Network Upgrade Proposal - Riordan Manufacturing
Background and Statement of Need
Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. is a plastic manufacturing company that specializes in developing "high tensile strength plastic substrates." The company is headquartered in San Jose, California with production facilities located in Pontiac, Michigan and Albany, Georgia. Since 1992, the company has expended its services and product line to include "plastic beverage containers and customized plastic parts." Its "major customers are automotive parts manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, the Department of Defense, beverage makers and bottlers, and appliance manufacturers." Due to the company's rapid growth, Riordan decided to expand its operational facilities to partner with its Chinese affiliates. In 2000, Riordan's expansion efforts took the company overseas to Hangzhou, China. Riordan now employs over 500 employees world wide. Therefore, the company is heavily dependent upon its communication networks. (Riordan, 2006)
In order to stay competitive in a constantly changing business environment, it is essential that companies like Riordan to remain current with the latest technology, recent industry developments, and attend to the service needs of its customers. According to Riordan's CIO and other staff members Riordan's telecommunication and data networking systems need upgraded to better support the company's recent and future growth needs. Staff members have documented several problems with the current systems and identified numerous areas that need immediate attention. (1) Users experience system and component capability issues between locations, as well as, between the company's major purchaser's systems. (2) The databases for marketing and sales do not communicate with each other, manual data entry is required. (3) The existing wide area network (WAN) connection is not stable and is frequently not available. (4) There were several instances where the data integrity and security protocols were compromised. (5) With...
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