Implementation Strategy

The implementation strategy defines the general approach for the 99 speedmart system implementation.

System Implementation is the third phase in the JISC infoNet lifecycle approach, during which: the hardware and software system components are installed; the selected software is configured and tested; the software may be customised to meet local functional requirements; data mapping, cleansing and migration take place; reporting requirements are specified and reports produced; the whole system is tested before being approved, signed off and becoming a fully operational production system.

Software & Hardware acquisition

After some discussion made within the companies managers, we have decided to use Fujitsu's Point of Sale hardware and software solutions. It will provide reliable, efficient and low costs retail solutions which will improve the experience of your customers while having a healthy effect on 99 speedmart profit margins.We use of Point-of-sales hardware such as POS Receipt Printer, Slip Printer, Thermal Printer, Card Printer, Barcode Printer, Barcode Scanner, Customer Pole Display, POS Cash Drawer, Magnetic Reader & Writer (Encoder & Decoder), Barcode Reader, Data collector, Touch Screen Monitor and Weighing Scale Machine.

User preparation 99 speedmart system solution is easy to use. Even a computer novice will have no problem setting up an account, creating an inventory, constructing a customer database and making sales transactions. The Fujitsu's representative will give a helpful tour of the system carefully, explaining each of the features. They can also be contacted over the phone and through their website. This one-time training and support

session is available for first store system. There is also a small list of FAQs that the user can refer to, but if they cannot find what they are looking for, tech support is available by email or phone at any time

Personnel: Hiring and training

99 speedmart will always give the job candidate a good look at our operation and a tour of our facility can serve this purpose. Such a tour can also give us as the company a loads of important information about the candidate that we cannot get from the formal interview. This is because during the tour, the candidate becomes involved in real-time interaction with the work environment and other employees. We can observe the candidate actually interacting with others and with the workplace itself. ntroduce the

candidate to a variety of people in the organization as a tour progresses. Pick people that would be considerably higher in the organization than the candidate and pick some that would be considerably lower. Introduce the candidate to the point of sale system that we are using in the company uses in the daily business. Show the candidates the system features and how to use it step by step.

site preparation

Data preparation

The introduction of a new system is to make information accessible to a greater number of users - where this is not explicitly the case it is often a by-product of the change. The increase in availability of web 'self-service' functionality for 99 speedmart staff alike to carry out basic administrative tasks reveals data that had previously been for the most part hidden from the subject. Good information and data management has always been an essential part of any business process and of making effective use of IT

systems. The difference now is that any errors in the data are more highly visible and the dissatisfaction of these 'new' users often manifests itself in blaming the system as a poor product rather than identifying the business processes and/or the data preparation and processing as the root cause. All of this means that when an organisation decides to implement a new system, one of the tasks that has to be undertaken with great care and with precise timing is the process of moving data from one or more old systems to the new. This is usually referred to as Data Migration. The importance, complexity and duration of the data migration process must not be underestimated, as it almost always goes wrong at some stage, and work should start as early as possible. Typically, data migration is performed by a set of customised programs or scripts that are written by IT Services staff and/or external technical consultants to automatically transfer the data from the old system(s) to the new. Time and resources must be allocated for writing the customised programs when planning data migration activities.

Installation
Installing Hardware and Networking Facilities
This is a complex task and best left to the professionals. Numerous skills must be brought to bear to ensure that the installation:

is of the right specification, capacity and configuration; meets legislative, environmental safety and security requirements; and fits in with the existing computing and networking conditions.

Most organisations will have their own technical experts who should work with those of the equipment manufacturers and the provider of technical services, if one has been appointed, to plan and execute the installation processes.

Installation considerations will include:

specification and set-up of the computer room(s) and operating environment; specification, selection and installation of cabling and electrical supplies; specification, selection and installation of data storage facilities; installation and configuration of the computing hardware;

installation and configuration of the operating system; installation and configuration of the networking facilities; installation and configuration of communications software; testing of the complete installation; and performance optimisation of the complete installation.

Installing the Software

Once the hardware is in place, the software should be installed. Initially this need only be for a development environment, but thought must be given as early as possible to the requirements for installing the software and database for other environments or 'instances' as they are known.

Just download the Retail Plus installer onto the hard drive and double-click on it. The browser will pop up a window asking if you want to Run or Save RETAIL30.EXE. Please select Save if you have a slow internet connection, after which you can indicate where to put the installer (usually in the Program Files folder). Installation is very fast. In 5 minutes or less we will have a fully functioning point of sale system with sample inventory that you can try without any long setups. The installation process, or at least relevant system set-up
aspects of the installation, should be repeated or rehearsed many times during the months leading up to going-live so that those people charged with the responsibility of setting-up the new system at the time of goinglive gain a detailed understanding of each task in the process and precise timings can be taken. This is particularly important because, when the institution eventually goes-live with the new system, the down-time in converting from the old system must not only be as short as possible, but also sufficient for the tasks to be carried out properly and fully tested.

Testing
System or 'application' testing should result in a clear picture as to whether all code modules work as specified, and that the system as a whole performs adequately on the platform and across the network on which it will be deployed. Even if the system being implemented is already running within other organisations under similar conditions, it is crucial to develop a comprehensive plan to thoroughly test it before going live. The testing should examine whether:

the whole system is properly configured; the hardware on which the system is to run is properly installed; system parameters are properly set; the functionality of the software is sound and performs as expected; the business processes are supported; any local conditions and requirements are satisfied.

This section assumes to some extent that adequate selection and procurement procedures have been carried out and that the software being implemented is appropriate for the process requirements. However, it is certainly possible to discover loopholes in the testing phase which may lead to further process redesign or even elements of re-scoping, depending on their severity. Indeed, much of the material presented here can be used as a basis for the initial selection (the test scripts in the System Selection infoKit are a form of functionality testing but at that stage are not product-specific).