Riordan Manufacturing is a plastics manufacturer with four locations, worldwide. Their corporate headquarters is in San Jose, California. They have three manufacturing plants in Pontiac, Michigan, Albany, Georgia and Hangzhou, China. They are a vibrant company with a long history of problem solving. One of their corporate challenges is training expenses, either for new employees or for new systems and new products. Riordan Manufacturing is looking to upgrade their IT infrastructure and implement a distance learning solution that will cut down or eliminate the need for trainers to travel around the United States and to China.

Riordan Manufacturing needs to upgrade their computer systems because the competitive nature of business has created demands for continuous advances in computer technology and system design. The declining prices of computer systems and their increasing power and utility have led more enterprises to invest in computer systems to widen their range of business functions. The most common business uses of a computer system are for database management, financial management and accounting. Databases may be to help make strategic decisions through the use of software based on artificial intelligence. The database will include records and statistics of products, services and clients.

By Riordan upgrading their computer system with a windows server they could save money and heighten productivity by enabling the remote desktop protocol to provide a great experience over wide area of networks that will provide dramatic cost saving in the area of storage for a virtual machine or session based desktop deployment. This will drive the business to save on travel expenses and training purposes because of the remote conferences/training programs. The upgrade of the server and network will make it faster for the server to analyze all of the data it collects. Also with the upgrades system Riordan will need to beef up the security to keep important and personal information safe. The server would use a True Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) and secure boot, BitLocker drive encryption, and an early launch anti-malware program.

The Corporate and China servers may need to be upgraded. We should get rid of the UNIX software and go with another Windows version. Windows 2012 R2 may be a good fit since it offers global-scale cloud services that will benefit the three satellite locations. All three locations (Albany, Pontiac, China) should have dedicated lines back to corporate. Albany and Pontiac can have T3 leased lines. China can have one also if that's possible from overseas. If not, a satellite connection will do. This dedicated corporate connection can also be used for remote training purposes. This will help cut down on the unplanned travel expenses.
The corporate offices should also have a dedicated Network Attached Storage (NAS) system and dedicated server for data mining and analysis. The NAS is fed data from corporate and the three satellite locations.

Both the Albany and Pontiac locations should have a T3 connection to the outside network (internet). Albany needs another server to provide web access to the 20 office computers. Pontiac needs an additional two servers since there are over 4 times as many computers to service, with there being 45 client and 45 office computers in the location.

Accounting and Finance needs all the systems to be integrated so collecting the data from each branch will be easier and more uniform. So the information from each branch will include the expenses of running the day-to-day operations at each plant. This information will include inventories, orders for clients, payroll expenses, utility bills, billing and accounts payable.
The Distance Learning Project information will mainly be multi-media transfer. It will also help collect the certifications and classes that each employee has completed already.

All the information that each branch needs to report to HQ will be transferred in this system as well. That includes HR responsibilities like employee files, benefits and pay. Operations information will include client lists and supply chain client information. Sales and Marketing will be able to report all of their client lists and marketing forecasts.

Designing an IT system for a major company like Riordan Manufacturing Inc. can be a daunting task. After putting together all of the pieces, the IT system will need to be protected from internal and external threats. The Research and development department will have the most sensitive information and be the most vital area of the company. Security in their department especially, as well as the rest of the company will make sure critical data is not leaked to the public or exposed by hackers. Once the security systems are in place, one good way to keep each employee’s information safe is to give them passwords to authenticate their workstation accounts. The following are the types of threats the organization is going to be combatting: Internal threats, Phishing, Spyware, Adware, and Spam. Keeping information safe should be very important to any organization.

IT Ethics and responsible conduct should be another concern for Riordan Manufacturing, Inc. As for any organization, it will crucial that all of the data collected is used in a way that will not jeopardize their reputation and ethical beliefs. This information can be used for many different applications such as: research and development, advertising and marketing, inventory and sales. The employees’ conduct needs to be responsible as well. Riordan Manufacturing Inc. will give the employees certain access to the information on the system. It is up to the individuals to be mature enough to conduct themselves in a responsible manner. Social media is an easy way for employees to get in trouble at work because the competitors can be following everything that is put on these sites. If the wrong information is put on these social media sites, then it may hurt the organization.

Riordan Manufacturing Inc. is a medium sized company with 550 employees at four sites. Their communications and information technology infrastructure is critical to the success of their business. Technology is always changing and therefore any systems Riordan chooses to implement must be flexible and extensible to provide the best return on investment. Leveraging the communications capabilities to conduct distance learning and will save on travel expenses and provide better training opportunities. While initially more expensive, building a robust network and data processing capability will meet Riordan Manufacturing’s current and future needs best.
Our team was tasked with developing an information system to help improve Riordan Manufacturing’s current system. This is the part of the proposal that demonstrates how our system compares to the current system at Riordan. This will demonstrate how our system is an improvement to the current one in place.

Riordan Manufacturing Inc. currently has a Wide Area Network (WAN) connecting their corporate headquarters in California with their three manufacturing plants in Michigan, Georgia and China (Riordan Manufacturing, 2013). Between sites, the WAN currently utilizes leased T2 and T3 circuits with top transfer speeds of 6.3 and 44.7 Megabits per second (Mbps) respectively. These speeds are too slow to effectively support either distance learning or remote audiovisual collaboration. We propose upgrading this networking capability using dedicated 10 Gigabit per second (Gbps) Lambdas within the United States and a dedicated Internet Exchange 10Gbps service connection to China. This necessitates replacing the firewalls, boundary routers and primary switches with equipment capable of 10Gbps throughput. This is a significant investment; equipment capable of 10Gbps speeds is roughly double the cost of 1Gbps equipment. However, this increased speed translates into longer productive use before obsolescence.

The distance learning equipment will make use of the increased network speeds. The installation at the corporate headquarters consists of physical, dedicated servers; a conference system portal/router to connect endpoints through the corporate network, a gateway to connect legacy equipment to the system, and a replay server that can record and replay meetings and training sessions. At the manufacturing sites, the portal and gateway will be virtual appliances that run on commodity hardware. At each site, at least one conference room should support multimedia communications. Employee computers should have cameras, microphones and headsets. This system facilitates face-to-face collaboration with remote partners in addition to meeting attendance and distance learning. See Fig. 1

Riordan's corporate and China headquarters will make use of three different routers on their network. Two will be VOIP/Data routers, capable of handling standard network data as well as provide VOIP service for the phone system. These routers will be technologically advanced enough to handle the increased speeds of the new Gigabit Ethernet. These two routers will also have built-in software firewalls to help deflect attacks on the edge of the network. A wireless router will also be incorporate into the network on both the China and corporate sites. This will provide employees with network access without having to be at their desktop computers. Although the routers will have built-in firewalls, two hardware firewalls will also be used for the system. Working in conjunction with the router's firewalls, hopefully most attacks will never make it past this level.

A number of switches will also be used to connect various pieces of equipment to the network such as workstations and printers. All switches will have 48 ports. With all equipment connecting to the network via a switch, there will be no need to use hubs since they operate less intelligently (Laudon 2013).

The network currently makes use of Cat-5 cables. There is no need to upgrade this media since its maximum capacity will be capable of handling Gigabit Ethernet speeds. If any cabling runs need to be longer than 100 feet, then coaxial cable can be used with no degradation of speed (Laudon 2013).

Riordan Manufacturing has inefficiencies in its inventory and manufacturing process. They make use of manual and inefficient inventory management and control process when they receive raw materials, tracking products and shipping final products. To improve on this they must first implement a new inventory and accounting system and second a new computer network. Moving to these two new system will allow Riordan Manufacturing to improve its receiving, shipping, and tracking procedures. They need an automated system to improve with the inventory so they could switch to a barcode scanner system so they could scan all raw and finished material which would generate reports on a- per need basics rather than weekly reports. This would eliminate their need to have their inventory clerk manually enter information.

Riordan has a hard time keeping up with information with its Sales and Marketing department. They collect the information in different ways making storing it and having it available for marketing purposes difficult. Most of their information is stored on paper, microfiche and different databases. This information is critical to give the customer better products and service. To make this process more efficient they should scan all the paper work electronically into the database to have them available at any time. The sales team also needs to get more organized with the way they record sales. Installing an integrated system of recording that utilizes the same format should fix the problem. They can fix all the information data recording by using a business cloud storage. They would then automated scheduled backups, administrator account, sub-accounts, it would be fully customizable, you would have anytime anywhere access, an array of device compatibility and sync multiple devices and would be able to team collaborate and share any information. See Fig. 2
Figure 2 Thanks to the implementation of various systems and technologies across the enterprise, there has been an increased need for business travel for training purposes.

These training expenses have exceeded the budget by over $100,000. These expenses include domestic and international flights, hotel accommodations, and rental cars (University of Phoenix, 2013). There can be dramatic savings in the budget if the organization were to implement a distance learning solution.

To avoid taxing information systems that serve other functional areas of the organization, this distance learning solution should be a stand-alone system. It should also provide the ability for users to connect to the system wirelessly. This will eliminate the constraints of workstation access only. In addition to the voice/data routers, every location's network will incorporate a wireless router.

Currently, two of the operating bases are connected to the corporate location with T2 connections. The network in its current state will likely have bandwidth limitations when it comes to transmitting high-quality video (University of Phoenix, 2013). With a maximum speed of approximately 6Mbps, multiple users would likely experience lagging issues while trying to watch a high-quality video.

This potential problem can easily be dealt with by upgrading to a 10-Gigabit Ethernet in all locations. In order for the system to make use of this considerable speed upgrade, various network hardware components will need to be upgraded also. The array of routers and switches will need to be replaced with more advanced models capable of handling faster data transfer.

Network adapters in each connected computer will also need to be upgraded to accommodate the system's capabilities. Computers and peripheral devices are currently connected using Cat5 cable. Since its maximum transfer rate is 1Gps, the infrastructure will also need to be upgrade with fiber optic media.

This distance learning solution provides the opportunity for Riordan Manufacturing to save a lot of money in its training budget. The project budgets currently factor in material and development, but not actual training itself (University of Phoenix, 2013). With the ability to train employees in a remote location over the network, there will be a reduced need for domestic and international flights as well as the expenses associated with travel.

Riordan Manufacturing needs many new hardware and software improvements that will booster the company performance as well as make it more cost efficient and customer and user friendly. But with a new system there be some maintenance to keep the system up and running at peak capacity. The computer system is the bloodline of the organization providing the information you need to operate on a daily basis. Everything from customer orders and financial records to employee files and inventory are maintained on computers. By changing certain habits the company can go a long way in maintaining the computers and avoiding expensive IT calls. Simply turning off or restarting your computer every day, you can improve the system’s efficiency. The daily functions you perform on your computers can cause them to become sluggish as well. Once a week, run a defragmenting program to restore the computer’s optimum performance. You should free up space on your hard drive by deleting your computer’s recycle bin daily. Computer crashes occur no matter what kind of steps you take to protect your system. Hardware failures, power outages, viruses and human error are common problems that are difficult to prevent. Part of maintaining computers and the data they hold is to back up your data daily. Anti-spyware, firewalls and anti-virus programs help eliminate outside influences that can damage your systems. Keep the servers locked, with limited access available only to key employees. Finally, use an off-site backup server to store daily transactions. Downloading attachments from unfamiliar sources can open up the computer to viruses and hacking. Downloading information from unknown websites jeopardizes the entire network. Let the IT department check out the source before opening attachments or downloading programs from new or suspicious sites. If in doubt, leave it out and find another way to access the material from a safe source. Additionally, you should instill in employees the importance of following company policies that forbid downloading unknown programs or opening email attachments from unknown sources.

Riordan Manufacturing Inc. requires an updated corporate backbone network with high-speed connections between its headquarters in San Jose, CA and its three manufacturing plants in Pontiac, MI, Albany, GA, and Hangzhou China. This new 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) network has a maximum speed 227 times faster than their fastest current network. This very fast network will give Riordan a significant advantage by allowing them to more closely link their geographically separate systems. Riordan executives will be able to directly query the manufacturing databases and get up to the minute accuracy in order status and inventory. Historically, finance and accounting reports are prepared at the manufacturing plant and are either emailed or mailed to headquarters. This method is cumbersome and error prone, often necessitating numbers be reentered manually. With this new backbone network, Riordan Manufacturing will be able to implement a single F&A system remotely accessible by both department heads and the corporate accountants in San Jose.

High-speed network and Internet connections have always been expensive and many businesses were reluctant to invest in such a costly infrastructure for what seemed very little gain. Today, however, there are many business collaboration tools available and they all require very fast connections to perform their jobs well. As discussed by Vakil, Lu & Russakoff (2012), there has been an ever-increasing demand for high bandwidth network connections and Internet access. Providers of Broadband and Internet services are in a highly competitive environment. This competition not only influences the range of services available, but also reduces the price of those services (para. 112). The ability of any business to communicate effectively is critical to its success. Riordan Manufacturing Inc. has a strong history of team oriented, innovative design approaches for solving customer problems.
One of Riordan Manufacturing Inc.’s goals is to ensure its employees are well informed and properly supported. The plastics industry is constantly evolving and training has always been an expensive but necessary part of the business. Riordan’s new distance learning equipment will significantly reduce the travel costs associated with training their workforce. For employees who do not use computers in their jobs, each location will have a classroom set up with access to the video conferencing system. These rooms will be available for group training classes conducted by remote or on-site instructors. Individual desktop computers will be equipped with cameras and microphones to allow training and remote collaboration with coworkers at different sites.
This training does not have to stop at company specific training, but can offer employees the opportunity to further their education. According to Greco, (1997) “As many organizations hone their in-house executive education programs, they are increasingly receptive to so called ‘distance learning.’ What distance learning really does is bring learning closer, often as close as your computer screen (p. 53). By providing these capabilities to its employees, Riordan Manufacturing Inc. can benefit from a more knowledgeable and well-trained workforce.

According to Bigdoli, 2012, “The goal of the new generation of e-collaboration technologies is to create an environment in which users can interact and participate as they do in the real world” (p. 150). By installing the network and system backbone to support this remote collaboration, Riordan Manufacturing Inc. is able to decrease the uniqueness of its systems. Riordan has acquired its manufacturing plants over time, and these separate plants have different systems for accounting, finance and inventory tracking. The first step in the process of unifying these systems is to establish a low latency network between sites.
With this network on the horizon, Riordan can begin planning the integration of their disparate systems. Unifying how the separate locations conduct business makes the job of integration the information that much easier at the corporate headquarters. The high-speed network and the distance learning and collaboration equipment provide a platform on which Riordan Manufacturing Inc. can grow their business communications. One possible avenue now open to Riordan is cloud computing. As stated by Vakil, Lu & Russakoff, (2012), the “accessibility of different productivity software programs on the Cloud Computing has opened another avenue to increase productivity (p. 115)”. Choosing an in house application or Cloud Services provider for Accounting and Finance services or Inventory Management becomes possible now that Riordan has a high-speed, broadband interconnect between sites and to the Internet.

Executive Summary

Riordan Manufacturing Inc. has a problem with losing money because of their current information system (IS). Riordan’s inefficiencies affected the way they trained, kept internal data and transferred it between locations. By upgrading there IS to our proposal, Riordan could save their training expenses to over $100,000 (University of Phoenix, 2013). We propose upgrading Riordan’s current Ethernet to a 10-Gigabit one to allow video training in their China location. Riordan’s older system caused data to the Accounting and Finance department to be messy, and it caused delays. Implementing a uniform system like the one in our proposal will eliminate that problem. All the data in this system with our proposal will be kept in a single location that can be accessed by a cloud server. This eliminates the current systems inefficiencies with employees gaining access to the information. Overall, our system should be within budget given by Riordan, it delivers to Riordan’s current business needs, however it has the capabilities to allow Riordan to grow in the future.

References

Bigdoli, H. (2012). E-Collaboration: new productivity tool for the twenty-first century and beyond. Business Strategy Series, 13(4), 147-153.
Greco, J. (1997, May/June). Long-distance Learning. The Journal of Business Strategy, 18(3), 53-54.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2013). Essentials of management information systems (10th ed.). Upper Riordian manufacturing network overview. (2013). Retrieved from http://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/cist/vop/Business/Riordan/IT/Networks.asp?overview
University of Phoenix. (2013). Riordan Manufacturing Information Technology Communications. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, CIS207 - Information Systems Fundamentals website.
Vakil, F., Lu, V., & Russakoff, A. (2012, Winter). Recent Developments in Cloud Computing and High Speed Connections for Business Practices. Review of Business, 33(1), 111-118.