logo

Business Challenges in Catacomb Company

   

Added on  2019-09-24

4 Pages1287 Words148 Views
IntroductionThis is an individual project. This project is related to the Case Study project. Each student must complete an Architectural Diagram that illustrates the placement of security and other technologies within the converged network solution. The foundation for this project is the requirements analysis and proposal document that you completed for the Case Study project. The target audience will be the organization’s Chief Information Officer (CIO). The Architectural Diagram deliverable is an MS Word document..Case StudyCompany OverviewCatacomb, Inc. is a global logistics provider that offers fully integrated freight and supplychain services through managed warehousing and domestic and international freight forwarding. Services range from door-to-door domestic and international delivery services to total supply chain management. With branches across the United States andEurope and partners worldwide, Catacomb continues to expand, and it has experiencedrapid growth through acquisitions.Note:The termsupply chainrefers to all the elements involved in bringing an organization's products from the raw-goods stage to the customer. The Association for Operations Management (APICS) dictionary ((http://www.apics.org/Resources/APICSDictionary.htm) defines “supply chain management (SCM)” as the design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance globally.
Business Challenges in Catacomb Company_1
The Business ChallengeCatacomb is competing in an environment where freight transport is as much about keeping customers informed as it is about on-time delivery. The company has adopted web-based technologies for tracking freight, differentiating its services, keeping customers informed, and ensuring the on-time delivery that is Catacomb's hallmark. As a result, Catacomb enjoys a very high level of customer satisfaction.Its mobile workforce has rapidly increased, with drivers using PDAs to scan consignments, which are then synced in real time via GPRS links to headquarters applications that track the consignments. Customers use Catacomb’s web services to view the progress of orders, from dispatch to warehousing to final delivery. Customers also use Catacomb’s web-based systems to create freight documentation and generate reports. With the EDI interface, invoices and payments are transferred directly between the customers' systems and Catacomb, saving both time and money.As the company has expanded, the data flowing in the system have increased as well. Now, with more than 5,000 employees and thousands of customers worldwide, Catacomb is suffering from the effects of explosive growth. Demands on its wide area network (WAN) are exceeding capacity. The main data center has experienced several network outages and unscheduled downtime. The aging ISDN telephone system is failing, as the company has avoided the costly upgrades necessary to keep it operating at optimal performance. Telephone bills have increased without warning, and the voice mail system is overloaded.The OpportunityCatacomb wants to provide increased bandwidth between all 47 of its US offices and the main data center. There are five (5) metropolitan areas that have four (4) to eight (8)Catacomb locations that need to coordinate among themselves: Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, and San Diego. The company desires a reliable and secure network to accommodate its planned growth as well as the unexpected.The company does not want to spend any more on telephone services than it does today, and its goal is to upgrade the services while protecting against escalating costs from its ISDN service provider.Efficiency and productivity goals for this rapidly growing company are of paramount importance, and there is a desire to provide capabilities and services that incorporate technology solutions to improve in those areas as well as retain the high level of customer satisfaction. Catacomb is also interested in reducing travel between its sites by implementing video conferencing.In addition, Catacomb wants to be able to monitor and manage data and voice services,and ensure that capacity and usage is appropriate to its business needs.
Business Challenges in Catacomb Company_2

End of preview

Want to access all the pages? Upload your documents or become a member.

Related Documents
Catacomb Inc. Case Study: Converged Network Solution Proposal
|4
|1266
|342

Concept of Shortest Paths with Logistics Constraints
|49
|12847
|89

Issues and Challenges Faced by FedEx in Logistics
|6
|1261
|405

Recommendations Report | Supply Chain Strategy Analysis of the Unilever Company
|10
|2140
|19

Business Requirements.
|3
|480
|131

Improving Operational and Logistic Limitations of Globex Organization
|23
|6035
|125