Importance Of Project Charter For Successful Implementation Of Online Investment Portfolio System At Cornerstone Securities

Background of Cornerstone Securities

 The main purpose of creating the project charter is that it helps in providing proper information about the project including the scope, objectives as well as assumptions that are very much needed in order to complete the project successfully within the estimated budget and time. Project charter is quite important as it generally helps in initiating, planning, executing, control as well as accessing the project successfully. In addition to this, it generally serves as a single point of reference for the project objectives as well as goals. The document is also helpful in guiding the project in a proper direction by keep each of the tasks project specific so that the gaols and objectives of the project can be met easily. 

The paper mainly focuses on the organization “Cornerstone Securities” that initially operates within the financial sector in the year 2008.However in 2011, the company move to the wealth creation and financial market in New Zealand and Australia, which proved successful. During the year 2013 to 2017, the company wants to make a major move by various individual investors for using the facility of e-business. This generally creates number of issues on the present IT infrastructure of the company especially in context to piecemeal development for handling large number transactions as well as customers. The organization is receiving number of complaints from the customers due to improper online service and this problem become of the major priority and thus the organization wants to resolve it. The company wants to implement online investment portfolio system in order to provide secure as well as proper use of online services for all potential new, current, incorporate customer service as well as for back office system within the organization. The new system that the company wants to implement is mainly supported by various improved practices as well as process of business that generally resides on architectural sound network as well as hardware platform.

The objectives of the project mainly include:

• To develop online Investment portfolio system in order to deliver secure as well as easy way of utilizing online system
• To provide customer services to the customers with the help of improved practices as well as processes
• To enhance customer retention as well as customer satisfaction
• To achieve proper substantial operational cost savings as well as staff productivity improvements
• Growing market share in Australia 

  The project value statements are provided below:

• The market share of the company will grow by 25% in Australia, New Zealand as well as in South Pacific region.
• The online investment portfolio system that is developed will operate 24×7 days
• The rate of handling as well as managing customers would get doubled after 12 months 

The project stakeholders who are mainly involved with the project are listed in the table below: 

Name	Position	Contact details
Jane Smith	Project manager	[email protected]
John McLane	Business analyst	[email protected]
Mike Ross	Hardware and Network engineer	[email protected]
Harvey Spector	Business analyst	[email protected]
Sylvester Knight	Security specialist	[email protected]
Zohaib Khan	Hardware and Network engineer	[email protected]
Jannette Joyce	Security specialist	[email protected]
Susan Smith	Business analyst	[email protected]

The constraints of the project are as follows:

 Time: The project must be successfully completed within 11 months and it should not exceed December 2019. If the project is not completed within the due date then the budget that is associated with project also creates which will quite difficult to manage for the organization

Objectives of the Project

Budget: The project must be completed properly within the assumed budget that is around $A5 million. If budget shortfall happens during the progress of the project then it is quite difficult to complete the project due to financial crisis.

Building of pilot version: The pilot version of the project must be implemented in order to test the working of the system in context to organizational objectives and goals.

Request for proposal: Proper request needs to be generated if there is a requirement of purchasing for new hardware or network infrastructure of the company.

 The in-scope of the project includes: 

• Development of online investment portfolio project for provide secure and proper online services
• Enhancing the satisfaction of the customers
• Increasing financial and information data access
• Providing paramount security though the ease of use is not sacrificed
• Proper training of the staffs in order to support the new online investment system
• Development of customer service module for getting compliments about tee w system
• Providing online services to the customers 24×7
• Giving proper availability of wealth creation as well as financial investment products
• The system must able to handle 6 million of the customers 

WBS	Task Name
1	Online Investment Portfolio Project
1.1	Project planning phase
1.1.1	Determination of new practices as well as processes
1.1.2	Project proposal development
1.1.3	Getting approval for the project
1.1.4	Identifying stakeholders of the project
1.1.5	Project plan approval
1.2	Web application design
1.2.1	Gathering information for initial stage’
1.2.2	Creation of hardware and network infrastructure audit
1.2.3	Development of IT architectural plan
1.2.4	Purchasing of new solutions for hardware and network infrastructure
1.2.5	Pilot version of new online portfolio investment system
1.2.6	Undertaking meeting for kick-off project
1.2.7	Final design approval
1.3	Coding
1.3.1	Construction of prototype
1.3.2	Database development
1.3.3	Code validation
1.3.4	Testing of cross-browser
1.3.5	Optimization
1.3.6	Data migration
1.4	User experience
1.4.1	Improvement in customer service
1.4.2	Project details update
1.4.3	Display of presentation program
1.5	Project requirement
1.5.1	Web application assessment
1.5.2	Estimating hardware and software needs
1.5.3	Testing and reviewing
1.5.4	Getting operational support
1.6	Project closure phase
1.6.1	Risk assessment
1.6.2	Quality management
1.6.3	Final review

If the implementation of the online Investment Portfolio system will be helps in resolving all the difficulties that the company is facing in handling its customers as well as transactions then the project can be considered successful. In addition to this, the project must be able to provide proper as well as secure online services for all potential new, current, incorporate customer service as well as for back office system within the organization so that the issues as well as challenges associated with the current system of the organization can be resolved. The success criteria of the project must be checked after the implementation of the project. If after the project closure phase, the system is able to handling all the business operations successfully without creating any problems or challenges the system is considered as successful. 

The recommendations  and approvals that are required for the implementation of online Investment Portfolio project are elaborated below: 

Approval: It is very much necessary to get approval from boards as well as from other senior executive officer as  approval on time  will lead the project completion on time which helps in adding more value to the organization as the company is able to achieve the goals as well as objectives that are associated with the project. In addition to this, it is quite necessary to get approval for everything that is added or excluded for the project. Without approval, the changes within the project cannot be done. As changes within the project can create huge impact on the outcome, thus it is necessary to get approval before proceeding with any time of changes within the project. 

Project charter: The project charter must prove the objectives as well as goals of the project clearly, so that the project manager can able to achieve success within the project by following the document during project initiation, planning, execution as well as control. In addition to this, the charter must be created in a way that is provide proper guidance throughout the project progress so that the entire project will be completed successfully within the assumed budget as well as time.