Question

JOHN AND JACOB, INC., ONLINE TRADING SYSTEM

John and Jacob, Inc., IS a regional brokerage firm that has been successful over the last several years. Competition for customers is Intense In this Industry. The large national firms have very deep pockets, with many services to offer to clients. Severe competition also comes from discount and Internet trading companies. However, John and Jacob has been able to cultivate a substantial customer base from upper-middle Income people in the northeastern United States. To maintain a competitive edge with its customers, John and Jacob is in the process of developing a new online trading system. The plan for the system Identifies many new capabilities that would provide new services to its clients.

Edward Finnigan, the project manager, is in the process of identifying all the groups of people who should be Included In the development of the system requirements. He isn't quite sure exactly who should be included, Here are the issues he's considering:

Users. The trading system is to be online to each of the company's 30 trading offices. Obviously, the brokers who are going to use the system need to have input, but how should this be done? Edward also isn’t sure what approach would be best to ensure that the requirements are complete, yet not require tremendous amounts of time. Including all of the offices would increase enthusiasm and support for the system, but it would take a lot of time. Yet, involving more brokers would bring divergent options that would have to be reconciled.

Customers. The trading system will also include confirmations, reports of trade, and customer statements. Web access is also planned, which will enable customers to effect trades and to check their accounts. Consequently, another question Edward has is about involving John and Jacob customers in the development of the system requirements. Normally customers are not asked to participate in the development of systems. However, it would be nice to know how best to serve John and Jacob’s customers. He is sensitive to this issue because some of the brokers have indicated to him that many customers do not like the format of their statements from the current system. He would like to involve customers, but he does not know how.

Other Stakeholders. Edward knows he should involve other stakeholders to help define the system requirements. He isn’t quite sure whom should he contact. Should he go to the senior executives? Should he contact middle management? Should he include back-office functions such as accounting and investing? He isn’t sure how to get organized to how to decide who should be involved.

Answer following questions:

(a). What is the best method for Edward to involve the brokers(users) in the development of the new online trading system? should he use a questionnaire? Should he interview the brokers in each of the company’s 30 offices, or would one or two brokers representing the entire group be better? How can Edward ensure that the information about requirements is complete, yet not lose too much time doing so?

(b). Concerting customer input for new system, how can Edward involve customers in the process? How can he interest them in participating? What are some ways that Edward can use sure that the customers he does involve are representative of John and Jacob’s entire customer group?

(c). As Edward considers what other stakeholders he should include, what are some criteria he should use? Develop some guidelines to help build a list of people to include.

Answer 1

(a) I accept that the best strategy is utilize a survey, this being the most cost-effective technique. Sending a delegate out to each organization would be dreadfully costly. Another way is build up a lot of attributes that recognize the different workplaces, and after that to choose a delegate office from each arrangement of comparable workplaces. A mix of the two strategies would likely be the best decision.

(b) The best decision in regards to this may be a survey too. Along these lines a huge enough gathering can be considered. The survey should concentrate on the sorts of administrations and reports that the client gets from the framework. If interviews are required, agents for each gathering of clients ought to be picked.

(c) Guidelines:

• Take a gander at the goals of the past reports, this will give a rundown of the present clients of the system.
• Check the various offices in the organization and check whether there are any that need to get reports.