Rapid Freight Communications Refresh - Case Study Example

? Rapid Freight Communications Refresh Rapid Freight Communications Refresh Rapid Freight is one of the global logistics providerswhich offer fully integrated supply chain and freight services via managed domestic, warehousing and international freight forwarding. Rapid Freight International works with their clients to provide the best benefit through their custom logistical solution provision (Rapid Freight International L.L.C., 2012). This Company also provides an integrated and innovative supply chain that meets the requirements of their clients at a reasonable fee. In fact, the vision of the company is to ensure stipulation of the best customer service to maintain customer satisfaction and improve company value. This paper will identify several requirements in Rapid Freight and provide an analysis of the requirements. This essay will also provide a proposal regarding a converged network solution which solves the identified requirements from a cost-benefit perspective. As stated above, Rapid Freight hopes to excel in providing logistics services and efficient transport facilities to the clients. However, there are several challenges that are closely related to the business structure. This asserts that Rapid Freight has several requirements as a freight forwarder. According to the case study, it is quite evident that Rapid Freight requires an improved transport system. Rapid Freight operates in a highly competitive environment, therefore; the company requires an improved transport system to cope with the growing number of clients. An improved transport system will ensure that Rapid Freight has an on-time delivery schedule. The improved transport system can also involve video conferencing in order to reduce travel-related issues (White, 2011). Rapid Freight also needs to upgrade its telephone system. Currently, Rapid Freight uses the ISDN telephone system that is quite outdated. Research asserts that the company has been avoiding upgrades due to the high cost involved. The ISDN telephone system has significantly hindered Rapid Freight from optimal performance (White, 2011). In addition, the ISDN service provider has turned out to be extremely costly to Rapid Freight International. This affirms that the company should invest in an upgraded telephone system that will significantly lower costs and ensure maximum consumer protection. Rapid Freight should also improve their communication system to ensure customer satisfaction. A robust communication system allows clients to communicate effectively with the representatives of the company in regard to freight services. According to the case study, the voice mail system belonging to Rapid Freight is overloaded due to the high influx of messages sent by clients (White, 2011). Although the mobile workforce of the company has also grown rapidly, the company can enhance the mode of technology used by the drivers. Introducing new technology among the drivers will ensure that the drivers are able to scan consignments and later sync them through a GPRS link to the headquarters of the company, whereby the consignments are usually tracked. In addition, Rapid Freight can also upgrade their web-based systems which are used by clients to execute various tasks. Some of the tasks include generating reports and creating freight communication. This upgrade will ensure that Rapid Freight can curb the growing number of clients in its wide area network (WAN) (White, 2011). Various sources claim that Rapid Freight has a vision of increasing their bandwidth in most of the offices, especially those located in the United States. Through this, the company will avail a reliable and secure network. Hence, this will ensure that network outages and unscheduled downtime are avoided entirely. The web-based technologies will also assist the company substantially when tracking freight, communicating with the customer, ensuring on-time deliveries and differentiating the services offered by the company. Rapid Freight can also enhance their EDI interface to improve the transfer of payments and invoices into the company. This enhancement is cost effective and saves time effectively as compared to the old form of payment. Rapid Freight should also consider increasing the number of staff in the company. A recent study reveals that the company has more than 5,000 employees and a large number of customers. This has made Rapid Freight suffer the effects of explosive growth in the transport sector. Therefore, the company should hire more staff members to cope with the increasing demand of their customers (Seidman & Hoogervorst, 2012. This will also ensure that Rapid Freight operates in optimal performance. The Chief Information Officer (CIO) should employ several strategies to address the requirements of Rapid Freight. The first requirement in this assignment involves the provision of a better transport system. To address this issue, the CIO, can work on enhancing the transport system of the company by using the video conferencing technology to limit movement. Rapid Freight is also supposed to provide an increased bandwidth between its stations. This forces the company to advance to Gigabit Ethernet. This advancement will improve the speed of the internet hence ensuring higher performance, low acquisition and ownership charges, full-duplex capacity that doubles the bandwidth, enhanced ability to transfer data across the network efficiently and eradication of bottlenecks (White, 2011). The Gigabit Ethernet performance provides an increased bandwidth file sharing which also boosts the employee productivity. This is achieved by ensuring faster access to the company’s database and messaging applications. These applications are also attuned with the current network thus eradicating expenses of running new wiring. The speed of the network can also be enhanced by leveraging the standards of the current network system to improve the effectiveness of the network (White, 2011). Rapid Freight also comprises of the 4-8 locations in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Baltimore. In this case, the CIO can rely on the WIMAX 802.16a technology to provide faster internet connection between offices in the same location. WIMAX 802.16a provides a data broadcast that ranges up to 70 Mbps at a distance of up to 30 miles. The 802.16a standard for 2-11 GHz is a wireless metropolitan area network (MAN) technology which provides broadband wireless connectivity (White, 2011). This technology provides a total data rate ranging between 270-280Mbps from the main station. This range is enough to support several businesses and homes with the T1/E1-type and DSL-type connectivity in business locations and homesteads respectively. The connection of the three metropolitan areas can include a satellite microwave connection. This is the most efficient connection to employ since the locations are far away from each other. This technology uses signals that travel from one ground station to another via a satellite (White, 2011). Rapid Freight also desires to upgrade their network systems to accommodate its growth. This upgrade can be achieved by the Gigabit Ethernet, satellite microwave technology and the WIMAX technology through the help of the CIO. This asserts that Rapid Freight does not have to invest in other forms of technology in the future (White, 2011). However, the acquired network can supplement the three technologies mentioned in the above analysis. Rapid Freight also needs to upgrade their telephone system. Therefore, the CIO may consider switching from the ISDN service provider to the VoIP service provider. The VoIP service provider has numerous advantages over ISDN. For example, VoIP allows the user to make calls via the internet. This will also save the company some money because they do not have to purchase new hardware. This technology will lower the cost of the telephone bills significantly. The telecommunication industry claims that the company can reduce their telephone costs by 30%. Lastly, the CIO can rely on the use of computers and other efficient machinery in the company to ensure customer satisfaction (White, 2011). In conclusion, the technologies outlined above will ensure a safe, reliable, resourceful, and prolific network. This new network ensures that Rapid Freight can meet the high demand of its employees and customers globally. The company can also be projected towards future growth and expansion schemes (Seidman & Hoogervorst, 2012). All this issues can be addressed by the CIO in collaboration with other members of staff in the company. References Rapid Freight International L.L.C. (2012). Welcome to our company. Retrieved from http://www.rapidfreightintl.com/ Seidman, L., & Hoogervorst, H. (2012). Joint update note from the IASB and FASB on accounting convergence. Retrieved from http://www.financialstabilityboard.org/publications/r_120420d.pdf White, M. (2011). Conducted and wireless media in m. c. white, data communications and computer networks. Mason: Cengage Learning Press. Read More