Crimson INC.
1. Organization Name
Crimson Inc. is a renowned worldwide organization that provides support, products, and services for computer systems and information technology. It was incorporated in 1990 and has continued to grow into one of the most valuable organizations in the world.
2. Organization Type
The organization is a commercial business company, which is privately owned and has been in operation for two decades.
3. Business Line(s)
The company designs, manufacture, and markets media devices, portable music players, and personal computers. Crimson deals in a broad spectrum of related software, applications, third-party digital content, networking solutions, accessories, and services. The products include bigBox, Crimson TV, Crimson SmartWatch, Crimson smartphones, Crim (personal computers), Crim Pads. The company also runs supporting software and applications including Watch OS, Crimson smartphone OS, and Crim OS, Crim Pay, Crim Cloud, and a wide range of accessories to accompany the products.
The high-performance software and applications are only designed exclusively for Crimson devices. Thus, when the customers buy the products, the app sells automatically. The company also provides education, support, and professional services to its customers. The company delivers digital content through its broad range of internet platforms including App Store, Crimson Music, TV App Store, and Crim App.
Crimson Inc. has a market niche for customers within government agencies, corporations, individual customers, and educational groups. The company targets organizations from small to midsized ones. The products are high end and attract customers with high income.
The company is involved in infrastructure development for an ultra-modern school for the technology students who need a full scholarship. It also has another project for coming up with an electric car dubbed “The Flash.”
4. Strategic Objectives
Crimson Inc. uses control of prices to as a strategy to attract more demand for its goods. There is a push to reduce the rates for the applications and software that they design. The devices require this software and applications as primary complementary products for the Crimson devices. When their prices are reduced, the demand for the main devices will increase.
Monitoring and Control
Projects succeed when the manager maintain the cost of the project within the budget. From the onset, there is need to put under check the various factors that affect the activities of monitoring and controlling costs. Some of the issues that affect monitoring and control activities include inconsistency in budgeting and forecast (Lombard, 2008). This inconsistency leads to either a less allocation or over-allocation of funds to a project. When more resources are allocated to the project than required, the chances of wastage are equally high. Secondly, the accuracy of reports also affects activities of monitoring and controlling costs. Activities such as estimation of cost largely rely on the accuracy of reports particularly concerning the studies carried out about the project. Moreover aligning data from different sources proves a challenge in earned value management (Kubba, 2017). As Crimson Company implements its projects, it will need to take into consideration the impact of such issues in managing the costs of the project.
Crimson Company will need to focus on various elements of the project management plan, as it desires to monitor and control the cost of implementation. First, the project manager will require focusing on the project schedules. Maintaining the project within its scheduled time is important in controlling the cost of the project (Lombard, 2008). During scheduling, the project manager must ensure that the time scheduled for the project activities is only efficient and not extravagant. Moreover, the project must be confined to the schedule. Prolonged project activities beyond the scheduled time imply more cost on the project. Secondly, the project manager will require focusing on policies and procedures in the project. The policies and procedures must be clear from the planning stage. Such policies and procedures confine the project to its intended objectives and help minimize resource wastage. For instance, the health and safety policies and procedures ensure that the human resource is available for timely completion of the project and that the project does not incur costs of treatment and compensations arising from injuries that were not foreseen in the initial budget (Jones, 2016). Lastly, the project manager must focus on the budgeting process. At the planning stage, the project manager must ensure that adequate resources are allocated for each project activity. Moreover, monitoring cost should involve comparing the actual cost incurred and the forecast cost budgeted. The main must be to reduce the variance between the two.
At the organizational level, several strategies can be embraced to monitor and control cost-effectively. First, there must be a clear chain of command and structured flow of information. This structured chain of command and flow of information not only helps in coordinating the project but also helps in creating accountability in the project (Kubba, 2017). This coordination and accountability are essential in ensuring that resources are optimized within the project. Secondly, the organization must put in place specific policies that guide the management and execution of projects. For instance, the health and safety policy identified above can greatly help in controlling the cost of the project (Jones, 2016). Moreover, policies that guide worker remunerations equally play a role in ensuring that such remunerations do not go beyond what has been budgeted. Similarly, procedures such as procurement procedures are essential in ensuring that the project manager procures material for the project according to budget. Lastly, establishing a culture of best practices within the organization is equally essential. Honesty and integrity equally play a role in the proper management of projects concerning cost control (Jones, 2016). For the Crimson Inc., the major loophole relates to the lack of policies and procedures that govern project management. The software company has not been involved in large projects. As such, modalities of procedures and policies of projects largely lack at the organizational level.
Various issues affect the organization’s ability to complete projects both within the scheduled time as well as within budget. Although such issues do not directly affect the ability of the organization to control and monitor cost, they are connected indirectly to the project’s success. First, the ability to evaluate the requests for change along the project and decide on the appropriate response is a critical factor that affects organizational ability to complete projects within time and budget. For instance, the need to modify design should be responded to by choice of another design that does not necessarily increase the initially allocated cost. The ability to maintain cost within budget is a clear effort connected with controlling the cost of the project. Secondly, recommending preventive actions in anticipation of problems within the project helps in maintaining the project within time and budget. For instance, creating additional reinforcement on the project to correct a potential point of weakness will help to maintain the cost of the project within budget (Lombard, 2008). Moreover, it will help to control the cost of the project by avoiding the cost that the project would have incurred in the event the structure collapsed due to that point of weakness. The two examples demonstrate how the issues identified are related to the process of monitoring and controlling budget.
In summary, monitoring and controlling costs is an essential part of project management. To effectively manage and control costs, the Crimson Company should focus on project schedules, policies, and procedures as well as budgeting from the planning stage. At the organizational level, a clear chain of command, policies, and procedures, as well as best practices, are required to control and monitor cost effectively. Finally, the issues identified are directly related to the process of controlling and managing cost.
References
Lombard, P. (2008). Project scheduling and cost control: Planning, monitoring and controlling the baseline. Project Management Journal, 39(2): 115-115.
Kubba, S. (2017). Green Project Cost Monitoring and Closeout. Handbook of Green Building Design and Construction: 163-225.
Jones, H. (2016). A Simple Project Process Model for Estimating and Controlling Cost and Schedule. SAE Technical Paper Series, 2(3): 237-245.