myMoneyPower Project Plan

This is the HTML version of the myMoneyPower Website Project Plan. Use the Table of Contents to navigate to each specific section of the plan. You may also use the links to the right to navigate to the different collaterals associated with the project.


Table of Contents

  1. Executive Summary
  2. Introduction
  3. Scope
  4. Solutions
  5. Work Break Down Schedule
  6. Project Team

Executive Summary

Throughout the history of Worksite Communications something has become evident, that companies and their employees could benefit by their expertise in another way. This brings us to the project, the website for myMoneyPower, a personal finance program.

myMoneyPower is a complete personal finance guidance program. The main features of the project include five fundamentals:

  1. Facilitating Positive Income Flow
  2. Control Of Short-Term Debt
  3. Protection From Serious Risks
  4. Preparation For Rainy Days
  5. Providing Income For Later In Life

The mission of the project is to develop a website that will educate and motivate the audience. The education will include teaching people how to manage their finances effectively. The education should motivate people into making healthy financial decisions that will include enrolling into coverage plans such as life and disability insurance. The chief audience is anyone seeking an improvement in their financial situation. Statistically, the target audience is overwhelmingly young females still early in their career. The website must satisfy the needs of the client, Worksite Communications, and the chief audience, potential program participants.

Introduction

Who is the Project Sponsor?

Worksite Communications operates in the fast paced world of employee benefits. Their services encompass everything involved with employee benefits, from needs assessment to plan enrollment. After a company is enrolled by Worksite Communication they receive additional services through employee education. Worksite Communications ensures their client's participants are fully aware of their potential benefits and how to handle claims. It doesn't stop there; Worksite Communications continually assesses the client's needs to custom tailor a benefit packages that works best for them. Through this whole process careful consideration is taken along every step of the way to ensure that the benefits package is the right scope, quality, and cost to effectively meet their client's needs. Worksite Communications is an experienced enrollment company that has been operating for over 10 years.

What is the business problem and how does the project solve it?

The business problem primarily consists of two major elements, profitability and growth. Both of which are equally important for the continued success of Worksite Communications.

1. Profitability: The project will increase revenue through multiple channels. The primary channel will be sales. The website will motivate the audience to increase their financial stability through insurance coverage plans. In order to be financially secure one must invest in disability, critical illness, long-term, and life insurance coverage plans. The website will serve as a medium for the audience to enroll into these coverage plans. This will result in increased revenue for Worksite Communications. The other resource for revenue increase is through referral programs. Worksite Communications will receive a referral bonus through different programs that will save participants money. Programs like discounted drugs and green energy consultation.

2. Growth: The project will result in growth for the company. Worksite Communications will extend their operations to the personal market. Worksite Communications has exclusively enrolled companies and businesses. This project marks their first step into the personal market. This expansion will result in increased operations. These increased operations will further enhance Worksite Communications' knowledge and allow them to better meet the needs of their clients in the corporate market. The timing of this project is also a perfect opportunity for growth. The economy is suffering and people will be eager to secure their financial life. Enrollment rates into the aforementioned coverage plans will increase.

Why is it Important to Solve the Problem?

If the preceding problems go unsolved, the financial stability of Worksite Communications could be in jeopardy. The key to successful business endeavors is adaptation. Worksite Communications is adapting to the biggest element of the macro business environment, the economy. If Worksite Communications did not respond to this problem, there would be nothing to supplement the inevitable loss of profits due to the current state of the economy. This adaptation also gives Worksite Communications a competitive advantage. As previously mentioned, exploring the personal market will enhance their abilities to assess and educate employer's participants. A company needs every advantage it can afford with the current state of things. With every project, a company adapts and evolves. Lessons are learned and obstacles are overcame. Each team member gains valuable experiences and new perspectives are achieved. The overall well being of the company will heighten with the success of this project.

When will I deliver the solution?

A good website is never done. Therefore I have split the project into two major phases. The first phase of the website will be complete with its official launch. The major steps include layout design, content creation, search engine optimization, and one advanced functional element. The functional element comes in the shape of a Free Assessment form, which will calculate one's "MoneyPower" score. The deadline for Phase 1 will be Friday, June 12th, 2009. The second phase will consist of content revision, implementation of additional content, and various changes based on analytical data. The deadline for Phase 2 will be July 10th, 2009.


Scope

Goal

The overall goal of the project is to design and implement a website for the myMoneyPower program that facilitates program participation. To accomplish this, a number of objectives must be met. The site must have all the program information readily available to the users. All the exercises and assessments from the Workbook should be replicated through interactive forms. To ensure people can participate in the program, contact information must be easily accessible. The Host a Party section must incline people to host and have all necessary planning documents available. In order for people to enroll, they must be exposed to the site through Search Engine Optimization techniques. The third party additional features of the program must replicate the site design. The site design should be pleasing to the eye and in close proximity to the physical advertising materials developed by Martopia. Through the completion of all these objectives a bond should be established with potential participants.

Objectives
1. Presentation of Information

All the information of the program must be accessible online and be presented in a logical manner. The order of information should guide the visitor through the series of events that would lead to program participation. This process should be completed in the following manner:

  1. Description of the Program
  2. Free Financial Assessment
  3. Hosting Information
  4. Contact Information

Each of these sections would be compromised of the necessary related information. The information should also be carefully tailored. There should not be an overload of information but there has to be a sufficient amount to encourage participation. All information should be well formatted due the nature of reading on the web. Visitors scan information, so key points and ideas must be highlighted through prominent display.

2. Assessment Exercises

All assessment exercises must be replicated on the website via interactive forms. The visitor should be able to complete all the physical workbook materials online. Through completing these exercises the visitor can get a good understanding of their financial situation and be able to decide to participate in the program. This is a key part of the website that will play a pivotal role in conversion.

3. Contact Information

The contact information for the sponsor must be displayed throughout the whole site. Any part of the website that plays a role in conversion should have the necessary contact information readily accessible for the visitor. Eventually, a functional form that will send out e-mails to the appropriate person will be implemented. There should be no obstacles for a potential participant in their ability to contact the sponsor.

4. Host a Party

One major aspect of the program includes the possibility for participants to host their own myMoneyPower party. The party is a non commitment event, whose purpose is to educate and motivate. In order to empower a person to host, a range of planning and informational documents must be available. The person needs to be able to download all the necessary documents from the website. Future plans for the website include the automation of this process. A person can submit his party roster online and have invitations automatically sent out through email.

5. Search Engine Optimization

For these purposes, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will be used to describe any online marketing techniques that aim to increase traffic to the website. This is because the very nature of SEO; anything that increases traffic to a website, improves its SEO rank. The primary techniques employed will involve meta keywords and custom tailored content. The content should have a certain density of the decided meta keywords. I will also make sure the code validates by accepted standards, including W3. Validation includes some necessary SEO techniques such as image alts. It also establishes credibility of a website, differentiating it from spam. After all this is complete, I will proceed with directory submission and link referral programs with business partners. Incoming and outgoing links are an important part of a website's SEO rank.

6. Third Party Bonus Features

There will be five or six carefully selected third party bonus sites. These sites will offer additional features that a participant can benefit from. Maria Hinson, a fellow team member, is responsible for the research and selection of these sites. After we have decided on a site, I will work hand and hand with their web designers to ensure design replication. These third party sites need to replicate our design on their sites. This will ensure no confusion upon a participant visiting one of these sites. These sites also play an important role in the program. They contribute a lot of added value to the program. We want to offer as much service as we can for free to establish trust with the participants.

7. Site Design

The site's design needs to be as similar as possible to Martopia's physical brochures, pamphlets, and workbooks. The sponsor has invested a lot of money into Martopia's advertising services. The materials are very well done and professional. Martopia has invested a lot of time and consideration with the generation of these materials. They have been tailored to appeal to the target market, young women. I will replicate these designs throughout the website. This has also allowed for acceleration in project development. The responsibility of the chief development for design and branding has already been completed.

Assumptions

Upon undertaking a project there are bound to be a number of assumptions. It is paramount to recognize these assumptions early on in the project and put in place contingency plans. The majority of these assumptions involve external entities, while the most significant involve internal possibilities. All of the following assumptions became evident very early in the project and allowed me to plan and adapt for complications.

Due to the nature of the project there are a number of assumptions involving third party entities. The most obvious being our web host, Matrosity. I assume that our web site will be and running 99.99% of the time. Since there is such a huge reliance on the website for delivery of information and resources, downtime must be avoided at all costs. I also assume that the host will provide services as advertised, that is the continued optimized support for storage, speed, and access of web resources. I shall keep backups of the web servers on my work computer and personal computer at home. This will ensure that if anything were to happen to the live site, I can address issues within my power. Those issues would include anything that involves direct changes to the website. Matrosity provides daily backups and 24/7 customer support. The odds of the website being down for a significant amount of time are extremely low.

I also assume that the value added services we provide via third party affiliates will continue to be available. All these services are provided via third party websites. Mr. Gaudino, President, has also identified these risks and has signed contracts with each of these affiliates to guarantee service. But there will be risks that are out of our control, such as up-time of their servers. Currently, Worksite Communications has formal agreements with Motivano, Perkline, and Universal Pharmacy. If the companies fail to uphold their services the only option would be to remove their services from our website. We plan to have multiple providers for each of the services we offer, so there would be no delay in the service, just one less provider option. The plan of action would include reaching out to alternative providers to maintain our broad array of services.

Internal assumptions come in the form of Human Resources. I assume that all team members will continue to be a part of the project. One team member has already dropped before the project officially begun due to health reasons. The addition and subtraction of team members might be inevitable and documentation must be kept up to date to ensure smooth transitions.

Constraints

At the root of every project there are three main constraints: Cost, Scope, and Time. More often than not, one of these variables is going to suffer. The first constraint that I ran into was cost. Upon hiring me, they agreed to purchase Dreamweaver CS4. The other programs that would help me in completion of this project include Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Fireworks. The return on investment for these programs would be low; most of the graphic generation was done by Martopia. I've been utilizing freeware alternatives for the minor graphic creation I need. If further graphic design is needed beyond my current capabilities, I will reach out to Sudi Scott, a local graphic designer who is under frequent contract by Worksite Communications.

Cost also was evident in web development resourcing. I am the only web developer working on this project, while a few more would greatly accelerate production. Given the current ballpark deadlines, this may not be an issue. The current plan is to test the program in the late summer / early fall, and launch the program early next year. I do not foresee any issues meeting these rough deadlines given the current scope of the project. There should be no need to hire additional web developers to aide with the current scope and deadline completion of the project.

The other constraints involve scope and time. I am putting constraints on scope to ensure completion of key project necessities. I am following a structured waterfall model of design and implementation for each phase of development. I will work through each phase in the following order:

  1. Planning
  2. Design
  3. Implementation
  4. Maintenance

The first phase includes the design and implementation of an informational website. The goal of the first phase is to deliver information through the website. The second phase will include the addition of functional elements to the website. The current plan for functional elements include a financial assessment form which will give the user their myMoneyPower Score. Later functional elements that are under consideration include financial and party management tools. It would be very ideal to have a user log-in to our website and be able to upload a party roster and send them invites via both e-mail and snail mail.


Solutions

The general purpose of the project is to expand Worksite Communication's profitability and growth. The specific purpose of the project is to create a website for the myMoneyPower program that facilitates program participation. The website should accomplish two goals; the delivery of relevant program information and the establishment of a trust with the user. Users are very suspicious when it comes to the internet, especially with issues concerning their finances. An establishment of trust would facilitate user involvement with the program. To accomplish this, a number of routes can be taken.

Solution One - Resource Directory

The first solution involves the creation of a financial resource directory. The directory would be a listing of resources we have researched and have found to be potentially useful to the users. The directory would be broken down into their related categories. Possible categories include finance management tools, green energy, discounts, and pharmaceuticals. As the program progresses there would be the inevitable discovery of new categories to add.

This solution would allow for an extensive list of resources to be readily available to the user. While the website would be able to deliver a very useful wealth of resources to the user, this approach would present a number of problems. The website would be expecting third party websites to help accomplish our goals. The level of trust established with the user would be dependent on the information and the way it is displayed by these third party websites. The user would also be leaving our website. The directory would also be cumbersome to maintain. Websites come and go, and links are likely to change and break. We would also be affiliating ourselves with third party entities in which we have no control over.

Solution Two - Integrated Services

The second solution would be to pick a handful of online services and integrate them as much as possible into our website. This would involve reaching out to third party entities and establishing a formal agreement. A number of services have already been considered and there is room for several more. The services primarily include discount marketplaces that offer exclusive deals, coupons, and savings. Each service would have a dedicated page that would describe what the service does, how it helps the user, and explicit instructions on how to use the service. The instructions should include written and visual aids. Articulate, a flash video presentation tool, is one great option for visual aid. The presentations are extremely usable and easy to navigate. It includes search and FAQ functions built in to each presentation. A small percentage of users have flash disabled so this tool would only serve as a supplement, and not an integral tool. The services would be hosted on the third party organization’s servers, but it will maintain branding and design themes of the myMoneyPower website. The downside to this solution is that the services are subject to the terms of the third party affiliates.

Proposed Solution - Integrated Services

I propose the second solution in order to best meet the goals of the project. In order to develop a substantial level of trust with the user, the website should do more than merely present a list of links. The second option maintains brand recognition by having services that use the myMoneyPower name. When users utilize these services and save money through their offers, a level of trust will be established with the user. If the website helps users save money, myMoneyPower will appear as a more credible entity to them. The more credible myMoneyPower appears to the user, the more inclined they will be to participate in the program. The cons of solution one far outweigh the benefits. A directory listing is simply too much trouble to maintain, and it doesn't really offer anything that is significantly useful or unique to the user. By having discount services readily accessible through the website, a great service is offered to the user. The service will serve as substantial source of traffic and ultimately conversion.

Utilizing third party services poses a possible risk to the project. While they are under contract, there cannot be a 100% guarantee they will provide as planned. I will work with their web developers and give them all the resources they need, but they I cannot be certain of ideal cooperation. There also might a possibility of interest conflict somewhere down the line. This is very improbable though, as we are not charging any fees for our value added services.

Work Break Down Schedule

Gantt Chart
Alternate versions of the WBS can be viewed here.

Project Team

The myMoneyPower staff has been split into two functional teams. I have been placed in the first team because their tasks include website development and online marketing. The members of this team include:

  • Joe Gaudino
  • Cathy Freesmeier
  • Maria Hinson
  • Scott Reynolds
  • Derek Allen

The communication plan for this team includes weekly conference calls conducted on Monday at 10 am EST. Maria is in charge of conducting these calls. The conclusions reached during these conference calls will be shared during the main myMoneyPower staff conference calls. These conference calls are conducted weekly on Wednesdays at 4 pm EST.

All members of my team are experienced and established leaders in the insurance and employee benefits field. Their advice will be invaluable as I complete the project. I need to adopt their mindset in order to effectively educate and motivate the audience. My marketing experience will come in handy for this project. I set up a much similar project for FBMC last summer. I designed and implemented a health wellness education center. The scope and mission for that project are almost exactly the same, except I dealt with health instead of finance. My experience and knowledge in (X)HTML, CSS, and PHP will be equally as important for the success of this project.