Legal Management Projects / Fictional Example

of a Project
Swiss Post carries out financial transactions for their customers. For example,
you can make payments at the post office counter or withdraw cash from your postal
account. Swiss Post operates app. 1800 post offices allover Switzerland. Swiss Post
intends to replace its IT system for financial transactions by a new one. Swiss Post
estimates that a new IT system will cost app. CHF 100 million (one-time price) and
yearly fees of CHF 25 million for recurring services such as maintenance. CHF 30
million of the CHF 100 million are required for central services (which are independent
from the roll-out in the different regions) and CHF 10 million for the roll-out in each
Region.
The purchasing department of Swiss Post has already drafted a document of
200 pages which lists the functionalities, specifications and requirements of the new
system. This document will form an integral part of the contract with the IT supplier.
According to a preliminary project plan of Swiss Post the actual IT system will
be replaced step-by-step by the new one. The first region where the actual system is
replaced is the Region East with the Cantons Geneva, Vaud and Valais. The next
region will be the Region North-East with the Cantons Neuchtel, Jura, Fribourg, with
Bienne und the part of the Jura belonging to Berne. There are seven such regions.
According to the preliminary time schedule of Swiss Post in each region it will
take three months to accomplish the roll-out of the new system. In each region there
will be the following acceptances:
- Acceptance of three different pilot post offices (big, middle and
small);
- Acceptance of each post office;
- Acceptance of each region (at the same time as the last post office of
the region is accepted);
- Final acceptance when the acceptance of the last post office of the
region is effected.
Since the IT system will be used in conjunction with other systems already
installed, the contractor will have to cooperate with other IT suppliers of Swiss Post
during the whole project.
Swiss Post intends to conclude a contract with one supplier which will be
responsible for the provision of all the necessary services and the delivery of the
equipment. The services to be provided include inter alia:
- development of customized software;
- licensing of standard software
140512 Swiss Post.doc 2

- delivery of hardware equipment
- project management services
- cooperation with other IT suppliers (suppliers of systems already
installed and which are not substituted)
- parameterization and installation services
- training of employees of Swiss Post.
Since no supplier in Switzerland is able to provide all the necessary services
and products alone, the chosen supplier will have to commission a part of the services
to subcontractors. This is especially true for the delivery of the hardware equipment
and for the development of certain parts of the customized software.

Questions / Part one
- What is a project?
- Why is the project subdivided in several phases?
- Why it there an acceptance at the end of each phase?
- What payment plan would you as Swiss Post agree with the contractor?

Questions / Part two
- Very often the specifications are not defined at the beginning of the
project. What do you do?
- What is the impact of the project plan and of the acceptances on the
warranty periods?
- How does the contractor have to involve the subcontractor? Which terms
need to be coordinated between the contract with Swiss Post and the
one with the subcontractor?
- What time period is not covered by the project? What can Swiss Post
foresee to ensure the functioning of the IT system also during this time
period?


has an beginning and an end (time),
builds something new (work result),
has a price
For the simplification, make sure
work result was delivered, acceptance