You are the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of GJPL Construction & Roofing, a high-value exterior contractor with 80 employees. The mission of the company is to provide tailored solutions for homeowners. The company owns one building in an industrial area of the city to store materials and equipment. You have an outdated IT infrastructure with only three PCs that are used for updating the website, answering emails, and keep track of billing and payments. Files are shared through a shared folder on one of the PCs, which is backed up every evening to an external hard drive. Each PC has an anti-virus and firewall software for protection.
Employees that go out to meet homeowners to discuss potential jobs especially in the aftermath of hail damage currently rely on paper contracts and cell phones. However, insurance companies prefer digital communication including digital bills and work receipts. The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) is asking you to devise a system that would allow employees to visit the homeowners and do electronic business on site. The perceived business benefit is reduced errors from transferring hand-written agreements into the computer system and faster claim settlement and payment from insurance companies. The new system should allow employees to pull up information relating a homeowners'current contract and insurance information, update information about the contract, and close contract deals digitally. The CEO is concerned whether a system can work in light of the lack of mobile connection at some of the customers' houses.
Because you have taken CIST 2100, you are well equipped to discuss several concerns for such a new system. While you don't have enough time to develop a full system, you can compare alternative options and explain what you would recommend regarding (you may choose your own order):
- Hardware, Software, Network, and Security (Technology)
- Integration, Communication, Customer Relationship Management, Database and Knowledge Management (Application)
- Project Management for developing the system, changes to business processes, and Implementation/Conversion Plan (Organization)
- Considerations for Total Cost of Ownership