Business Case for Recreation and Wellness Intranet Project Essay

1.0 Introduction/ BackgroundManage Your Health, Inc. (MYH) is an international company that provides a variety of health care services across the globe. MYH has more than 20,000 full-time employees and more than 5,000 part-time employees. MYH recently updated its strategic plan, and key goals include reducing internal costs, increasing cross-selling of products, and exploiting new Web-based technologies to help employees, customers, and suppliers work together to improve the development and delivery of its health care products and services.| 2.0 Business ObjectiveThe Recreation and Wellness Intranet Project provide an application on the current intranet to help employees improve their health. This application will allow employees to access various wellness programs through an internal intranet site. 3.0 Current Situation and Problem/Opportunity StatementCurrently MYH pays 20 percent more than the industry average for employee health care premiums, primarily due to the poor health of its employees. Adding this application to the current intranet will allow employees to register for company-sponsored classes and programs to help them manage their weight, reduce stress, stop smoking, and manage other health-related issues The project will not only include information about healthier lifestyles, but it will also include classes that our employees can join to take care of such issues as smoking cessation, weight loss and stress management. We can also offer incentives for employees that join and achieve their goals, such as successful weight loss. 4.0 Critical Assumption and ConstraintsRecreation and Wellness Intranet Project must demonstrate its value to MYH as a new Web-based technology. The project team should be able to use existing hardware and software to. The new application must be easily accessible by employees and be secured.MYH must get behind the project, and make it as visible as possible.| 5.0 Analysis of Option and RecommendationThere are three options for addressing this opportunity: 1. Do nothing. We can continue to pay the increased health care costs. 2. Farm out the service to another company. This way our employees can partake of the needed services without having to build and support these services in-house. 3. Build the Recreation and Wellness Intranet Project and run it in-house. We feel that the third option is the best one. This will have lower the costs and allow us better control the project. 6.0 Preliminary Project Requirements The main features of the Recreation and Wellness Intranet Project will be to inform employees about health issues and allow them to: 1. Register for company-sponsored recreational programs 2. Register for company-sponsored classes and programs to include weight loss, stress reduction, smoking cessation and other health related issues. 3. Track data on employee participation. 4. Offer incentives for employees to join programs and do well. 5. Other features as they are suggested by our employees and health insurance providers, if they add value to our business. 7.0 Budget Estimate and Financial AnalysisA preliminary estimate of the cost for the entire project is $200,000. This includes the hire of a temporary project manager, and the hours used by current employees to work on the project. Project savings comes in the form of reduced health insurance cost due to a healthier workforce that makes fewer claims. 8.0 Schedule EstimateThe sponsor feels that the project can be completed in 6 months, but there is some room to go over without adverse effects. The system should have an indefinite lifespan, as the increased participation by employees will keep our health insurance cost down.9.0 Potential RisksThere are a few risks involved with the Recreation and Wellness Intranet Project. The main risk is in our employees not participating in the various services offered. Therefore, employee input is necessary to make sure that those services offered are those that employees are interested in. We must also make sure that the various managers allow the employees to partake in the services.The secondary risk is that of the technical type. We must make sure that we use technologies that are currently employed by our current Intranet and HR departments. This will insure smooth integration with our current assets, and decrease the possibility of non-compatibility.