Assignment 10-Unsolicited Internal Proposal

Assignment 10: Unsolicited Internal ProposalThis assignment is intended to provide practice writing persuasive messages, specifically, an informal but somewhat detailed and complex, unsolicited internal proposal.ScenarioSnark Tees is a small, but rapidly growing company based in La Jolla, California. The company prints and sells beach-themed T-shirts, jackets, caps and related apparel. You are the manager of accounting, and supervise one employee, Jamie Sinclair, a customer-service rep. Founded in 2012 by an entrepreneur named Riley Grant, Snark Tees has grown from 7 employees to 20 at present. Snark Tees’ sales have taken off since the company’s Internet store went live in April 2013 and Internet ad buys starting in September 2014.As sales have grown, Riley has invested heavily in production equipment and new employees to keep up with demand. Riley has been waiting for an opportunity to take a chunk of the company’s net income as a bonus. As the accountant, you have a good idea that the company’s net income year-to-date is $150,000. (Note: The value of the business is $750,000 and growing.)However, despite keeping up with production, order processing and fulfillment have been stretched to the limit. As the accountant and manager of the customer service rep, this is a problem you face on a daily basis. The cause of the problem is the Internet store sales. To risk as little as possible, Riley Grant purchased a rudimentary Internet-store application in 2013, which is not connected to the company’s order processing and accounting systems. Orders come in as secure emails with all the customer order information, but must be re-typed into the company’s order-processing-accounting system. The time required to enter an order is about 6 minutes, including completely retyping the customers’ bill- and ship-to, credit card, and items ordered. In addition, 5% of the orders have credit cards that are declined. These require an email back to the customer, and they don’t always reply. Finally, the customer service rep has an error rate approaching 2% on addresses and credit cards, due to the speed at which he (or she) must enter the mounting number of orders every day.Another drawback of the current Internet store is the lack of tie-in with the company’s mailroom-UPS program, which would automatically email customers the tracking information upon shipment. Because Snark Tees’ customers are not notified by email when their orders ship, some customers send follow-up emails, requesting the status and tracking info for their orders. Jamie has to look these up from the paper records stored in the mailroom.At present, the customer service rep is spending 6 hours/day entering the 60 Internet orders received on average. He (or she) is also spending 1 hour/day on order follow-up emails, contacting customers with declined credit cards, order status/tracking info replies, or corrections of the 2% of erroneously entered orders. This leaves the rep only 1 hour/day to do everything else in his (or her) job description. When the rep is out of the office, the orders are entered by temporary employees. The temps are not as proficient as Jamie, and as time progresses, there are more orders to enter, which requires more time. In 2015, outside help had to be brought at a total cost of $6,000, with 2016 likely to require $8,000 by the end of the year.Jamie, the customer service rep is not happy with his (or her) job. The type of work is not what was on the original job description. Retyping addresses and credit card information that have already been typed (by the customers) is “making me crazy,” the rep says. He (or she) is rumored to want to leave the company for another job, and will, if and when the opportunity arises.You and the marketing director are worried that the Internet store is hurting the image of Snark Tees, possibly damaging or holding back advancing the brand. You both worry that because the Internet store lacks functionality, Snark Tees looks like a rinky-dink, bush-league operation. Moreover, some customers who have to be contacted, especially for order status, have expressed surprise and frustration that the system does not automatically email them.The solution, you feel, is to upgrade the Internet store to one with greater functionality, and ties to the company’s order processing-accounting and shipping systems. In addition to taking care of the problems already mentioned, an upgraded Internet store offers more features, including advanced searching, “customers who bought this item also bought ___,” and customer reviews.The upgrade is beyond the capability of Dan Datamonger, Snark Tees’ “IT guy,” though he is more than competent to administrate the program once it’s installed. You have found a company — E-Commerce Solutions — that can provide the upgrade to both the Internet store and the mailroom-UPS system for $75,000. Because the current Internet store is not connected to the main systems, no down time will be necessary. The upgraded system can be worked up, tested and live in 90 days. The only downside you see is the cost, which will require half the current net income, which Riley Grant wants to take as a bonus.AssignmentWrite an unsolicited internal proposal to Riley, suggesting that the company hire E-Commerce Solutions to produce and install an upgraded Internet store as described above. The proposal should have the following sections, identified by headings:-Introduction (the title will function as the heading)-Problem Situation (various details from scenario)-Proposed Solution (including third party provider and cost details)-Benefits (specific solutions for the specific problems mentioned in “Situation” section)-Timeline/Employees Involved (when and who are part of this)-Conclusion (recalls the current situation and urges action)The proposal is to be at least 4 single-spaced pages, including 1 visual aid; at most 5 single-spaced pages, including 2 visual aids. A cover page does not count as one of these pages.Proposal NumbersFollowing are some additional facts and statistics related to the Snark Tees proposal assignment scenario that lend themselves to visual aids.Average number of orders received (non-Internet and Internet) per day:Year Non-Internet Internet Total2012 5 0 52013 8 18 262014 9 30 392015 10 48 582016-YTD 10 60 70Average time to enter and process current Internet order: 6 min.Average time to review and process Internet order from proposed module: 1 min. or lessSnark Tees employees and day ranges to be involved in E-Commerce Solutions development and implementation of proposed Internet module.Dan Datamonger, Director of IT Services: first 30 days, last 30 daysJamie Sinclair, Customer Service Representative: first 3 days (input), last 10 days (training)You, Director of Accounting and Fulfillment: first 5 days (input), last 5 days (training), with reports from E-Commerce Solutions after 30 days and 60 days.