EngleHealth Properties, Inc Essay.

Dennis Bennet, the vice president of Information System (IS) at EngleHealth Properties, Inc., faces the challenge of handling the increase in user demand for services with limited technological resources. The increase in user demand reflects the rapid growth of the company in recent years in terms of revenue, net income and human resources. To compensate for the increase in user demand and, consequently, the internal activity in the company’s offices, modern technological resources such as websites and advanced computers should be adopted for the benefit of the whole company.EngleHealth Properties, Inc Essay.

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To address the problem, Bennet should request for additional technological resources from the president and chairman of the Board, Glenn Englehealth. These resources will be composed of at least ten computers with the highest storage capacities possible because the machines will primarily be used as the dedicated servers for the company’s offline databases and for the local area network (LAN) server in every office. The online and offline databases as well as the computers will be maintained by a technical staff composed of at least five but no more than ten members. No more than two computers will be installed in each of the five company offices. In order to convince Glenn EngleHealth, Bennet can provide the following information for the proposal.

The first stage of the project is to identify the current IS needs of the company. Since the company is composed of at least five main offices (Washington, D.C. headquarters, EngleHealth Lodges International, EngleHealth Lodges and Inns, EngleHealth Healthcare Corporation, and Hotel Reservation Center), there should be at least ten computers to be acquired in total or two computers per office. One computer will be used as a dedicated server for the LAN and the other will be used for the storage of offline database. To save on expenses, the company will rent a web server which will host the website of the industry office.

For the LAN server, the desktop computer should have at least 2 Gigabytes of DDR RAM and an internal hard drive with at least 250 Gigabytes capacity for memory storage. Including other necessary accessories such as cables and modem, the cost can run up to $2,000. For the storage of the offline database, the computer should have at least 2 Gigabytes of DDR RAM and two internal hard drives with no less than a total of 1.5 Terabytes capacity for memory storage. The cost for one unit can approximately cost $2,300 at the most. Lastly, the appropriate dedicated server web hosting plan for one office industry can cost to about $400 per month. The upkeep of the server and the hiring of maintenance staff will no longer be shouldered by the offices of Englehealth because the company handling the web hosting service will be the one to take charge.EngleHealth Properties, Inc Essay.

Creating professional business websites for each of the company’s industries can reach up to $10,000. The total cost of the purchase of all computer units and peripheral devices is roughly about $43,000. On the other hand, a one-year subscription to the dedicated server web hosting plan for all five industry offices costs at least $24,000. In total, the company is expected to shell-out approximately $77,000 for the acquisition of computers, the creation of five websites and the rental of a dedicated web hosting server for one year.

Installing at least one website for every industry under EngleHealth Properties, Inc. is the best solution as far as informing the public about the services the company offers is concerned. Each website will feature a comprehensive listing of the products and services available to clients. Also, reservations for the company’s hotel, lodges and inns can be made online for faster and easier transactions minus the hassle of having to actually go to the offices on the part of the customers. This will encourage potential clients to place reservations with very minimal difficulties. It will also hasten the process of identifying the availability of vacancies in the hotels, lodges and inns, thereby reducing the risk of losing client confidence and satisfaction. With the growing demand for the services of the company, websites can readily provide answers to the basic inquiries of clients just by browsing the company’s websites which effectively reduces the common problems faced by information desk officers due to the large volume of service inquiries and reservation requests.EngleHealth Properties, Inc Essay.

Installing offline databases for recordkeeping purposes is also the best solution when it comes to saving office space and efficiently handling voluminous records. With at least 1.5 Terabytes of storage capacity, each computer can store thousands of corporate records, from monthly or quarterly sales reports and analyses to daily transactions, thereby replacing the need for huge office space for the storage of physical records. The database can easily hold the individual files for the company’s more than 7,000 employees which can easily be retrieved upon request. The fact that EngleHealth Properties, Inc. has been growing rapidly in the past few years only indicates that the company is in need of more employees to meet the continuous growth in demand for services. The corresponding increase in the number of employees will result to more individual records; a 1.5 Terabyte offline database can easily handle the increase in the volume of records needed to be stored.EngleHealth Properties, Inc Essay.

Lastly, a dedicated server for the LAN with at least 2 Gigabytes of DDR RAM and 250 Gigabytes storage capacity can easily meet the need for a faster flow of information among computers in the LAN. With the demand for services still expected to rise in the coming months, local offices in each company industry face the challenge of managing more volume of information. A dedicated server for office LAN capable of handling high traffic of information exchange among computers of employees can help overcome that challenge while lessening the trouble of erroneous reports or information caused by the mishandling of records. In a growing company like EngleHealth Properties, erroneous records can disrupt the individual cash flow analysis for each industry, more so for the company as a whole. Mishandled records can also mislead the performance analysis for each industry.

Since EngleHealth Properties already has ample financial resources to purchase the needed equipments for the proposed solution, equipments can be acquired the soonest time possible. However, installing the equipments can take somewhere between one to two weeks. Installing the dedicated LAN server for each of the industry offices—which involves, among others, the attaching the cables in the office rooms and securing the LAN server connection of each computer—can take two to three days. The installation of computers for offline database can take less than three days. While renting a dedicated web hosting server can take less than two days, creating at least five separate websites for each industry can take two months at the most. As early as the first week of April 2007, the company can begin hiring IT Specialists who will create the websites so that the websites will be complete and ready to go online by the last week of May. The company can begin renting the dedicated web hosting server also by the last week of May. If the computers for the LAN servers and offline database are acquired by first week of April, installation can be completed by the same week. The completion of the proposed solution can be achieved by first week of June the same year.EngleHealth Properties, Inc Essay.