Lynne and team successfully migrated the Good Products CRM solution (Salesforce) into the newly acquired American company. With the CRM project completed, it was now time to initiate the standardization of the Human Resource Management (HRM) "system" (policies, processes and technology) and the Financial Management "system" (FMS) (policies, processes and technology). In addition, Good Products decided it was time to address a key issue with their supply chain.

Good Products decided to retain Lynne and the management consulting firm to support them on three of these initiatives. They were pleased with the work on the CRM project. In addition, bringing in a new management consulting firm would be very time consuming for everyone involved. Lastly, given the nature of these three projects, it was critical that the project management team had a good understanding of the cultures of the two companies, and this is very hard to "teach" since many elements of culture have to be observed to be appreciated.

Human Resource Management Standardization Project

The organizational systems in the newly acquired American company were very different than thosefoundsintheUKcompany.Thisledtoagoalofstandardization. Inordertogainthebuy- in of American company's HR team, Philip Cowell, CEO of Good Products, let everyone know he wanted the project management team to look for best practices and put these best practices into place at both companies. This meant that it was possible for best practices to be discovered in the American company and later implemented throughout the UK based organization's various regional offices. However, most people on the project team knew this was nothing more than a kind gesture because the newly acquired American company's HR practices, policies and systems were perceived to be very ineffective and inefficient.

The American company tracked employee satisfaction results and these results validated the HRM challenges. A comparison of the top line employee satisfaction results in both organizationsrevealedahugegap. Inresponsetothequestion"wouldyourecommendthis company to members of your professional network and friends", an average of 82% of employees in the UK organization answered "agree" or "strongly agree". However, only 51% of employees in the newly acquired American company answered "agree" or "strongly agree" to a similarly worded question. Sinead O'Sullivan, the HR lead from the CRM project, skimmed the comments from survey participants and she noticed two themes:

1) lack of clarity around job responsibilities was leading to employee frustration and

2) the belief that employees were not paid what they were worth relative to the market and their peers inside the company was leading to a sense of inequity.

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Lynne realized that she would need to recruit a team of experienced HR professionals from the management consulting firm. Lynne's partner at the management consulting firm confirmed Sinead O'Sullivan would be assigned to this project. This was terrific news, and she hoped a few more consultants like Sinead would become available soon. In addition, Lynne asked Philip's executive team to identify at least 5 HR representatives from the UK and American companies. Lynne spoke with Philip about this as she needed to ensure the representatives would be employeefocusedandveryknowledgeableofHRbestpractices. Lynnewantedthebestand the brightest to join her team.

As Lynne began to think about the work required on this project, she knew that a comprehensive assessment of the HR policies, processes and technology in the UK and American companies would be time-consuming but critical. If done well, it would allow the team to deliver outstanding recommendations in support of the standardization goal. create the structure of your budget

Estimate the labour and non-labour costs.

Estimating labour costs requires you to estimate how long the work will take

(effort).Youwillneedtomakealotofassumptions. Recalltheapproacheswe use for estimating. In reality, we often look for similar projects that were

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conducted in the past and adjust the durations for the circumstances of our current project. Since you don't have the ability to rely on past projects, I will not be critiquing the estimates you make.

As a group, estimate how much the human resources will be paid by estimating the daily rates for the resources required.

With respect to the non-labour costs of your project, consider fees, needed equipment and materials. Start your brainstorming with some research about similar projects as a way to identify potential costs.

Create the total budget

This requires you to sum up the costs of each deliverable. Createsubtotalsat

the major deliverable level. Create subtotals for the labour and non-labour costs aswell. UseformulaswheneverpossiblesofullyharnessthepowerofMicrosoft Excel.

Establish a reasonablecontingencyfor this project. You arefreeto make any assumptions you like; simply ensure they are well documented.

Create the time-phased budget.

As discussed in class, the objective of the time-phased budget is to determine the

cash flow needs of the project. In order to create a time-phased budget, you need to estimate when the work will be done. As a group, discuss the sequencing you used for your individual schedules and decide how you will sequence the work for purposes of this time-phased budget. Pay special attention to the sequencing of the project management work as it's essential that it occurs throughout the project.

The duration of your time-phased budget should be 6 months (consistent with the project schedule)

With respect to contingencies, it is acceptable to include them at the beginning of the project, end of the project or spread them out over the project's duration. You can decide which approach you feel is most appropriate. Ensure your time-phased budget has the same total cost as your aggregate budget.