Operations
This section describes the operating procedures designed by the Worldwide Internet Marketing Services team to meet the challenges of delivering consistent, quality services to our clients and their online customers.
The Challenges
Every new business faces similar challenges on the road to long-term financial health, and Worldwide Internet Marketing Services is certainly no exception. Meeting apayroll, establishing and maintaining relationships with both clients and vendors, the endless filing of forms both internally and externally…all these areas can threaten even the most seasoned business professionals if a key element is missing: due diligence.
To understand the complexities of a business operation, one must first address each of the components that make up the processes the business uses to carry on day-to-day activities. Using flowcharting and other analysis tools, each process can then be examined for potential waste and streamlined. The combined processes—the essence of the business—will become collectively more efficient.
Due diligence comes into play when one recognizes that this process-by-process analysis is an ongoing, never-ending task that must be shared by all of the company's participants. Two Worldwide Internet Marketing Services staff members, Victor and Leonard, are ready to meet this challenge immediately; they both have received training from a previous employer on Total Quality Management techniques, which stress process analysis through due diligence as a key to long-term success.
Scope Revisited
Identifying and setting scope, whether for client projects or process streamlining, will become the business management tool of choice for Worldwide Internet Marketing Services. The main purpose of effective scoping is to break a complex task into manageable pieces such that all involved parties gain a clear understanding of first what will be done, and second what will not be done.
For client relationships, the challenge becomes building an effective order-entry management system that not only provides flexible alternatives to the client, but one that guarantees a profit for the corporation as well. For employee relationships, it means building an infrastructure that allows individual talent to flourish within a home office environment while still maintaining immediacy with both the company and its clients.
For existing businesses, such an embrace of process analysis has traditionally been an arduous task, as many habits, such as sales commissions, departmental boundaries—anything that serves as a wedge between employees-must first be broken. Worldwide Internet Marketing Services has two distinct advantages in this regard. First, a new company has few, if any, bad habits to break. Second, being prepared for process analysis on the front end allows us to build key quality measurements into our information systems from the start. In this fashion, most of the process analysis can be done by computer.
Over time, what will develop is a business system that can react immediately to changes within the business environment, whether the forces of change come from internal or external sources. But even with such a complex business system, it must be made aware of the changes to its environment, and that is where due diligence on the part of the Worldwide Internet Marketing Services team is essential.
Information Management Tools
Most of the business management tools will be accessed using the corporation's computer information systems. One of the strengths of the Worldwide Internet Marketing Services team is that it employs two professional trainers experienced with getting people quickly up to speed with complex software applications. The information system itself was designed to be accessible from remote mobile workstations using the public telephone network. What follows is a list of the tools available to each Worldwide Internet Marketing Services employee to carry on the business of the corporation.
Mobile Workstation
Each remote employee will use a color notebook computer with a docking station located within the home office environment. A docking station is a device that allows the notebook computer to be inserted when the employee is at home. This turns the notebook computer into a full-featured workstation, complete with full-sized keyboard and video display, mouse, and other peripherals. When the employee travels onsite to a client's place of business, the notebook can be detached from the docking station. The notebook contains a high-speed modem for attachment to the public telephone network while the employee is at a client's place of business.
The benefit of the mobile workstation to the client is instant access to the Internet during meetings with the client. This means that not only are Worldwide Internet Marketing Services resources available for access, but the entire Internet as well. In this fashion, our clients can receive instant answers to their questions and concerns, browse Worldwide Internet Marketing Services pages to get a feel for the kind of services we offer, and scan the Internet itself for ideas and additional information. As a sales tool, the mobile remote workstation conveys professionalism and competence to the client.
For the employee, the docking station solves the ergonomic problem of long-term use of small keyboards and small display screens. By turning the notebook into a high-powered workstation, the value of the notebook computer is enhanced, and the employee gains a much friendlier work environment.
Operating System
Each Worldwide Internet Marketing Services workstation will run the Microsoft Windows/NT operating system. Windows/NT represents the cutting edge of high-performance operating systems for personal computers, particularly in a business environment.
Accounting Software
Worldwide Internet Marketing Services will use a software package from Intuit called QuickBooks Pro, which is designed specifically for small businesses. It features bank account management, printed checks, payroll, accounts payable/receivable, invoices, statements, inventory, audit trails, job costing, budgeting, and many others. It also features data import and export features that will be used to exchange accounting information with a custom project control application written by the Worldwide Internet Marketing Services information services staff.
Project Management
Written specifically for Worldwide Internet Marketing Services, ProManager takes the entire process of doing business, combines it with quality management measurements, adds data shared with the accounting system, and produces a robust project management tool that is easy to use and understand. Worldwide Internet Marketing Services account representatives can create custom quotes, call up project information and history, and print custom contracts ready for client signature, all while the representative is on-site with the client. Change-orders, back steps (a quality management term used to describe inefficiencies within a business process), work history, and client satisfaction will all be documented within ProManager's history-tracking mechanism.
Web Browser
The World Wide Web browser software of choice for Worldwide Internet Marketing Services is NetScape Navigator. This award-winning package is actually a control center for a variety of Internet services, including the Web, file transfers (FTP), electronic mail, and network news (the Usenet). NetScape also contains a "helper application" feature that allows NetScape to be seamlessly integrated into the desktop environment. As particular resources on the Internet are accessed, NetScape evaluates the contents of the information and executes the appropriate "helper application" to actually view the information. For Worldwide Internet Marketing Services clients already using the Internet, NetScape offers a consistent interface for evaluating Worldwide Internet Marketing Services-created pages.
NetScape also supports a wide variety of forms control features so that Web pages can be constructed to retrieve data entered by online users. Another feature of Worldwide Internet Marketing Services ProManager is the ability to create and maintain customized databases to track this input. Examples include demographic information, product preferences, suggestion boxes, and of course, the ultimate in Internet commerce, online sales.
Mail and Scheduling
A benefit to the Windows/NT operating system is that it contains Microsoft Mail and Microsoft Schedule+. In an age of information, electronic mail is an indispensable business tool, and will be the primary form of internal correspondence, for clients already possessing electronic mail boxes, e-mail becomes a very useful tool to maintain client relationships. Microsoft Schedule+ is a calendering and scheduling package that allows appointments to be scheduled online for groups of both human and physical resources. Both tools drastically reduce the amount of paper necessary to operate a business, and have built-in searching features that allow historical data to be accessed with ease.
Office Automation
Office automation applications include word processing, spreadsheets, presentation managers, desktop publishers, and facsimile management. While complete suites of products exist to meet all these needs, Worldwide Internet Marketing Services will be using a customized suite of office automation tools designed to maximize productivity.
Document Management
One of the goals of the Worldwide Internet Marketing Services information systems design is a paper less office environment. Both computing professionals on the Worldwide Internet Marketing Services team have worked in paper less offices in the past, and know the mechanics- and the pitfalls-of installing such a system. The key to a successful document management system is to first understand how processes actually flow within the corporation, and then design a system that fits these processes. Too often, the system is installed first, and only later is it discovered that inefficiencies such as dual-entry, slow response times on archival searches, and poor document indexing methods are a necessary part of the document management process. Worldwide Internet Marketing Services has chosen instead to define and refine its business processes first. Given the system we will be implementing, a document management system could very well end up as an application written in-house; current document management applications available commercially are very new, and rife with potential pitfalls.
Software Development
One of the many advantages Worldwide Internet Marketing Services has over its competitors is two computer science professionals fluent in powerful programming languages. The ability to create robust applications on the fly will allow Worldwide Internet Marketing Services to be very flexible with regards to meeting both client and employee need. We think of application development as the "glue" holding the information systems design together.
Central Database
All of the corporation's data and application software will be centrally located and spread over three physical server-class computers. One server will act as the central repository for all data relating to clients, and Worldwide Internet Marketing Services as a business entity. Using high-end database server technology, Worldwide Internet Marketing Services will share, distribute, and secure its electronic data among clients and employees.
Network Operating System
The role of a network operating system is to provide secure access to shared resources such as files, printers, storage devices (hard disks, CD-ROMs, tape drives, etc.), and software applications. Worldwide Internet Marketing Services has selected the Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server operating system to fill this important role. Windows NTAS, a network server edition of Windows NT, was designed for advanced networking within business environments, and is a perfect complement to our existing equipment.
Network Operations Center
The basis of the Worldwide Internet Marketing Services information system is the Network Operations Center to be installed at 18765 Industrial Turnpike in Denver, Colorado. The design for the Center includes hardware, software, and cabling necessary to support the applications described above, as well as provide a sound delivery system for Web pages to online customers. Many of the features of this network design set Worldwide Internet Marketing Services well ahead of its competition, both in terms of knowledge of how complex networks are designed and implemented, and in terms of the tremendous processing power of the system itself. The key areas of the design are as follows:
Internet Access
Direct Internet access from the Network Operations Center will be accomplished using Denver Cablevision's Netline Service. Traditionally, connections to the Internet have been made using dedicated digital service lines leased through a service provider, such as the local telephone company. This type of service contributes to one of the current problems associated with using the Internet: bandwidth shortage.
Bandwidth describes how much data can be moved through a network over a period of time. Because the Internet has grown in size so quickly, many older networks are struggling to keep up with the increasing demand for data. This is likely to be a temporary situation, however, as elements such as the United States Communications Act of 1996, which allows open competition between local phone, long-distance phone and cable companies, combined with ever-emerging, faster networking technologies, will help reduce bandwidth as a constraint to conducting business on the Internet.
Denver Cablevision has met the challenge of bandwidth consumption through their Netline service. If we assume that a Web page consists of two kilobytes of information (a byte is a basic unit of measure for data, and can be thought of as a single letter of the alphabet; a kilobyte is a collection of 1,024 bytes), then the following table indicates the differences between Denver Cablevision's offering and traditional Internet connection methods:
| Service | Installation Cost | Per Month Fee | Max Web Pages per Second |
| 64kbs Digital Circuit | $800-$1200 | $400-$600 | 32 |
| 1.55 Mbps Digital Circuit | $2500-$5000 | $1500-$3000 | 794 |
| Denver Cablevision 10 Mbps Netline Service | $900 (waived for signing a 3-year contract) | $450 | 5120 |
Clearly, Denver Cablevision's offering is the most cost-effective method of connecting to the Internet. And, other than Fort Collins and Denver, Colorado, this service is unavailable in virtually every other part of the United States. This means Worldwide Internet Marketing Services can deliver its services at speeds its competitors can only dream about.
Another benefit Denver Cablevision brings to the table is that the first two services listed above establish the physical connection to the Internet only; additional costs would be incurred to contract with an Internet service provider to actually begin the delivery of network data. Denver Cablevision's offering includes these costs.
The signal is brought to the Network Operation Center through Denver Cablevision's existing cable TV system. Connecting the entry point of this cable into the building to the Worldwide Internet Marketing Services network is the only network infrastructure installation task required for Internet access.
Remote Internet Access
For each home office employee, the corporation will maintain an account with a nationwide Internet service provider that will allow them to access the Worldwide Internet Marketing Services network, as well as the rest of the Internet, from virtually any point in the public telephone network.
Premise Network
The infrastructure for the Network Operation Center consists of two physical networks. One network is connected to Denver Cablevision's Netline service, and is therefore exposed to the Internet. All premise workstations are attached to this network, which serves as the primary office automation delivery system. A second, private network is based on high-speed (100Mbps) technology to offer very high bandwidth between the corporation's server computers. This network will allow inter-server communications to remain separate and secure from the Internet, as well as provide enough bandwidth to scale easily as Worldwide Internet Marketing Services grows.
Cabling for the public data network will be distributed to most locations within the Network Operations Center. When employees come to the Center to work, they will be able to attach their notebook computers directly to the premise network. Groups of cables are located in key areas to facilitate employee work sessions.
Network Management
Managing a successful network installation typically means avoiding productivity back steps such as network downtime, loss of data, application failure, and gaps in employee knowledge of the system. Consistent notification and analysis of network problems, coupled with a fault-tolerant network design, are the keys to a successful network implementation.
Some of the management features of the Worldwide Internet Marketing Services corporate network are as follows:
- Modular component design. This means that hardware components can be easily swapped among all network devices.
- Hot, standby power supply. An uninterruptable power supply will be installed that is capable of supplying power to network servers and hubs for approximately one hour, providing ample time for a controlled shutdown of all network devices if a prolonged power outage is expected. Backup power duration can be increased by simply adding batteries.
- Dual, mirrored fixed disks and disk controllers with in the database server. Data is written to multiple physical disk drives. Should a disk fail, a mirror copy of the data prevents data loss and server downtime.
- Interchangeable servers. Each server-class computer within the Worldwide Internet Marketing Services network will be configured such that it can perform all of the tasks of all other servers. This method allows periodic maintenance to be scheduled so that delivery of services is not interrupted.
- Backup and retrieval system. Every 24 hours, a complete copy of the corporation's data is written to data tapes. A tape rotation process ensures that multiple copies of the corporation's data are stored in secure locations to guard against catastrophic loss of the Network Operations Center. This is actually part of a larger disaster recovery plan covering the entire corporation,
- Windows NT Advanced Server. The network operating system itself contains a wealth of network management tools for monitoring the current health of the system. Notification of important network events is delivered by audible alarm, printed notification, electronic mail, and personal paging device. A management process that includes regular analysis of network activity logs will ensure stable network operation.
- Victor Gold and Leonard Morgan. The benefits of employing two computer science professionals means that Worldwide Internet Marketing Services will have much more intimate knowledge of its information systems than its competitors, who generally lease these services. This immediacy will result in a well-thought collection of network management processes designed to deliver consistent, quality services to Worldwide Internet Marketing Services employees, clients, and online customers.
