The Amberssen Specialty Company is a chain of 12 retail stores that sell a variety of imported gift items, gourmet chocolates, cheeses, and wines in the Toronto area. Amberssen has an IS staff of three people who have created a simple, but effective, information system of networked point-of-sale registers at the stores, and a centralized accounting system at the company headquarters. Harry Hilman, the head of Amberssen's IS group, has just received the following memo from Bill Amberssen, Sales Director (and son of Amberssen's founder):
Harry-It's time Amberssen Specialty launched itself on the Internet. Many of our competitors are already there, selling to customers without the expense of a retail storefront, and we should be there too. I project that we could double or triple our annual revenues by selling our products on the Internet. I'd like to have this ready by Thanksgiving, in time for the prime holiday gift-shopping season. Bill
After pondering this memo for several days, Harry scheduled a meeting with Bill so that he could clarify Bill’s vision of this venture. Using the standard content of a system request as your guide, prepare a list of questions that Harry needs to have answered about this project.