You currently work as an independent senior business analyst consultant. You’ve just been successful in attaining a contract for retailer Woolworths, where you’ve been tasked to devise a stakeholder engagement strategy for the implementation of a cloud provided software inventory management system (Oracle Retail) for the organisation. The current system is a legacy system that was developed internally by Woolworths IT. The solution has provided great reliability (an uptime of 99.99) and is heavily integrated with other systems within the organisation. Some examples of this include: • The forecasting system (which uses mathematical models to determine the numbers of items needed for different regions) • The warehousing and logistics systems that would aline with just in time supply management of stock, and • The managerial reporting system, which provides C level executives real time information such as money tied up in inventory levels across the nation. There are many Woolworths Units that require continued 24 x 7 access to the inventory management system for regular business function and the system is deemed as one of the organisation’s critical systems. As such the actual change over (to the new cloud provided service including migration of all inventory – which is changing regularly) must consider business impact and timings. There must be as little business impact as is possible, as this is a key concern for the organisation. It is therefore vital that there is a detailed communication plan within the stakeholder engagement strategy plan that you’re asked to provide, so different staff, suppliers and other affected stakeholders can prepare for any potential impacts / disruptions. Woolworths is looking to move forward with Oracle Retail as their solution, but has asked you to assess the potential implementors (as there are many implementors within the Australian market). While the Woolworths IT staff are skilled there are always challenges in adopting different software, which specialist 3rd parties may be able to provide. Also it is expected that the Woolworths staff will need to continue to maintain the legacy system while the new solution is implemented. It is anticipated that this may reduce the overall project from approximately 18 months to approximately 9 months.