phone platforms. The company has not effective business model which can be used to enhance business operations and profits of the firm.

Market segmentation

Opportunities:

The demand of more applications based on horse management is rapidly increased in the market place. The company also interfaced with the input or output boards and partnership with efficient manufacturers will help the company to enhance its mobile applications (Martinelli & Milosevic, 2016). The completion of project within the given time frame, budget, scope and stakeholders will provide more business growth opportunities to the organization.    

Threats:

The development of same time of applications in the market place has certainly impacted the application design of the present mobile application. The increase in technology and competition has certainly affected the business opportunities of the organization (Leach, 2014). The changes in marketing trends in the field of mobile applications are also affecting the effective designing of the mobile applications.                  

Heartland Company is experiencing the decline in its business operations due to reduction in private lessons, retraining and boarding horses. One of the best trainers has also left his job which has also enhanced problems for the company. The opening of the new and large training centre for horses has also enhanced the competition in the market place. Further, limited presence on the internet has also limited the business operations of the company.    

The use of traditional approaches of marketing and development of mobile application will certainly help the Heartland Company to enhance its business operations very efficiently. The application which can be optimised on Android and I-phone will certainly provide more business opportunities (Stagnaro & Piotrowski, 2014). This application tends to focus on providing overall ranking for the equestrian centres on the basis of services and attractions will also provides opportunities to explore in more efficient manner. The app should be designed in such manner that can enable users and clients to subscribe all upcoming events, races, or newsletter of the Heartland Company.     

There are various assumptions which can be made during proposing the project plan as,

• The programmers or specialist for digital imaging needs to be available according to requirement to complete objectives or tasks of the project and should be ensured by the management.
• The project needs to be completed within the specified time frame and budget allocation.
• The changes needs to be implemented in the application should be analysed within specified time frame otherwise will delay the project completion target.
• The team member’s needs to communicate effectively on regular basis to overcome all the problems rose during the development of mobile application.
• All the participants in the projects need to abide all the regulations or guidelines to effectively complete the project.   
• The features in mobile applications can be modified or changed according to the availability of new information or issues identified during the development of mobile application.
• The appropriate funding or payment needs to be available for the team members involved in the mobile application development.

There are mainly constraints associated with the projects like scope, cost or schedule and described as,

• The reserve for the budget contingency is estimated about 10% in the starting financial year for the project.
• The total budget for investing in the project is estimated at about $260,000 and similarly the total cash inflow anticipated for the project is approximately $390,000.
• The rate of return on investment is expected about 25%.
• The total time required to complete the project will be five months that is approximately 20 weeks.
• The programmers will be paid $85 p/hr during the project and project manager will be paid $120 p/hr for 2 days per week (Boyle, 2017).
• The use of agile model for developing the mobile application will be utilised by the company.
• There should be effective communication or interaction between the project manager and other members of team in order to complete the project within the specified timeframe.  
• The mobile application needs to be optimised for Android and I-phone devices.
• The clients or users will be able to enrol for horse boarding, riding lessons, retraining or booking for the trail ridings by using this mobile application.
• The clients will be able to subscribe all events or newsletter of the Heartland Company.
• The project team mainly includes two programmers and specialist for the digital imaging to effectively design the mobile application.
• The clients or users will be able to provide overall ranking about the equestrian centres as per their attraction level or service quality.  

There are so many alternatives available during the development of mobile application. The software needs to be developed internally for the mobile application. The platform based on web services needs to be implemented by effectively outsourcing the applications for the tool. The mainframe system used during the development phase should be placed in legacy system in order to avoid any malfunction in the mobile application (Kautz et al, 2016). The various non-held options available for IT project are not efficient for business operations and also not provide extra insight for business process. The various handheld options like real time communications based on remote access, java swing, or XML forms are also available for developing the mobile applications.

Further, the mobile application development can use agile model to develop the application in efficient manner. The specialised software should be purchased for supporting new features in the mobile application and needs to be purchased according to the budget estimation. The use of new intranet features needs to be designed and implemented by using the existed software or hardware.

Market research

From the above analysis, it has been recommended that new intranet feature option will be best suitable according to the business needs and by considering the different stakeholders during the project planning. The use of this technique will enable the mobile application availability to most of the users and clients. This also provides more NPV and fewer risks to the overall project for developing the mobile application (Lock, 2014). This also provides higher strategic alignment with different users and also enhances their user experience for the mobile application. This will also help to explore business operations of the company and also enhances profit margin for the company by proper marketing of the mobile application.

The financial analysis for the project plan mainly includes the calculation of net present value (NPV), return on investment (ROI) and payback period for the initial investment made on the overall project.

From the table, it has been analysed that,

Total present value for the cash flows = $3, 85, 910

Initial investment for the project = $220,000

Then, NPV = Total present value for the cash flows – Initial investment for the project (Verburg et al, 2013)

NPV = $3, 85, 910 – $220,000 = $1, 65, 910

From the NPV, it is cleared that investment made in the business is so worthy as provides $1, 65, 910 amount of return which is significant for business operations.

This is mainly calculated to determine the investment efficiency and also to compare different investment made during the business plan. This also measures return amount from the amount of investment during the initial stages of business operations.

From the table, ROI is calculated using the formula as,

ROI = Net present value (NPV) / Total present value for the cash flows (Cross & Brohman, 2015)

ROI = $1, 65, 910 / $3, 85, 910 = 42.99 = 43%

This indicates that the calculated value of ROI is much higher as expected by the company which has showed that business model adopted by the company is efficient enough to provide higher returns on the investment for the company.    

This is the period which helps to recover all the costs that is invested at the start of new business operations. It is calculated by dividing the total cash flows with respect to the total investment made on the project.

Then from the above table,

Payback period = Total cash flows / Total investment (Zhang & Cheng, 2015)

Payback period = $3, 85, 910 / $2, 60, 000 = 1.48 = 1.5

This shows that the company will be able to recover all their investment within 1.5 years of the project.

There are various requirements for the projects at the initial stages which include analysis of user interface, roles of different team members in the project, mobile applications, quality assurance and many more. According to the business needs of the Heartland Company, the company wanted to develop such mobile application which can help them to enhance their business operations and overall profits (Laufer, 2016). The native application for mobile devices will be beneficial for the company as it will be able to optimise with the androids and I-phones and will also able to enhance the satisfaction as well as experience level of the different users or clients. For that, one needs to consider the various facts to develop more efficient mobile application to achieve business objectives of the organization.

Competitor analysis

User interface:

The mobile application should be able enough to provide better and enhanced user experience to its clients and users.

Development:

The different web based platforms like android or I-phone will require their own programming languages in order to develop efficient application for the users.

Hardware interfacing:

This type of mobile applications can easily interface with hardware, information and native features of the mobile devices (Hill, 2013). The accelerometer or camera is feasible with this type of requirement for the mobile application.

Monetization:

The programmers or developers will be able to design such application which allows prices on downloading the mobile applications and app stores of specific platform will monitor the process of payments that will help the company to increase its profits on increasing number of sales for the mobile application.

Distribution:

This type of mobile applications can be directly downloaded on mobile devices from the specific app stores and can be run as the standalone mobile application in the devices. This requirement is most important for marketing of mobile application in order to reach at most number of users and clients.

App version:

The different versions of mobile application may enable the users or clients to ignore the required update and can efficiently use mobile applications without any software or update issues.

The use of agile model will also help to meet all preliminary requirements of the project by considering the customer satisfaction and response to change factors. This will help to develop more user friendly mobile application for the clients.

The estimation of budget mainly includes the evaluation of the cost base line. This estimate mainly includes estimate cost of the project as well as the contingency reserves for the project. The project needs to be completed in 5 months that is twenty weeks. The total budget for the project is around $260,000 and contingency reserves for project is $26, 000.

Then, the expense for project manager = $38, 400 (For overall project)

Expenses for other team members = $3, 60, 000 (Two programmers and image specialist)

There are mainly three types of cost model can be used for making the budget estimates for the overall project.

Absorption model:

This cost model includes both the variable as well as fixed costs. This model cannot be used for the shorter duration and optimization is also not considered by this model (Blais, 2015). The distribution of fixed costs is logically not possible. This model is also called as the full cost model.

Contribution marginal cost model:

This model mainly considers the variable costs of the project which includes both indirect and direct variables of cost. The distribution of tasks within the specified time period is the major concern for this model. The evaluation of administration costs and sales is difficult to estimate with this model.

Activity based cost model:

This model mainly considers the fixed costs of the project which includes both indirect and direct variables of the cost (Love, 2016). The optimization of the costs is not possible from this model. This also considers direct variable of fixed costs and direct variable for the variable costs.

SWOT analysis

From the above discussion, it has been analysed that full cost model will be the best suitable cost baseline model for the project.

The expenditures done on the project within the specified time frame are represented in graphical manner which mainly indicates in shape of S-curve. The better allocation of resources will be significant in evaluating the best budget for the project.

The cost baseline actually determines the time required to complete the project within the estimated budget. This actually helps to determine the actual progress of the project. It is very difficult for the project manager to determine the cost baseline for the project due to variations in the resources or expenditure as per the requirements of the project.

From the entire analysis, it is analysed that cost baseline will depend on the amount of total investment made on the overall project. According to the case study, the cost baseline for the project is about $260, 000.

The estimation made by the project team is that the overall project will be completed in six months that is around 20 weeks. The WBS tool is used to schedule all the vital activities of all levels involved in the overall project (Fan et al, 2014). This tool provides appropriate communication between process and work required to complete the project. The outline view, Hierarchical Structure, Tabular View, or Tree Structure are various ways to represent WBS for the overall structure.

The following structure will only consider all the important activities of Level 3 for the project. The tabular structure will be considered for the WBS for the following project activities.

(Source: Leach, 2014)

There are several problems which can be raised during the project life cycle for developing the mobile application for the Heartland Company.

• The top management fails to effectively support the team to develop the mobile application.
• Lack of meetings or communication with the project team may also affect the overall mobile application development process (Boyle, 2017).
• The estimates of overall resources may not be accurate or up to the scope of the company.
• The forecasting for cost structure is not appropriate according to the estimated budget for overall project.
• The changes suggested by the project team are not seriously taken by the stakeholders.
• Lack of communication of different stakeholders with the project team may also affect the development process.
• Requirements for project are inaccurately analysed by the project team.
• More expectations of the users from the mobile applications.
• Lack of budget or time may also affect overall design structure.
• The inappropriate architecture for mobile application to accomplish all requirements effectively may also impact overall project plan.
• Lack of flexibility, quality, or design of mobile application as per business requirements of the company.
• Security or privacy related concerns may also rise due to inappropriate technology used in the mobile applications.
• Delays in required infrastructure in terms of hardware or software.
• Lack in alignment of business strategies with the requirements of project.
• Low quality of decision making process within the management (Burke & Barron, 2014).
• Lack of authority for project team to complete the project within desired time frame.
• Regulatory or legal changes according to privacy or content management may also affect the development phase of the mobile applications.
• Prototype for mobile application may not be accepted by the clients or users.
• Lack of user interface and innovation in the mobile application.
• Lack of quality may also affect reputation of the company among stakeholders and clients.
• Lack of technical skill for programmers may also affect the overall design structure of mobile applications.

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