Meca Inc. has grown at a phenomenal rate of over 45% per year for the past five years. The legacy information system at Meca is labouring under the heavy processing load. Additionally, Meca managers are frustrated because it is extremely complicated and time consuming for them to get the information they need to make decisions, primarily because the applications are not integrated with one another. The current applications are written in COBAL and the data are stored in flat files. Meca is contemplating several options for dealing with its information technology problems. At this point, Meca has formed a feasibility group to examine each alternative.

Required:

Explain 3 system development related issues the group should consider as part of the system investigation stage of the project if they upgrade the existing applications to be better integrated or purchase a new integrated, relational database software platform. (6 marks)