What did you learn from your classmate's posting? Classmate's Posting: A small to medium size hardware store
Question:
- What did you learn from your classmate's posting?
Classmate's Posting:
A small to medium size hardware store that focuses on building material: lumber, paint, roofing, drywall, and flooring for the community. It is under new ownership and in need of a technology refresh in order to meet customer expectations and maintain market relevancy. The downturn in profits and customer satisfaction has spurned this transformation.
Michael (the new owner) has clearly stated the organization’s goals and mission to his employees. The hardware store has to continue to be highly competitive with its big box competitors. The store will provide high quality products and services, teamwork is important, and every customer deserves personalized attention. Michael intends to grow the customer base by 10% via online marketing and increase orders by 5%.
In order to achieve or maintain Michael’s vision, several obstacles that focus around ‘the slow network’ need to be resolved. These issues are driving both customers and employees elsewhere when it comes to purchases and jobs. The organization needs to redesign its existing network with both redundancy and resiliency (Linaberger, 2023). After which, they will be able to converge the Publix Exchange telephone system (PBX) into a cost savings VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone system (Collins, 2022). This new network will be able to support secure VPN (Virtual Private Network) connections for employees engaged in off-site work (Spadafora, 2020). Lastly, a freshly designed robust relational database utilizing SQL (Structured Query Language) is necessary, as it will support many employees performing work and Michaels new online marketing objective (Loshin & Sirkins, 2022).
Michael can measure success using the following quantitative variables. Historically the network’s uptime has been very low, mandating that the network have a 95% uptime requirement is a reasonable expectation. Same day (1-2 hours) invoice delivery to customers for orders placed. Eliminate PBX phone charges by 100%. Customer base increases by 10% and order placement increases by 5%.
Qualitative variables that reflect the success of the plan are measured by other means than numerical. Customer reviews and satisfaction surveys are more positive and pleasant to read. Employee moral and workplace satisfaction increases, thus retention increases. The reinvigoration of product and service excellence, teamwork, and personalized experiences are felt to be true with the new network system.
In order to design a feasible and cost-efficient COA (Course of Action) research, mapping, and planning is necessary before the old network is removed. Hire a database consultant first, as this will probably take the longest to implement. Next hire the network consultant to map out the existing infrastructure and find its weaknesses. They can then plan the implementation phases of the new network. Ensure that the network consultant has the security experience necessary to create the VPN solution. Hire an IP telephony professional to emplace the VoIP solution while the network consultant works the VPN solution. This will prevent the organization from wasting more money on the PBX system. Lastly, hire a web designer to piggy back off the database consultant’s work in order to create a dynamic and appealing customer interface.
This approach gives the consultants the ability to build a parallel network and then cut over to the new network in phases. However bad the old network is, it is important to not interrupt the accomplishment of business. If the new design fails, the organization can fail back over to the old network while troubleshooting the failures.
Cost management a strategic approach
ISBN: 978-0073526942
5th edition
Authors: Edward J. Blocher, David E. Stout, Gary Cokins