Assignment

You have just been hired as the CIO of an organization that has been in business for a while and has recently acquired another smaller organization in order to increase market share. The original organization operated a fleet of buses that conducted tours and travel packages along the northern portion of the U.S. eastern coast. All of its computer applications existed on a central mainframe at company headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. The acquired organization conducted helicopter tours around New York City and Washington D.C. All of its systems were client-server based (primarily thick clients accessing thin database servers) and they were based outside Baltimore, near the BWI airport. Due to the mergers, the organization's IT architecture is now a disparate combination of computer systems and manual procedures. Given the general description of the stakeholder groups below and using the general client-server classes defined in Figure 9.5, prepare a cohesive IT architectural plan for the new organization and present it to the CEO for approval. Address all potential advantages and disadvantages of the plan from the perspectives of the various groups of stakeholders.

Please review the following youtube video about client-server architecture as part of your research: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzR9qfszU3E

1. Bus/helicopter maintenance workers and mechanics (10 employees)

1. System for ordering parts

2. Drivers/pilots (20 employees)

1. Logs and rout/schedule information

3. Administration/HR (5 employees)

1. Employee records
2. Financial records

4. Marketing (8 employees)

1. Marketing activities
2. Customer interactions (CRM)

5. Management (9 employees)

1. reports.