Network Design For Bead Bar
The Bead Bar is a company that specializes in allowing its customers to design and create their own jewelry by using wire, beads, and strings. At present, there are three divisions of the company throughout the United States: studios, franchises, and Bead Bar on Board. There are six studios, with one each in: New Canaan, Connecticut, Long Island, Washington DC, and Boston. There are two studios in New York. The five franchises are located in: Kansas City, MO, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Miami, FL. Bead Bar on Board is a portable Bead Bar that can be set up on a deck or n a lounge. The company has fifteen full-time employees and 20 part-time employees that help customers and work the cash registers. The paper-based system that the company was using became inefficient and caused lost orders, incorrect invoicing and fulfillment delays (Malaga, 2005).
Background
Moving from the paper-based system to an information system was critical to The Bead Bar. With the new information system in place, the efficiency of the company has taken a turn for the best. Lack of organization problems and human-error incidents have decreased with the new system. This new system consists of one handheld computer, two notebook computers, fifteen printers, and fifteen personal computers. The personal computers are equipped differently, based upon the needs of the user, but all run Microsoft Windows XP. Microsoft Office Productivity Suite, Intuit’s QuickBooks for accounting, Interact Commerce Corporation’s Act! contact management software, and Adobe PageMaker for desktop publishing. Storing The Bead Bar’s data is done by using the Oracle 9i Database: an enterprise database that has the capability to handle data distribution and will easily allow for adding data mining and data warehousing in the future. The use of the Oracle 9i distributed database requires that The Bead Bar’s computers be run through a network and telecommunication system (Axia, 2008).
The managers of The Bead Bar...