Riordan Proposal Network and Data Upgrade

Rirodan Manufacturing Telephony and Data Network Upgrade Proposal Team A is proposing a thorough upgrade to Riordan’s phone and data networks.

Our proposal will cover a description of the new system, its components and benefits to Riordan, as well as explain the requirements driving the need for the upgrade. We will cover the information used in the phone and data upgrades and discuss any security and ethical concerns of the system. We will be providing Riordan with diagrams of information flow and system components and business process changes incurred with the implementation of the new system.We will review the web and mobile access elements of the new phone and data networks and how the system will be acquired and maintained. We will discuss the strategic role the system will play in the company and certain requirement driving the projects creation and use.

Overall, we will present a compelling and convincing presentation, justifying the costs and changes associated with upgrading Riordan current voice and data networks. Riordan’s Telephone, Data, and Software Needs Riordan needs an integrated communication platform to remain competitive and relevant in today’s business environment.Riordan’s current telephone and data systems are segregated and antiquated. The switch to Cisco’s Unified Communications Manager over the current VoIP configuration will allow Riordan to fully communicate within its own entities and create new opportunities for the company. Riordan’s bandwidth is slow compared to the current speed offered by telecom providers and will need to be improved upon. Riordan is also in need of new data management software that will make improvements to employee, customer, sales, and company data administration.

Riordan is also in need of improved security protocols, software encryption, and procedures to protect against network security violations. The primary need for the upgrade to a new system is to take Riordan to the next level of communications between not only its employees, but its clients as well. The upgrade will make Riordan’s current antiquated voice and data system more streamlined, easier to troubleshoot, and most importantly, make it more cost effective, and secure Equipment and Software UpgradesThe upgrade to Riordan’s voice and data network are centered on improving three of the companies systems. We are proposing changing Riordan’s current VOIP set-up to Cisco’s Unified Communications Manager (CUCM). This VOIP upgrade will require improvements in the current voice and data software and hardware.

These upgrades will make it necessary to increase Riordan’s bandwidth, WAN, and LAN capabilities. All of these improvements will not only increase efficiency in phone and data transactions; we suggest that the upgrades will increase overall productivity at Riordan Manufacturing.CISCO’s Unified Communications Manager is an integrated communications application that can handle not only VOIP transactions, but video telephony, data sharing, integration of instant messaging services, and mobility applications as well. CUCM will need to be installed on all PCs in all four of Riordan’s locations. The minimum system requirements for PC installations is; a Windows operating system of XP or higher (we are recommending Windows 7 or 8 if released by install date), a processor of 1. 8 GHz Pentium Dual Core or faster, and a system memory of 2GB of Ram or greater.

Riordan’s PC capabilities are in need of serious upgrade, it is the recommendation of Team A that Riordan upgrade all PCs and MACs, regardless of the decision to upgrade the phone and data systems. The PC software will allow all PCs to become VOIP softphones in case of physical phone failure. The personal CUCM software will gain users access to its personal communicator instant messaging services, which are capable of integrating the company’s existing Lotus sametime IM software. PC users will be able to utilize the CUCM’s video teleconferencing capabilities powered by Web-ex.Cisco’s Unified Call Manager Attendant software will need to be installed on the PC’s of Riordan’s operators in order to perform their call attendant functions. CUCM has a number of high powered mobility functions.

CUCM gives travelling and telecommuting employees of Riordan the ability to stay in touch with the rest of the company. The IM, video conferencing, and VOIP capabilities are all transferrable to employee mobile smartphones, tablets, and laptops with CISCO’s Mobile Communicator. Cisco’s Unified Communications Manager will also need to be installed on company servers.The minimum system requirements for servers are; a server operating system of Windows Server 2003 (we are recommending the newest software of 2012), 2. 2 GHz Pentium Quad Core processor or faster, and a system memory of 4GB of Ram or greater.

Team A is recommending an upgrade of the physical phones at all of Riordan’s four locations. Starting with the corporate headquarters in San Jose, CA. The San Jose phone layout will include 6 7975G IP phones. According to (Cisco, n. d.

) the 7975G is, “designed to grow with your organization and enhancements to your system capabilities.The dynamic feature set allows the phone to keep pace with your requirements through regular software updates. Firmware changes can be downloaded from Cisco. com. No hands-on moves and changes are required with the phone-you can simply pick up the phone and move to a new location anywhere on your network.

The Cisco Unified IP Phone 7975G also provides many accessibility features” (Product Overview). We are providing 6 phones to accommodate the Corporate, Marketing, Finance, HR, and R&D department heads, and the San Jose operator.We are suggesting the 5 7925G portable IP phones for employees who are mobile throughout the site. (Cisco, n. d. ) describes this phone as capable of “delivering a powerful, converged wireless solution with intelligent wireless infrastructure and an innovative new product: the new Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone 7925G.

This device delivers on-campus mobility to users using voice over wireless LAN” (Product Overview). All other employee work stations will be stocked with CISCO’s 7911 G phone. The 7911 IP phone is a basic use phone that will provide all the features necessary for Riordan’s phone needs.The San Jose conference room will be equipped with CISCO’s Unified IP Conference Station 7937G. According to (Cisco, n.

d. ) literature on the station it “combines state-of-the-art wideband speakerphone conferencing with award-winning Cisco voice communications. The net result is a conference room phone that offers superior voice quality, simplified wiring, and administrative cost benefits. This new full-featured, hands-free conference station is designed for use on desktops, in conference rooms, and in executive suites” (Product Overview). All of these phones are easily upgraded, because of the flexibility of CUCM.TelePresence systems are also available from CISCO with little to no upgrades to company systems and servers.

The other sites will have the following phone configurations; Hangzhou will have 6 7937G, 5 7925G, 28 7911G, and 1 Unified IP Conference Station 7937G. The five 7925G wireless IP phones will be given to supervisors of the factory floor. The Pontiac, MI site will have; 2 7975G, 10 7925G, 33 7911G, and 1 Unified IP Conference Station 7937G. As with the Hangzhou site the wireless IP phones will be given to supervisors of the factory floor.

Albany, GA will have a similar set-up; 2 7975G, 5 7925G, 13 7911G, and 1 Unified IP Conference Station 7937G. Once again the wireless IP phones will be given to supervisors on the manufacturing floor. Team A is also recommending installing new data routing, hardware upgrades. Many of the company’s routers, switches, hubs, and servers are not up-to-date and are in need of replacement. The age of the equipment is not the only factor for the recommendation; these upgrades are necessary for the proper operation of the new phone and data systems.

Starting with corporate headquarters and Hangzhou; the current VOIP routers will be replaced by a CISCO ASR 1002x router, this high performance router was chosen for its capabilities and flexibility as not only a Gigabit router, but its WAN edge capabilities and ability to carry large amounts of voice, video, and data packets without lag and packet loss. A CISCO 2911 ISR router will be added to the routers as the VOIP router gateway to ensure smooth VOIP processing. All of the other switches, hubs, and gateways will be replaced by the CISCO 2960s. The 2960s will be our standard catch all switch/hub/gateway.The 2960s was chosen for its adaptability and to have a standard platform with which to work from, saving money on additional firmware. Team A has also chosen this model because of its Power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities.

Certain 2960s switches will be equipped with Gigabit Ethernet fiber adapters and fiber will be placed from routers to switches increasing the Ethernet capabilities of the San Jose and Hangzhou offices to 1000 baseT Gigabit. The server farm will be upgraded to IBM Bladecenter servers. 2 Windows servers blades 1 UNIX blade running Solaris, and a Cisco UCS C200 M2 rack mounted server.The C200 will act as the CUCM server. The Pontiac and Albany sites will have slightly different equipment configurations. The current routers will be replaced by a 3800 series CISCO router.

This router was chosen for these sites due to their adaptability and built in UCM compatibility. All Nortel Baystack Hubs, with the exception of the ones feeding the manufacturing floors, will be replaced by the 2960x due to its PoE ability.All cat5 cabling will be kept in place, and areas where less than cat5 is placed will be upgraded to cat6 given the small difference n price for the added capacity for PoE transmission. The hubs feeding the manufacturing floor will be replaced by CISCO SGE 2000p switches with Gigabit fiber adapters. This switch was chosen over the 2960x because of the possible increased demands of information going to the factory floor. Fiber will be placed from the SGE 2000p to the manufacturing floor.

The server configuration for these sites will be 2 Solaris 3550 M3 rack mounted servers for ERP and MRP, 1 3650 m4 express with Windows 2012 exchange for print, file, and email, and 1 IBM 3650 m4 for the UCM software.With the phone, data, and hardware upgrades it would be foolish not to look into upgrading bandwidth at all sites. Bandwidth Upgrades Team A is recommending upgrading the San Jose and Hangzhou to a Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) for its bandwidth. We are suggesting SONET as a serious upgrade from T1. AT&T and China Telecom both offer OC-12 circuits with 50M up and 50M down transmission speeds.

We will have these telecom providers install Fujitsu Flashwave 4100s in each site. The Flashwave will be equipped with two OC-12 cards, giving Riordan the ability to upgrade its bandwidth to a maximum of 622M.This particular SONET configuration offers a level of redundancy in the case of a fiber cut or OC-12 card failure. The Flashwave is also equipped with battery backup in the case of a power outage. The Ethernet output from the Flashwave will be Gigabit fiber ran to the CISCO ASR 1002x router in Hangzhou and San Jose.

Pontiac and Albany will upgrade their bandwidth from T1 to a bonded T1. A bonded T1 makes more sense that ordering a T1 for data and a T1 for VOIP. With a bonded T1, the routers and switches do not have to make extra decisions in routing which traffic to which T1.The bonded t1 will have a bandwidth of 4. 5M and will be provided by AT&T. The bonded T1 will require an upgrade to the CISCO 3800 series routers in these sites; they both will need a new CSU/DSU.

We are suggesting that CISCO’s dual port T1/E1 multiflex cards be installed to handle the change in delivery. Data After evaluating your company’s data needs we have broken down the main categories to employee data, customer and sales data, and company data. The company data will have subsections broken down for each department; advertising and marketing, manufacturing, and research and development.Customer and Employee Financial Data During the evaluation it did not take long to uncover the dire need for an upgrade to the financial system in order to effectively pass data between the branches.

Many hours are wasted by employee’s hand typing data after transactions have been completed. This process seems to normally take 10-15 days after the transaction. Not only is this process labor intensive, it does not allow for accurate reports and snapshots of the current financial status of the company.The other problem with the current system is the parent company is not longer in business.

There are no options to integrate your branch offices together or upgrade the current system. The recommendation is to completely replace your current system with a cloud based system called NetSuit ERP. This system will provide a variety of features including web-based access to your accounting system which will increase productivity because of the ability to access it from anywhere. The integration and automation of your payroll into the finance package is also a major benefit.This software is also able to integrate your inventory and shipping needs all in one convenient place. NetSuit ERP’s human resource ability goes well beyond basic payroll.

The system will also be able to track sales incentive programs to help drive the sales team to increase productivity. Time-sheets and expense reports are also easily able to be processed by NetSuit. The system will reduce the amount of needed IT personnel dedicated to the system because of cloud technology. The software has the capability to create custom dashboard screens based on what those users need to have access to.This system will also greatly impact financial business decisions because all reports will be accurate at that moment instead of 10-15 days worth of transactions missing. NetSuit ERP also has mobile capability that can be accessed by a variety of mobile platforms.

This new feature will allow the sales person to update customer data and sales orders on the spot while in the field. This ensures management and executives can always see up to the minute data regarding the company. (NetSuit, 2012) NetSuit meets all the needs for two types of data currently needing an upgrade.This software will successfully handle all customers, financial data, and employee management data to include payroll.

VOIP Telephone System Money will be saved long term by upgrading the current outdated telephone system to a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system. Paying a fee to the telephone company for every line the company has every month is an unnecessary expense for the company. By spending a little more capital upfront to purchase the hardware to put in a Cisco VIOP network the company will save plenty of money to pay for itself in the long run.The money is saved by never installing another phone line in your building.

“The phone system becomes a service that your IT department handles, which reduces costs and downtime (since you don't have to wait for a telephone company truck to show up if the service does happen to go down). ” Kennedy, J. (2012, April 30) The bandwidth of the internet connection servicing each location will be upgraded to allow increased data to pass faster. This is especially important when using a VOIP system because all of your conversations will be passing through the internet using a capability called Packet Switching Technology.Packet switching allows multiple phone calls to take place in the same amount of space as a normal telephone call would.

(Valdez ; Ross, n. d. ) Due to the increase in data passing through your network as well as in the increase demand for speed and reliability we also recommended to increase your Ethernet and associated equipment to meet the Gigabit standard. The major component of the system is the server that will process all the telephone call data.

The software that runs on the server is Cisco Unified Call Manager (CUCM).This software is what receives the phone data when a call is placed. It decodes the phone number that was dialed and routes it to the Internet Protocol (IP) address of phone that was called. This process is repeated for every call man.

The CUCM is also able to process and video calls and Instant Messages if the phones installed on the system have the capability available. This also means that the system is able to grow and handled the required amount of data without requiring a network upgrade in the future.