Nce Informational System Proposal Summary

Introduction

The following proposal summary has been prepared by the Information Technology (IT) team describing a new information system required by our Advanced Services Network Consulting Engineers (NCEs). The information provided has been summarized and is intended to provide an overview of the proposed project.

Executive Summary

Within our organization we have a group of Network Consulting Engineers (NCEs) that provide Planning, Design, Implementation, and Operational (PDIO) services to contracted enterprise and service provider clients. On a number of recent occasions, it has come to light that one NCE is struggling with a design or planning issue that has already been addressed by another NCE. And in some cases, the solutions provided to our clients were not consistent between the NCEs. It has been determined a new system is needed that will provide an orderly and organized data repository that would be available to all NCEs. This system needs to provide an easy method for the NCEs to access and leverage previously defined design solutions.

This system will provide several key benefits to the NCE team:

• NCE will be able to search for data related to the solution being considered

• NCE will save time in that we will not “reinvent the wheel”

• NCE provided solutions will be more standardized

• Using the same solution repeatedly simplifies supporting our solutions

• Allows our NCEs to be able to provide backup to one another

• With standard solutions we increase the probability that we will continually improve the solution.

User Requirements

The IT team spent time interviewing and observing the NCE team using the current information systems. The team discovered that the current systems lacked the flexibility and access to meet the needs of the NCEs. In addition the processes to back up an effective workflow are absent. Through this analysis the following key user requirements were identified. These requirements were considered in the selection of the proposed information system.

The proposed information system provides for the following:

• A flexible “form” for data entry

• A sophisticated search methodology

• Accessible via a web browser

• Simple administrative capabilities

• Capability to “revise” data base entries

• Backup and archiving capability

• Maintains statistics of hits to database records

Business Requirements

The IT team assembled and reviewed all data and documentation available on the current processes and tools in use by the NCE team today. In doing so we discovered some specific deficiencies that can be addressed in the proposed solution. At this time, we have neither formal procedures nor tools for cataloging and storing NCE design solutions for future reference. This means the NCEs are duplicating some of their efforts. This duplication of effort is causing an increase in solution design time and support costs as well as losing best practices information among NCEs. To mitigate these issues the following business requirements have been designed into the proposed information system:

• A data base to store design solutions as they are completed and implemented

• The ability for the NCE to perform keyword solutions againsthe data base to identify previously developed and implemented solutions.

• A web based application to access the database.

• Functionality that includes adding new solutions, modifying existing solutions, collaborattion on designs in progress, and the ability to delete obsolete designs

• The system will also provides statistics and reporting capabilities to monitor database usage and performance

See Appendix A for a Return on Investment (ROI) analysis

Information System Process Flow

The proposed system will be accessed via a secure web site with a login and password. As the site is for corporate communication, the servers can reside within the network and with