The purpose of this project is to place your study of data communications and networking in the framework of a real world project. My objective is to teach you how your skills can be utilized to modernize business functions and give you an advantage in the job market. Consider me as a CEO who has hired or promoted you to modernize my company or government agency's business practices. I want you to assess my business needs and reward my confidence in you by showing me the research, organization and communication skills to implement improvements in my business process through technology. There's no need to "re-invent the wheel." Search the Internet for some proven ideas on modernizing a business. For example, replace file cabinets with document management software and physical fax machines with fax services that integrate with email. Here are some suggested businesses you can use as your model: (choose one) 1. A law firm has 20 lawyers located on two floors of a downtown office building. They also have four secretaries and seven paralegal assistants. They have hired you to support their standalone PC's and software applications. The owner of the firm has asked you to come up with a proposal to install a network and anything that can modernize their growing firm. 2. A pharmaceutical company, Senior Rx that has three offices with stand-alone PC's and a laser printer at each desk. They receive fax orders from nursing homes. They want to consider networking, fax services and web- Activate Wi Go to Setting based sales and order processing. 3. A local high school would like you to draw up a proposal to install a network and computer labs. 4. A busy medical practice wants you to modernize their operations so they can utilize EHR (electronic health records) and ePrescribing while making improving security and patient confidentiality under HIPAA. IT projects have a typical lifecycle and aren't "born" at some last minute due date. You need to gain management support by presenting a business case analysis (e.g., how things are done now, what they cost now, what you propose, what it will cost, what is the cost saving or other benefits). This is usually done early to get a piece of the budget and/or staff resources. You must include specifications for a really good network. Choose quality (i.e., performance, reliability and security) over cost. Consider needs for redundancy and response times based on your assessment of continuance of operations planning. Require specific hardware, software and services in your RFP. In your SOW, require that the winning contractor provide cable documentation, install cable management and conduct cable testing and certification. To make things more manageable the project is broken down into 5 separate documents that are created over many weeks throughout the course: Please see actual learning activity for assignment instructions, length, links to resources and sample work. Choose one of the model businesses. Discuss and analyze their needs and your assessment of appropriate data communications and network technology to implement. o describe in detail the business you're planning to modernize o what functions are performed how they're performed now with estimated costs o how you'll modernize those functions, costs, benefits and savings. Your proposal must include a really good network, specifying all required hardware, software and services. You should include an executive summary of about one page in the beginning. Activat