Feasibililty analysis:computer implementation and server installation - Essay Example

Feasibililty Analysis: Computer Implementation and Server Installation Executive Summary Currently, Lascelles Fine Food operates with an archaic system where the paperwork is the main driver for filling orders and shipping out to the customer. In a logistically sound operation, software is a main catalyst for ensuring fast and accurate paper flow from the moment the customer places the order to the minute it leaves the warehouse shipping floor. Another large problem occurring in the warehouse itself is the sheer volume of sickness that is a result of inadequate provision of lifting equipment. This is not necessarily a catalyst for the sickness problems as every employee who takes on a position as a warehouse shipper/receiver knows they are susceptible to injury or occasional bought of missing work, but, rather the lack of management processes in dealing with low morale problems and the continued complaints from the sales personnel about wrong orders leaving the warehouse and delivered inaccurately or complaints that some orders take precedent over other orders. This is more than likely the accurate reason for high levels of absenteeism and not a result of lifting heavy items. The sales team has two basic problems: a) lack of training and b) no buffer to irate customers. This is a large problem with respect to turnover of staff. Some of the other serious problems include: lack of manufacturing control, financial mismanagement of accounts, warehouse logistics problems and as such the incorporation of a company wide software program is in desperate need of being introduced to provide the desired results of increased turnover of 10 percent per year after inflation. This desired increased turnover is required to ensure the BS5750 certification. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the alternate technology setups and how this will benefit Lascalles Find Foods. Justification for I.T. Infrastructure Implementation Current Infrastructure The current company infrastructure basically provides the system that is being used in connection with first filling the order by the customer, down to the shipping department, moves to the manufacturing department to ensure that the supplies are there who will then send the paperwork once the order leaves the building, to the accounting department for billing. This current process is of the "old school" whereby the paperwork is entirely completely via handwritten orders and sent to the shipping department, then through to the next department and so on until the paperwork reaches the accounting department for payment or collection processing. To properly administer a technology topology, it takes a proper planning methodology in order to ensure that the e-business tools are simply not put in place without a great deal of forethought. One of the important aspects of setting up a network include: Servers Workstations Server room Wiring closet LAN drops Software buying plan IT administration topology Server Room The following example of a network systems upgrade is courtesy of GlobalCorp and discusses the above topics as a means to provide an implementation solution in order to provide e-business application and local area network setup. A viable choice in starting any new network and hardware installation is to cover this over generally a five year plan as a ten year plan will only invoke added costs once new technologies become cheaper and less expensive to install. "The ability to double the projected network life in this upgrade solution depends on the higher speed and efficiency of the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) backbone, couple with the greater speed of switched token ring technology. The ATM-switched token ring solution also offers a greater projected usable life due to it's scalability, while brining additional salient features that are not available with other technologies such as switched Ethernet." (GlobalCorp: 1) The cabling system for the network should be fibre optic which is expensive at first, as the initial cost outlayed is in the actual laying of cable. Blowing in the fibre optics is not that expensive. The server room should house racks that will hold each server, an application and file server, along with the web server. The racks will also house the UPS hardware that will provide continual backup power to ensure that there is blackout or brownout. The racks will also house the wi-fi routers for new wireless hardware and for blue tooth hardware that will eventually be a standard in the next few years. Servers It will be necessary to have three different servers to provide support for the different applications that will be introduced into the company. The first server is the file server. This server should be a RAID 5 Pentium IV with 4 Terrabyte RAM configuration with at least 4 500GB hard drives with room for expansion. This should be adequate to start out in archiving the current and past orders along with future load requirements. The second server is the application server which does not require as large a capacity as the file server. A basic Pentium IV with 2 GB RAM and 200 GB hard drive space is adequate. The third server is the web server which will handle the e-business application side of the business to fulfill existing and new customers. Software The introduction of the software to handle all the business's needs has been presented to the company and seems adequate to serve the needs of the company. It would be important to consider a CSR system for the sales people to be connected with the customer service representatives and the shipping/receiving department in order to keep on top of orders in the system and what orders need more priority over others. Workstations It is important to inventory what each of the departments require with respect to their current and future needs. In the case of non-sales staff, those that handle customers on a continual basis, a general workstation configuration is required and the management and sales staff will require portable computers to handle work on the road and the ability to present reports on the go. Wiring Closet The wiring closet itself needs to have the maximum allowable LAN drops per router, therefore, if there is a 20 port router, then there would be 20 drops available. There is also the need to have 2 separate wireless routers to handle the 8011.b and 8011.g/b portable wireless notebooks. It will be important to invest in intelligent hub technology to take advantage of load variance so that load percentages never reach 50%, as this will lose connectivity, thus rendering some areas with the possibility of dropped connections. If, for instance, "utilization on [that] ring averages 25% on a normal business day, with peak loads reaching 50%, the means that the aggregate bandwidth use averages one megabit per send and reaches two megabits per second at peak times." (GlobalCorp:2) Design Considerations As the initial discussion has centered around the design considerations for the servers, workstations, wiring closet and server room, the next design consideration is respecting Sage Line 50 Accounting. The Sage Line 50 Accounting software provides the following solution: Covers all your accounting needs, from VAT returns to credit control. Provides instant management information and accurate reports. Saves you time and money, and offers complete business control. Is easy to use, with information displayed in the most beneficial way. Allows more than one person to work on the system at once. Comes backed by excellent customer support, advice and training. Integrates with other software and offers industry-specific add-ons. Provides comprehensive data storage and full security. The importance of implementing this accounting package is extremely important to handle all the accounting functionalities; but, this does not satisfy all the requirements of the business as a need to implement a CSR (Customer Service Relational) database system. Such as system that is very popular for its ease of use and its ability to be designed around the company's needs is Remedy. Remedy's overview of functionality (from the Remedy website www.remedy.com) fulfills this by: Designed to meet the requirements of small and midsized businesses, automate IT processes, and lower the cost of support operations, these customizable, browser-based service management solutions combine best-in-class software with core ITIL best practices. The easy-to-use and easy-to-install workflow solutions deliver superior service and reduce operational expenses with reporting that provides the data you need to make informed business decisions. Service Desk Automates the incident management process with browser-based workflow, reporting, and end-user self-service. Change Management Minimizes the impact of change and tightly integrates with incident and problem management to reduce IT and business risks, increase security, enhance IT infrastructure and lower IT costs. Asset Management Reduces the overall cost of support with hardware and software asset discovery, software distribution, license monitoring, and remote control. Knowledge Management Improves service and reduces resolution time by capturing and managing solutions created and identified by your IT staff. Identity Management Provides an extensible, non-intrusive Identity Management solution that supports both internal and external user populations. Performance Management Drives down operating costs by remotely monitoring availability of storage and network devices, systems and application infrastructure. IT Systems Managment Express A complete service, security, and performance Solution designed specifically for midsized business. (Remedy.com website) Another software solution that could be used is the SAP software with the SAP Netweaver being the lowest ROI when looking into a CSR remedy. From SAP's website, they provide the following information: A comprehensive integration and application platform, SAP NetWeaver works with your existing IT infrastructure to enable and manage change. With SAP NetWeaver, you can flexibly and rapidly design, build, implement, and execute new business strategies and processes. The platform enables you to drive innovation throughout your organization by recomposing existing systems while maintaining a sustainable cost structure. You can also add innovative, industry-specific business processes with reduced risk to existing systems and a strong return on investment. SAP NetWeaver unifies integration technologies into a single platform and is preintegrated with business applications, reducing the need for custom integration. The platform is based on industry standards and can be extended with commonly used development tools such as Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE); Microsoft .NET; and IBM WebSphere. SAP NetWeaver makes change sustainable by helping you contain costs and reduce risk as you evolve your business. The platform is the technical foundation of mySAP Business Suite solutions, SAP xApps composite applications, partner solutions, and custom-built applications -- including composite applications -- providing the best way to integrate all systems running SAP or non-SAP software. It also enables Enterprise Services Architecture, SAP's blueprint for service-oriented business solutions (SAP NetWeaver. Source: www.sap.com) Phased Implementation Plan A phased implementation is necessary since Lascelles Fine Foods has not introduced any form of technology advancements within the company and extensive amounts of training will be required in order to ease any anxiety by the staff with respect to using technology and using any system is difficult in the best of times. Phase 1 Quotes with a minimum of three to wire the closets and the business offices Design plan meetings with electricians and network cable installers Phase 2 Buying the hardware, software, servers and network cabling Phase 3 Start training users in segments of five people per training session in order to gain the confidence of the users as well as have the adequate time to answer questions and provide additional training on the questions asked in the training sessions to form an 'advanced' training session. Phase 4 Installation of software in department phases to ensure that the systems are adequate and to address problems that might occur during installations. A golden rule is to never do a mass installation on workstations and servers as if there are any problems with the installations, then other users can use other workstations that are not having problems and continue with their work. Phase 5 Do a final report addressing any questions the users may have and look into future classes that can be worked into a web university (e-learning) which can be updated on a continual basis without the users needing to leave their desks or they can do the courses on their own time. This will promote morale boosting to encourage users who are new to technology or are familiar with technology the ability to enhance their skills and improve self-asteem. Recommended Hardware Configurations It would be recommended to represent a minimum of configurations with respect to what the technology could be used to accomplish. By encouraging a large mix of computers many of the tasks that are outsourced right now could be brought in-house over time to cut back on further costs and also promote current staff who would be interested in these new jobs or those that may already possess the skills through previous jobs. It would be suggested to have the following platform deployment: Conclusion In order to recongise that Lascelles is a business that needs to be brought into the technological community, it is important to recognise the benefits this will have on not only the morale of the staff, but, will streamline operations to reduce the many instances that show loss of productivity, loss of revenue and loss of communication between the staff members. By engaging in CSR technology and addressing the hardware/software needs, Lascelles can engage in this installation and find productivity will change from unproductive to productive. The use of technology platforms will also reduce the quantity of paper that is flowing between departments and engage in less instances of orders not being sent out when they need to, or they shouldn't have been sent out, etc. References Remedy Solutions. Available at: http://www.remedy.com SAP NetWeaver. Available at: http://www.sap.com/solutions/netweaver/index.epx Technical Feasibility Study. Adobe Systems. Available at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/pdfs/palm_samp2_feas_anal.pdf Read More