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The Business Problem at Cool Widgets, Inc. (CWI)

Ashford University INF 630: Business Analysis Dr. Allyson Heisey April 30, 2020

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The Business Problem at Cool Widgets, Inc. (CWI) Young Gonzaga (2017) introduces Cool Widgets, Inc. (CWI) as a fictious collections company based out of California. CWI is experiencing growth due to their success; this growth has led to increases in their incoming mail. While CWI wishes to expand into two new offices, their projected growth requires a more efficient and reliable way to handle their incoming mail (Young Gonzaga, 2017). In today’s Industry 4.0 world, solutions like the one CWI needs are created “through the intensive use of digital and connected” (Tirabeni et al., 2019, p. 6363) technologies “fueled by data and machine learning” (Marr, 2018, p. 1). This review will unpack the business issues at CWI as well as define and discuss the business problem and Industry 4.0 centered project deliverables. Expanding on the business scenario Young Gonzaga (2017) puts forward, Heisey (2020) adds that CWI’s California headquarters mailroom handles over 1,000 pieces of mail per day delivered by several mail carriers. Types of mail include, but are not limited to, “letters, bank statements, checks, invoices, contracts, legal documents, solicitations, UPS, Fed-Ex, and courier deliveries” (Young Gonzaga, 2017, p. 1). The majority of this mail is for CWI’s accounts payable (AP), accounts receivables (AR), and account collections (AC) departments. Additionally, this mail is time sensitive since any delay in processing hurts CWI’s bottom line and their reputation with their customers. Unfortunately, the current sorting process for this mail is untimely, complex, and contains a high error rate. The current system at CWI has a problem with “the frequent misidentification and misrouting of important mail pieces, such as invoices, payment advisories, wire confirmations, checks, and money orders” (Young Gonzaga, 2017, p. 1). Some of these items are just delayed in getting into the correct hands but others are lost in the shuffle

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completely. While all the impacts of this are negative, they manifest differently depending on the stakeholder. CWI’s mailroom staff are overloaded by the increasing amount of mail as the company grows which has the potential to make a bad situation worse. Additionally, as the source for the error, the department’s management is likely receiving complaints from the other departments and upper management. Customers are negatively impacted when their payments are lost or delayed. This negatively impacts the customer support team at CWI as they are on the receiving end of exasperated customer calls. The AP, AR, and AC departments are all negatively impacted by the delays caused by the current system. For these stakeholders, late penalties represent one of the larger hits to CWI’s bottom line. CWI’s c-level executives are negatively impacted by the lost revenue caused by these delays as well as losing trust with their customer base. It is essential for CWI to revamp their process for how they are currently handling mail so that hits to their revenue are limited. It is also important because the two new CWI branch offices will not receive any physical mail (Young Gonzaga, 2017). Therefore, Roberts & Roberts (2013) would classify the handling and routing of incoming mail and eventually electronically received documents as the work, or the part of CWI that the solution affects, at the center of the project scope (see appendix). An essential and early part of scope defining process is to “identify requirements or solutions of interest” (Monteiro et al., 2016, p. 643). It is imperative for stakeholders to “adequately reflect their requirements during scope definition process” (Fageha & Aibinu, 2016, p.7) to avoid delays caused by an incomplete scope definition. These requirements are useable representations of a business’s needs, or problems, in relation to the work and are rooted in potential value add to the company (IIBA, 2015). IIBA (2015) lists six types of requirements:

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business, stakeholder, solution, functional, non-functional or quality of service, and transition. Business requirements are “statements of goals, objectives, and outcomes that describe why a change has been initiated” (IIBA, 2015, p. 16). Stakeholder requirements “describe the needs of stakeholders that must be met in order to achieve the business requirements” (IIBA, 2015, p. 16). Solution requirements “describe the capabilities and qualities of a solution that meets the stakeholder requirements” (IIBA, 2015, p. 16). One of two sub-categories of solution requirements, functional requirements “describe the capabilities that a solution must have in terms of the behavior and information that the solution will manage” (IIBA, 2015, p. 16). The other sub-category of solution requirements, non-functional or quality of service requirements “do not relate directly to the behavior of functionality of the solution, but rather describe conditions under which a solution must remain effective or qualities that a solution must have” (IIBA, 2015, p. 16). Transition requirements are the only requirements that are considered temporary since they “describe the capabilities that the solution must have and the conditions the solution must meet to facilitate transition from the current state to the future state, but which are not needed once the change is complete” (IIBA, 2015, p. 16). CWI’s business requirement for this scope of work is the correct routing of all incoming mail or online documents leading to the elimination of unnecessary late fees and customer frustration. Their stakeholder requirements related to CWI’s scope of work include information gathered from AR, AP, and AC departments which can help the mailroom and eventually the online system determine identifying factors in incoming mail/documents that can help determine where they need to be routed to within the company. The functional requirements of CWI’s solution are managing the information gathered from other departments on how to identify different types of mail, storing document type-department relationship data, storing invoices,

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routing customer payments, a feedback element to adjust logic based on items that were misrouted. It is the feedback element, likely powered by artificial intelligence, that makes this solution a true example Industry 4.0. The non-functional or quality of service requirements of CWI’s solution are correct routing within 3 seconds of receiving online payments or documents and correct identification of physical mail recipient within 2 minutes. Transition requirements are a large aspect of CWI’s solution because the long-term goal is to remove physical mail altogether. During the first phases, the solution must prove accurate and reliable for physical mail. This will help the development team ensure the logic in their code is correct before the 100% online business model is launched. After transitioning to the final solution, CWI should have no problem expanding into their two new branches with 200 total staff and continuing to grow their customer base by delivering on their goals without issue or unnecessary delay.

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Appendix Figure 1. Context Diagram

Note. Scope of work for CWI’s business problem.

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References Fageha, M. K., & Aibinu, A. A. (2016). Identifying stakeholders’ involvement that enhances project scope definition completeness in Saudi Arabian public building projects. Built Environment Project & Asset Management, 6(1), 6. Heisey, A. (2020) Week 1 Lecture [Instructor Post]. Retrieved from http://login.ashford.edu IIBA. (2015). A guide to the business analysis body of knowledge (BABOK Guide) (3rd ed.). Retrieved from https://ashford.instructure.com/ Marr, B. (2018). What is Industry 4.0? Here's A Super Easy Explanation for Anyone. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/09/02/what-is-industry4-0-heres-a-super-easy-explanation-for-anyone/#425fe4ba9788 Monteiro, R. S., Zimbrao, G., & de Souza, J. M. (2016). Exchanging solutions for Information Systems Development using a model pattern perspective: Diagram templates in the context of the Mdarte Collaborative Evolution Process. 2016 4th International Conference on Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development (MODELSWARD), Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development (MODELSWARD), 2016 4th International Conference On, 640–647. Robertson, S., & Robertson, J. (2013). Mastering the requirements process: Getting requirements right (3rd ed.). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu Tirabeni, L., De Bernardi, P., Forliano, C., & Franco, M. (2019). How Can Organisations and Business Models Lead to a More Sustainable Society? A Framework from a Systematic Review of the Industry 4.0. Sustainability (2071-1050), 11(22), 6363. Young Gonzaga, S. (2017). Business scenario for Cool Widgets, Inc. [PDF document]. Retrieved from https://ashford.instructure.com/...