Information Technology Proposal

Running Header: Information Technology Proposal

Information Technology Proposal

Darren Brown

April 16, 2006

To: Director of Information Technology at Riordan Manufacturing

From: Darren Brown, Information Technology Systems consultant

Date: April 16, 2006

Subject: Information Technology Proposal

As an Information Technology Systems consultant for Fortune 500 and 1000 companies, I have completed a review of your organization’s current software and hardware systems and determined that with some changes Riordan Manufacturing will be able to exceed its current organizational goals and maintaining its place as the industry leader in identifying industry trends.

The current network architecture that exist at Riordan Manufacturing consists of three sites connected by WAN to a fourth, which is the Headquarters located in San Jose, CA. The Headquarters network consists of two Ethernets supporting Research and Design and the rest of the organization. R&D contains fifteen MAC G5’s, three Phaser color printers, one HP Plotter, and two WIN server for network and Exchange mail all on a 1 GB backbone Ethernet.

Corporate, Marketing, Finance, and HR reside on the second Ethernet consisting of thirty-five Dell Optiflexs running WIN 2k and Office 2000, which is running off a 100 base T Ethernet. Two WIN servers reside on this Ethernet as well running Network Services and Exchange mail services. A UNIX server is also located on the network providing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Material Requirements Planning (MRP) applications. Also within the network is a NAS Iomega P800M Server utilized for easy backup of essential data. San Jose also possesses a satellite and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), which is connected to both Ethernets. All three are connected to the internet on a T1 line.

The Second site is Albany, GA. This site’s network consists of 20 Compaq PC’s with Win 98 and MS Office, 2 HP LaserJet V’s, WIN NT File Server, WIN NT Exchange Server, HP UNIX ERP Server, HP UNIX MRP Server, and a UPS power backup. The network is a 100 Mbps connected by three switches, patch panel, and a Cisco router. The network at the Albany is connected to headquarters by a Cisco router to a Fractional T-1 256k with 256k CIR for E-mail and 1.5Mbps CIR for Burst.

Pontiac, MI, the third site, consist of 45 Compaq PC’s connected to a 10 Mbps network via three patch panels and three Nortel Hubs. The servers consist of two Compaq running WIN NT as a file server and Exchange Server. Furthermore, connected to the servers is a UPS power backup. Two other servers, one an HP and the other an IBM provide the ERP and MPR applications. The connection going to the manufacturer floor is also a 10 Mbps also connected by a Nortel Hub. The network at the Pontiac site is connected to headquarters by a Cisco router to a Fractional T-1 256k with 256k CIR for E-mail and 1.5Mbps CIR for Burst.

Lastly, the Hangzhou, China site contains one 100 base T Ethernet with 40 Dell Optiflexs running WIN 2k and Office 2000. There are two 24 port switches. One of them connects Corporate and Finance while the other connects Manufacturing, MTLS and QA to the servers and headquarters. Two WIN servers reside on this sites network running Network Services and Exchange mail services. A UNIX server is also located on the network providing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Material Requirements Planning (MRP) applications. Also within the network is a NAS Iomega P800M Server utilized for easy backup of essential data. The China site also possesses a satellite and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). A T1 line connects the Hangzhou site to headquarters and the internet.

The ERP and the MRP at each site are not being tracked separately and data is transfer to headquarters in the form of electronic data and hard copies. The electronic data is importing into the servers at headquarters while the hard copy data is manually entered in. The ERP system is Riordan Manufacturing’s financial and HR software, which is utilized extensively for accounts payable/receivable and budgeting purposes. The MRP is utilized for manufacturing, inventorying, and shipping. This system and data is just as important as the ERP. Both are critical software components to Riordan Manufacturing success.

After reviewing the existing hardware and software being utilized, I have concluded