Project management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Project management - Assignment Example Being one of the biggest and most innovative banks in New Zealand, ASB Bank needed to minimize energy consumption in all its headquarters and branch networks. Besides minimizing energy, cost the bank also wanted a solution that would enable a countrywide communication infrastructure, which would be reliable and secure. In addition, the bank also wanted a solution that would be independent of the bank’s data network. Finally, the fact that the smart metering technology was a new phenomenon in the New Zealand market necessitated the bank to find an experienced M2M partner. All these formed the primary goals of the establishment of the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) smart meter solution project. To minimize energy consumption, the bank aimed at installing a network of more than 200 smart meters in the in its headquarters and branch networks all over the country. The proposition of the project was to install smart meters in each ASB bank branches countrywide and around 10 smart meters in the bank’s data centre, call centre, and headquarters. The smart meters installed would collect data in a 15 minute interval, from eight power sources, and then feed the information collected to a central server in a 30 minute interval on a daily basis. This would enable the ASB Bank to monitor the data in each of its branches in a near instantaneous manner, verify the load profile, and respond to any problems in any of the branches accordingly. Smart meters would be installed in all the bank’s branches, key buildings and individual loads in bigger buildings. After the smart meters collect data from all the branches and offices, the data can be manipulated using numerous customized reports and automatically sent to the main server To enable successful project scheduling, the project goals must be broken down into tasks before the delivery dates, resource constrictions, or task contingencies are considered. When

International retail marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International retail marketing - Assignment Example The country we have targeted for Iceland Food’s retail is Saudi Arabia. Saudi differs from United Kingdom in various aspects which include cultural, psychographic and demographic dimensions. The macro environment of the two nations is also different. The report focuses on what 7 P’s are needed by Iceland to establish themselves in Saudi Arabia and what should differ to what is already being done in the United Kingdom. When moving into a new country, the retail outlets also need to consider various ways of understanding the customer behavior and how they can improve the customer relationship to retain sales in the long term. Organization: Iceland, one of Britain’s most innovative and fastest-growing retailers is considered to be one of UK’s best companies. Its primary product line consists of frozen foods such as frozen prepared meals and also frozen vegetables. Iceland also launched what according to them was the first nationwide, free, online grocery shop ping service. Critical Evaluation of the role that marketing mix plays in the devising of the marketing strategy of a retail organization: Marketing Management decisions can be based on one of the four categories: product, price, place and promotion. These variables are known to be the 4 P’s of marketing or the marketing mix. In order to satisfy customers in the target market, these variables are controlled by marketing managers. This is in an attempt to generate positive response in the target market as these four marketing mix variables can be blended in an optimal manner. Product: It is the physical product or service which is offered to the consumer. When the physical products are offered, it can also refer to the services or the conveniences that are part of the product being offered. The decisions on products can include different aspects such as function, appearance, service, warranty and packaging. Price: The decisions on pricing of the product are made by taking into account the profit margins and the probable pricing response of the competitors. This not only includes the listed price of the product but also the discounts, financing and other options such as leasing in order to satisfy the customers in the best possible way. Place: The decisions on place (or placement) are the ones that are associated with the channels of distribution that provide the platform or the channels for getting the product to the target customers of that market. The system of distribution performs transactional, logistical and the facilitating functions. The decisions on distribution include the market coverage, the channel member selection, the logistics and the levels of service for the product to reach to the final consumers. Promotion: The decisions on promotions are the ones related to communicating and selling the product to the potential consumers. The costs of promotion are large in proportion to the price of the product; therefore, an analysis of break-even should be performed when making decisions of promotions. It is essential to know the value of a customer in order to determine whether the cost of acquiring additional customers is worth it