All -this week's Appliance Warehouse assignment will be asking students to make recommendations based on research. Students have the option of responding to the 4 items below in a batch document or in a series of 4 documents. 1. Recommendation for an ERP system, research 3 systems. Look for an ERP for small to medium-sized businesses. Compare available features, cost, and SaaS vs. installed software, and make a case for the best features for AW. (Hint: Google NetSuite, SysPro \& Epicor to get started) Determine which is the best solution for alleviating stress from the IT department. Seek out other vendors if desired. 2. Which Network Topology would you recommend and why? 3. List the advantages and disadvantages of using Online Processing and for Batch Processing. Which would you recommend and Why? 4. List a minimum of 4 Security features that need to be included in an ERP system to ensure customer information cannot be hacked Scalability should be a focus on all items when researching systems to accommodate future growth! EMAILS: We just got some very exciting news! We heard that the owner is planning to open up two more Appliance Warehouse stores in the next 2 years. Isn't that amazing? In light of this news, I started to wonder how we might best accommodate our growth through our computerized systems. We will be increasing our workforce, inventory, and revenues with this expansion. I think that we might need to implement an enterprise resource planning system to better coordinate all of our various departments and stores. In fact, I think it might make sense to implement this system prior to the second store opening. Could you research the various ERP systems on the market and make a recommendation which system we should consider? Make sure to compare at least three systems before making a recommendation. Thanks. As we design our new SIM system, I was thinking about the news of the two new future stores. Then, I started thinking about scalability. How scalable do we need our new system to be? What system requirements should we add with regards to scalability issues? Furthermore, how do you think we should set up our computer network? Is there a topology that you think would be most appropriate for AW? Do you think we need online processing or do you think batch processing would be adequate? So many questions still to answer! Let me know your thoughts on these issues. Carlie The programmers and database admin have asked about the security requirements for this system. I don't think that we've discussed these requirements. I'd like for you to think through the classes of users (Appointment setters, Technicians, Part Department, Management, Customers) and what type of access they require. Also, how do you think we need to protect the technician's machines and the server? Security is such an important issue now. There have been so many security breaches recently with our competitors. Please provide this information as soon as you can. Thanks! Carlie