Passing Lane is a small trucking company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Passing Lane's information system consists of a file server and three workstations where freight clerks enter data, track shipments, and prepare freight bills. To perform their work, the clerks obtain data from the server and use database and spreadsheet programs stored on stand-alone PCs to process the data. At your meeting yesterday, Passing Lane's president approved your recommendation to create a relational database to handle operations and provide links for the company's shippers and customers.
Tasks
- Review the concept of supply chain management. Although Passing Lane offers services rather than products, could the SCM concept apply to the design of the new system? Why or why not?
- What would be the advantages of selecting a Web-based architecture for Passing Lane's system?
- Since the firm is growing rapidly, what design features should be included in the new system to ensure it can grow with the company.
- Given that Passing Lane currently uses computers for managing their operations, what design considerations should be given to legacy systems? Explain your answer.