Building on your work in Module 1 Portfolio Project Milestone and with a specific focus on your service project at the company you selected, develop the following subsections of your project: I have i

Running head: MILESTONE 0

Portfolio Milestone: Courier Service Proposal

Fallon Urquhart

Course Number (ORG580) – Capstone- Project Management

Colorado State University – Global Campus

Dr. Douglas Smith

September 27, 2020

Courier Service Proposal

Companies tend to undertake projects to achieve a variety of objectives such as improving profitability, acquisitions of newer markets, as well as gaining a larger customer base. Projects can range from the formation of new tangible products or the provisions of new services that can fulfill or satisfy the client or consumer in different ways. One of the services companies in the United States is Liberty Travel. The service projects that the come can undertake is the provision of courier services within North American countries. Ideally, people send large amounts of parcels on a daily basis and it is one field where companies can take the advantage. The purpose of this milestone is to examine the initiation and planning phases of this project and utilize this company for the final portfolio.

Project Initiation

The first phase of any project is its initiation. The chosen company is Liberty Travel. Currently, Liberty Travel is a retail travel and cruise company whose headquarters is stationed in Montvale, New Jersey. The company has several locations throughout the United States with over two-thousand employees. This company offers retail travel and cruise services, so they already have a solid base for entering different areas. That being said, a new service that could be provided by this company would be a courier service. Clients and consumers are well conversant with the company in the travel and cruise sector. As a result, Liberty Travel would be able to utilize those resources and provide services to transport their parcels across the North American continent reach to Canada.

Project Statement of Work

Liberty Travel would need to expand its services from the current travel and cruise market in order to achieve the goal of a courier service, creating a larger consumer base. This will require the organization to expand into other related sectors allowing them to continue being a crucial part of all consumers. As a result, the introduction of courier services will help achieving this goal. The company will start by offering services within all states of the United States that it currently services. After introducing the service within these locations, they will then expand to other states and lastly to Canada. Liberty Travel will be able to expand to the other neighboring nations within the following two years, allowing them to offer parcel driver services in major cities and towns. This journey into a new form of service within the country will have expected costs and risks, however, the overall benefit and profit from this type of move will project the company further into the competing business world.

Project Charter

The vision of the project is to make the company part of the top choices for parcel delivery. Liberty Travel plans to expand their services to all nations of North America within the next two years, giving them a decent timeframe to work with. The main goal of this project is to provide a faster and more affordable parcel delivery services within the countries and states. The major success factors of this project are the acquisition of more customers who transport their parcel to and from several locations within this region. The company will layout a fairly large budget in order to accomplish the project and provide a full-fledged parcel service into their current business. The proposed initial cost for a project of this size would be approximately $30 million. The busines will offer both ground and air delivery options for parcels that require faster delivery over longer distances. Liberty Travel will use its current locations, as well as rent more buildings throughout the United States in order to branch out to all consumers. This project will require the use of current vehicles as well as the purchase of others to transport the parcels. The project team will comprise of currently employees with the knowledge and skill of the organization and resources options to begin this new aspect of the organization. As the project continues and the parcel services grow, the organization will be able to hire enough to staff the new locations and provide the same services throughout these areas.

Business Case

Over the past few years, there has been a rapid increase in the demand for courier services across the world. Currently, most business offer online shopping and promise their customers delivery within one to two business days. The trend shows that customers have been selecting those vendors who offer the faster delivery option for their goods. The customers have found it less cost to get their products through a courier service from the seller, saving them extra costs such as travel charges (Bertram, 2018). This shows the demand for courier services have increased, allowing those providers to experience a growth in profits. The advancement in technology allows consumers to get their products directly to their doorsteps, as they communicate with the transporters and sellers through virtual communication. Every online platform or online retailer has various laws and regulations to follow such as anti-fraud measures. This means there are minimal changes of defrauding customers through the use of a courier services.

Stakeholder Analysis

The new courier service division will have stakeholders who are all beneficial for Liberty Travel. The internal stakeholders are the owners of the business and service teams. On the other side, the external stakeholders are the consumers who will receive their products from the stores, transporters, and authority that will lay out the rules, regulations, and govern the operations of any business within the regions where the stores are located. Each stakeholder is crucial for the success of the project. However, their levels of interest may change with their levels of power in the project. For example, it would be crucial to keep the customer satisfied while the employees handling the project should be managed closely.

Stakeholder Register

The stakeholder register will help in the identification, assessment, and classification of all the stakeholders of the project. The following chart is an example of what will be used as a stakeholder register:

Procuring Documents

The primary documents of procurement that the organization will give or take from other stakeholders are the Requests for Proposal (RFP), Requests for Quotations (RFQ), Request for Information (RFI), Invitation for Bid (IFB), Request for Bid (RFB), Purchase Orders (PO), Contract or Agreement, as well as the Seller Proposal. These documents will vary from supplier to supplier, depending on what is needed from each. The final documentation will be utilized once a supplier has been selected based on price and resource accessibility, awarding the work from Liberty Travel.

Project Planning Phase

Project planning is the second phase in the creation of a project. In this phase we create the project plan, scope, WBS, estimates for cost and budget, communications and risk. All important aspects to see a success project completion.

Project Management Plan

The project team will work on the project to ensure that all cities in the selected area have parcel stores that are accessible to the customer. The project will take approximately two years to accomplish at the cost of $30 million. This project will be headed by three project managers who will be responsible for different regions of the United States and boarding countries. Two of the project managers will split the United States region to ensure all stores are ready for parcel deliver and dissemination. After the completion of the project, the company will be able to hire courier service professionals to work at each location. The use of email, virtual conferences, and instant messaging during the project will allow the project to stay on track and help during the project’s execution to enhance traceability. Liberty Travel will utilize all resources necessary in order to create a high standard and highly functional location. Communications will be encouraged among all employees to ensure a smooth flow of information. However, a variety of risks may arise in the process of the project implementation. It will be necessary to detect risks appropriately. Various teams will identify all risk factors, document, and conduct all necessary actions as they occur.

Traceability Matrix

The traceability matrix of the project will be bi-directional. It will include both forward and backward matrices to manage the project efficiently. It will ascertain that all the requirements are being covered in the project. This matrix will also ensure that every move is traced easily and has accurate or valid cases in the respect to the achievement of this project (see Appendix A).

Project Scope Statement

There has been an increase in the need for courier services as a result of the increase of online shopping. Courier services are an emerging profitable area that companies can join and see success. Though there are competitors currently in this marketing, the rise in demand would prevent the sense of competition to take place. The project would be accepted if the projected profitability comes to be more then the cost layout. This project will result in the development of different parcel stores and partnerships with other transporters to pick up and drop off the parcels from one store to another. Some of the constraints in this project would be getting capable workers to build and manage the stores, parcels, and cost.

Work Breakdown Structure

The work breakdown structure will consist of the needed tasks to complete each store. These would be to rent or build the building, test and inspections, legal and commercial documentation, as well as selecting the proper locations (see Appendix B for full structure). Each of these tasks will need to be completed before looking it to hiring employees to manage these sites and continue to the next location. All locations will have a similar format and each will follow the work breakdown structure to ensure the similarities, city regulations permitting.

Cost Estimates and Budget

The cost entails all expenses that will be incurred in order to make each store operational and ensure the process runs smoothly and as planned. In this case, the company will have to carry out cost tradeoffs and consider all risks to ascertain that the process can continue to the execution phase. Liberty Travel can apply make versus buy, sharing of resources, and buy versus lease options. The initial cost outlay of the project is $30 million. It is estimated that the project will start yielding returns shortly after the second year. The average profits that will be gained from year two to year six are $7 million, proving the company would see a positive profit over that period, making the project viable to continue.

Communication Management

As stated above, the basic forms of communication during the project will be through email, virtual conference, and instant messaging. This will ensure the stakeholders gain access to information faster and provide the necessary feedback as it pertains to the situation. The groups will work together and hold virtual meetings with each team in the different locations to share information on the progress of the project (Bond-Bernard, 2018). They will gain access through the use of their cell phones or computers. It will be necessary for the team to have access to internet allowing them to properly communicate in real-time during the life cycle of the project.

Risk Management

Various risks will impact the project in a positive or negative way. The most common risks that can impact the project are changes in requirements, estimating time risks, unclear specifications, technical risk, neglecting designs, insufficient resources, and inaccurate budget estimates (Keers, 2018). Liberty Travel will create action plans and risks assessments to probably prepare for these risks and have a quick resolution. Appendix C will show a risk probability and impact matrix, as well as a risk register to properly monitor the risk and response, as well an example of a quantitative risk model. These tools will help in the risk management aspect of the project.

Strategies for Risk Mitigation

One of the ways to mitigate both forms of risks is to get the right team to undertake the project’s activities. The leaders will need to ensure that the right people are on the team to successfully carry out each task by utilizing the resources efficiently (Keers, 2018). Secondly, the managers should ensure that there are efficient forms of communication throughout the team in each location and potential location. Lastly, the company will need to set up a contingency plan in order to assist with any risks that may occur throughout the project.

Conclusion

This paper covered the initiation and planning phases for a new courier services for Liberty Travel in North America. Currently the company offers travel and cruise services through out the United States. This project will provide courier services to customers in these current locations as well as expand to new locations due to the increase of online shopping. The initial cost outlay for the project is $30 million which will yield $7 million in profits after the second year.

References

Bertram, R. F., & Chi, T. (2018). A study of companies’ business responses to fashion e-

commerce’s environmental impact. International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology

and Education, 11(2), 254-264.

Bond-Barnard, T. J., Fletcher, L., & Steyn, H. (2018). Linking trust and collaboration in project

teams to project management success. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business.

Keers, B. B., & van Fenema, P. C. (2018). Managing risks in public-private partnership

formation projects. International Journal of Project Management, 36(6), 861-875.

Appendix A

Traceability Matrix: Bi-Directional Traceability

Appendix B

Work Breakdown Structure- Courier Service for Liberty Travel

Appendix C

Risk Probability and Impact Matrix chart and template:

Risk Register for Liberty Travel:

Quantitative Risk Model: