Our Internet-based company with the gross revenues of more than $35 million dollars per year. We are planning to merge with a multinational company of equal size. Our company currently uses operational systems and relational databases but desire to expand into data warehousing. We will be integrating different technologies from different solution providers and incorporating industry best practices in connection with the development of the technological system. The internet-based industry is a growing industry with most companies having an annual growth between 6.5% and 8%. This is due to businesses that are becoming increasingly aware of the need for market information and the desire to reduce customer turnover rates in a hard-hit economy. A significant trend in this industry is the growing number of clients who wish to outsource telemarketing functions to client companies instead of developing such infrastructure in-house. Role and responsibilities:
- Chief Information Officer – It provides assistance to senior management on IT-related tasks.
- Develop and maintain IT infrastructure.
- Develop efficient design to implement operations of the company.
- Information System specialist – It designs and administers infrastructure development and support.
- Database administration – Storing data and mining it for future goals of the company.
- Project Manager – Will be responsible for managing the project issues.
- System Analyst – He/She analyzes the whole system and conducts technical research. Also prepare documentation for future goals.
- System Administrator – He or she will be responsible for resolving internal network issues of the company.
Data collection
SP-based data – It is the data collected over network traffic. It provides data to the tool vendor. It does not collect secure data.
- Panel-based data – It collects internet user data.
- Tool-monitoring data – It is installed at the user end. Alexa is one of the examples in this category.
- Online monitoring data – Here user takes surveys and provides data to the company. Description of Information System
Databases include the open SQL database where process values, batch data, and messages are stored. It provides a client-server architecture for displaying data. Along with displaying data, users can also evaluate data, analyze data and generate reports.
Positioning – The Company has an online database for processing data, messages, batch and manual data input processing. It has two integrations: Vertical integration where the processing of data is done for office area (ERP) and Horizontal integration where archival of data of various archival systems takes place.
Hardware & Software
- Hardware Server – P IV (minimum), 1 GB main memory, 100 GB hard drive b)Hardware Client – PII (minimum) 500 MHz
- Operating System Server – Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2003 Server d)Operating System Client – Windows 2000 or Windows XP
- Database Server – Sybase or Microsoft SQL Server 2000
- Database: Sybase/Microsoft SQL Server
Additional Modules
- Process Values (500 – 15.000 Values/min)
- Messages
- Redundant Coupling
- Data Backup
- Backup Server
- Batch Archiving, Batch Reports (incl. electronic signature) g)Manual Data/Value Correction
- Excel Addin
- Standard Reports
- Document Archive
- Electronic Signature
- Interface “Web Server”
- Parameter Control
- Maintenance
- Interface “Other Systems”
- Development Toolkit
Type of Business
Web Analytics
- The company’s expertise in Web Analytics includes the following functions :
- Online traffic analysis
- Content research and analysis
- Conversion rate analysis
- Data Mining and Social Media Analytics
- CRM Analytics
- Management of the Campaign from its Execution to completion along with ROI Analysis Acquisition and Cross-sell/Up-sell Analytics
- Customer Retention
Finance and Business research
The company’s expertise in Finance and Business research supports its client’s strategic decision making and day to day operations by assisting with intelligence, research and reports. A detailed company and Industry based research
Tear Sheets and Company profiles.
- Analysis of value chain, Stocks, Shareholdings and SWOT
- Benchmarking of Industries and detailed sector reports
- Business Intelligence
- Market entry and positioning strategy
- Trend Analysis and future predictions
- Economic and Demographic studies
- Corporate Finance and M&A Support
- Support for preparing of Pitch Book
- Benchmarks and Comparisons, LBO Models
- Valuations and Financial Analysis
- Equity Research
- Financial Models and Predictions
- Research Reports
- Online Panel Management (“Financial data solutions,” )
Data Management and Processing
Data Processing
- Scripting and Coding
- Data Transcription
- Validating Data
- Content Analysis (for Qualitative DIs and GDs)
- Presentation/Report Writing
- Validation of Report
- Charting the Tabulated data
- Presentation reports on major presentation software
- Market Research Analytics
- Brand Modeling
- Consumer Modeling
- Market Segmentation
- Targeting
- Marketing Mix
- Outsourcing Activities
- Offshore and outsourcing activities include the following
Data Processing and Data Conversion
-Data Collection and processing in MS Excel, CSV and Other databases format to SPSS, Quantum, SASetc for further processing.
Data Processing:
- Banner Tables
- Data processing and converting in tabulated form
- Data Processing: Data Analysis Services
Advanced statistical services to promote fact-based decision-making for companies.
Interfaces
The company’s IS has interfaces for evaluating data i.e. reports defined by users with MS Office (Excel and Microsoft Word), standard components of software like Crystal reports and Business Objects. Since the company is less than two years old, it is using Google Analytics as its web analytics tool.
Cloud Technology and Virtualization:
Businesses today depend upon IT to drive and accelerate past competitors. Increasingly cloud computing enables businesses to deliver new services, enter into new market, get closer to customers, and make increasingly mobile and demanding employees more productive. The most successful organizations use cloud technologies as a catalyst to put in place new systems and processes that free IT organizations to maximize not just operational metrics, but business results. Cloud computing empowers IT through flexible, automated infrastructures, new on-demand service models and new levels on IT efficiency. All this allow IT to shift resources from maintaining existing systems to investing in building innovative services that drive new revenue, improve operations and advance business goals.
Infrastructure and Security
The company has implemented security policies Enterprise Security Policy, Issue-Specific Security Policy and Systems- Specific Security policy. It follows NIST security model and follows IETF security architecture. It has chosen firewalls based on generation and structure. Along with this, it implements a type of Intrusion Detection and Prevention System. Privileges are defined for accessing Virtual Private Networks (Kent, 2006). Security cannot be achieved by merely implementing various security systems, tools or products. However, security failures are less likely through the implementation of security policy, process, procedure and product(s). Multiple layers of defense need to be applied to design a fail-safe security system. The idea behind multi-layered defense security is to manage the security risk with multiple defensive strategies, so that if one layer of defense turns out to be inadequate, another layer of defense will, ideally, prevent a full breach. The author believes that, at a minimum, managers must apply a range of security perimeter defenses so that their resources are not exposed to external attacks and ensure that the security system is not limited by the weakest link of the security layer.
