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Steve09

Steve09

Steve09

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19 Jul 2006
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Leicester
I have a University assignment which a bit reads like this...

"The new system will have to cover the following areas: stock control and re-ordering, payroll, accounts and Electronic Funds Transfer at the Point of Sale (EFTPOS). In addition, the brothers propose to extend the facilities of the store by offering on-line ordering (but not delivery) via their proposed web-site.
The three centres will have to be interconnected to allow easy sharing of data such as automatic stock control levels, and to facilitate communication."

What would I need to do in order for the 3 centres to communicate?

Would 1 Server at 1 centre be the solution?
If so, how would the 2 other centres PC's connect to this server?

Thanks :)
 
yup servers on one site. If hosting a website this should not be on the same physical machine(s) as the enterprise data, it is a security risk. One site should host the data and website and a private frame relay connection should be used to connect the sites. With VPN over internet as a backup comms solution should the FR die.
 
Thanks guys :)

Kitten - Could you tell me what kind of Server I would need.
Also could you briefly explain, how the PC's would connect to this Server via the Internet and Intranet.

The Company have budgeted £18,000

Thank you mate

*Here is the actual Document, any help would be appreciated so much as I am not sure what to do*

Scenario
A small company business – All ** Needs - is jointly owned by three brothers. They have a small chain of two corner stores in the town of Hardunby and a third store in the nearby large village of Apenury. The range of goods sold by the shops is as would normally be expected for a business of this kind. There is a company office over the larger of the two stores in the town. As well as the brothers, the business employs 5 full-time and 8 part-time staff.

Until now, the company has been mostly run as a paper-based organisation, except for some basic spreadsheets and word processing of letters, but the brothers have decided it would be more efficient to move to a fully computerised system, and gain all the benefits of chip and pin payments, automated stock control, etc.

The new system will have to cover the following areas: stock control and re-ordering, payroll, accounts and Electronic Funds Transfer at the Point of Sale (EFTPOS). In addition, the brothers propose to extend the facilities of the store by offering on-line ordering (but not delivery) via their proposed web-site.

The three centres will have to be interconnected to allow easy sharing of data such as automatic stock control levels, and to facilitate communication. In addition, one of the brothers has been reading that the usage of RFID tags will reduce the potential for shop lifting, and he is keen to discover more about this new technology. Therefore your report should include a section on this, explaining all the functionality and possibilities of RFID, together with any current limitations and disadvantages of such a system.

Your Task

You have been retained as a consultant to prepare a report recommending how the business should proceed with its expansion into the world of IT, especially in the usage of web technology. Your report should present a complete business solution, including both specialist hardware and software. The brothers have specified a total startup budget of £18,000.
You can also make suggestions for additional functionality for the system. These should be costed (where applicable).
You may also recommend upgrades for furniture and the office/sales environment to comply with current health and safety requirements.
Your report needs to be written in terms that the brothers, who are not very computer literate, can understand. You should give reasons for all your recommendations and you should explain any ‘jargon’ terms (especially any abbreviations) that you use
 
Data server doesn't need to be particularly powerful in this scenario. Hot swap RAID, redundant power supply, redundant NICs and 100M ethernet network is sufficient here.

Web server can be of lower spec, depending on criticality to business.

No PC's at client sites just EPOS terminals hooked up to the main data server via Cisco router with ADSL and Frame Relay WICs. How customer PIN/cash transfer data should be routed (the customers bank is involved in the transaction) I will leave for you to work out; does the EPOS talk to bank and validate card? or does EPOS talk to central office which inturn talks to bank to validate card?

FYI Payroll usually involves BACS transfer, this has progressed from telephone and is now IP based.

Main site needs 100M ethernet LAN hooked to similar Cisco router via a firewall/proxy server. Everything on LAN should be behind a firewall, this too should be a highly redundant machine.

Firewall configged to allow only needed protocols and internet users to access specific network resources. for example external traffic can only access web server and nothing else on LAN.

Now you should study and understand the whys and wheres of all this. Cisco have an amazing website for info and tutorials. with similar examples to your Uni question.... network diagrams IP addressing just about everything.

RFID can be used instead of barcoding, but you will have to wait for suppliers to catch up if you adopt this technology too soon. I would expect most modern EPOS systems to be modular in as such that different data collection devices can be attached. Permitting the addition of RFID data collection as a later upgrade.

I don't wish to be rude but I aint gonna answer your question in full, you gotta learn this stuff and be confident for when the real world hits ya :) I charge £75 per hour for freelance work. If you wish I can send you a paypal account number and I will answer the question in full ;)

good luck with your research :)

/EDIT

You should consider the posibility of using a hosting solution for the company website and how this will effect cost, security, required onsite skill set, etc.
 
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