Gourmet food Systems Inc sells Gourmet and whole food produc

Gourmet food Systems, Inc sells Gourmet and whole food products to various super markets and stores. They have opened up their third store due to the demand for their product. They have seen tremendous growth and has found that their current system is causing them to lose revenue. They have hired you as a consultant due to your company winning the final bid. GFS has the following setup and needs:

Current Configuration

1. There are three stores. The primary store is located in San Francisco, California. The other stores are in Sacramento and the newest just opened in Carmichael, California.

2. They only have 2 PC\'s at each location and they have to call or email the other locations in order to complete orders and to check inventory.

Requirements

Your job is to design a network that will assist GFS to better manage orders, Inventory, customer request and communication.

They also want a web presence.

Your analysis and recommendation should list overall pricing for the hardware and a conclusion on why your findings are required.

*Use APA formatting, double spaced with papers not to exceed 5 pages (Does not include Title Page and References).

Solution

Setting up a connected office , where different locations can look virtually one is the need of the hour. For GFS the proposal is to setup a VPN - a virtual private network to let the offices interconnect with each other.This way the locations can share and access common resources, better interconnect.The new age way is to consider a cloud based setup as it has many adavantages , some being they are purely plug and play , they can scale and descale on demand without any wastage of dollars they actaully are making every penny work. All the setup and infrasturtucture realted ownership lies to them (cloud providers) - security, infrastucture, blah..blah...,etc leaving us to focus the work we do the best. this is called as \"VPC\" or virtual private cloud.

Adding a new CRM software for better inventory management and customer requests. Hiring a web development company to create a e-commerce website and even go mobile, which will allow GFS to make its e-presence a reality. Buying a domain name. spreading the web presence by creating profile pages on popular social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+.Purchase advertising on sites relevant to your readers or followers. Set up link exchanges with similar or affiliated sites.Creating a blogsite and updating it regularly.

GFS can use the new network now setup to backup and store information on a network attached storage (NAS) device or through the web.

Pricing :

$0.065 per VPN Connection-hour (Amazon)

CRM software which comes pre configured on cloud Odoo powered by Bitnami. It\'s free for 750 hrs / month and then charges $0.026/hr

Future - as the buisness starts to grow more GFS can add features and functionality as needed. Additions to consider include video surveillance, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), integrated messaging, and wireless applications.