Information Systems for Business Managers –

Ace is typical of many medium-sized businesses based in Southern California.
Given the pandemic and a separate business initiative, that was initiated before
the pandemic began, to streamline business operations, Ace is planning a
number of system changes.
Business Facilities, Systems and Changes:
Ace Facilities:

  1. A Corporate Office, including Ace’s Data Center, its Accounting
    Department and its SW Sales Offices.
  2. Ace’s primary manufacturing facility is located outside of Toronto,
    Canada. A second smaller manufacturing facility is located near the
    Bob Hope/Hollywood Burbank airport, which handles specialized
    custom manufacturing. Ace’s Research and Development Department
    (R&D) is housed in a separate secure facility near its Burbank factory.
  3. Sales Offices are in Seattle, WA, Denver, CO, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX,
    Charlette, NC, New York City and Toronto, Canada. The New York City
    office houses several senior executives besides Ace’s NE Sales
    personnel. The Toronto Sales Offices are in downtown Toronto
    separate from the Toronto manufacturing facility.
    Ace Systems:
  4. A central ERP System currently housed in Ace’s Woodland Hills Data
    Center.
  5. A decentralized CRM System whereby each sales office maintains its
    own customers, leads and contacts independent of the other offices.
  6. The R&D department has its own facility and computer systems, which
    are in the R&D Department’s own separate secure facilities.
    Ace’s Infrastructure
  7. Ace’s Data Center currently includes
     Separate Servers for the Current ERP system, its ERP Database, File
    and Print, DNS, local CRM system and a backup server for the ERP
    System and its associated Database in case the primary ERP system
    fails.
    © Jerald M. Savin, 2022. Page 2 of 4 version 1
     Networking capabilities for the Corporate Offices and SW Sales
    Offices
     Provisions for VPN connection to Corporate from all remote facilities
    and offices
     Suitable environmental controls for the Data Center
  8. Ace’s Manufacturing Facilities currently include:
     Separate Servers for the current ERP System, its ERP Database, File
    and Print Services and local DNS, i.e, every manufacturing facility
    has a local copy of the current ERP System and operates off of that
    copy with data synchronized nightly.
     Networking capabilities for Manufacturing including links back to
    Corporate.
  9. Ace’s R&D Facility currently includes:
     Separate Servers for its R&D systems, a SQL Database, File and
    Print, and local DNS.
     A DMZ for its systems and data.
     Networking capability including links back to Corporate.
     All R&D data is securely replicated back at Corporate.
  10. Ace’s Sales Offices currently include
     Separate Servers for local CRM system, File and Print Services and
    local DNS.
     Networking capability for the Corporate Offices and SW Sales
    Offices.
     Remote VPN connectivity back to Corporate for ERP access, DNS
    and File Services.
  11. Every Ace facility has an adequate number of desktops, its own File and
    Print Services, a local DNS and VPN connectivity back to Corporate.
  12. All internal files are ultimately replicated back to Corporate.
  13. Sales personnel that operate out of the various sales offices have
    portable computers. They can connect back to their assigned sales
    office and Corporate as needed via VPN.
  14. The Corporate DNS has a backup at Corporate, and remote backups in
    Burbank, Toronto, and New York City.
  15. Internet Connectivity throughout the company is assured through
    primary and secondary Internet Connections at all facilities.
    © Jerald M. Savin, 2022. Page 3 of 4 version 1
    Ace Changes:
  16. Ace selected a new SaaS ERP System and began its implementation in
    January. The new ERP system will support all of Ace’s manufacturing
    activities.
  17. The Sales Offices will be allowed to continue using their own CRM
    systems; however, all CRM data will be replicated into a Data
    Warehouse in Woodland Hills and stored in backup instances on AWS.
  18. Ace plans to Open Sales Offices in London, England, Frankfurt,
    Germany and Sales Offices and a third Manufacturing facility in Taiwan.
  19. Ace may add a fourth manufacturing facility in Eastern Europe, but
    those plans are very preliminary.
  20. All of Ace’s manufacturing facilities will use the new ERP system to
    control their operations.
    Assignment Data:
  21. Draw a Diagram of Ace’s Current Infrastructure Architecture.
  22. Draw a Diagram of Ace’s Future Infrastructure Architecture.
  23. Prepare a Report summarizing the following:
    a. The Current State Diagram
    b. The Future State Diagram
    c. The Architectural Changes that involved in moving from the
    Current Architecture State to the Future Architecture State
    d. The Advantages and Disadvantages of these Changes
    e. The Impact of these Changes on Risks and Risk remediation.
    f. Reflections: List at least a dozen insights you gained and/or
    concepts and practices you learned doing this exercise.
  24. Feel free to fill in any blanks as needed and to embellish the Current and
    Future states as you wish.
    © Jerald M. Savin, 2022. Page 4 of 4 version 1
    Notes:
    Microsoft Visio is frequently used for this type of diagramming. Visio is a
    traditional part of Microsoft Office, but it is sold separately, which has limited
    its use. But it is still a ‘go to’ product. If you have access to a copy of Visio,
    you can use Visio.
    Lucidchart is a competing product that offers a free version of its product and
    can be used as well for this exercise.
    Note: The flowchart symbols were popularized by IBM in the 1960s. See the
    image below of an IBM Flowchart stencil.

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