The Sample Project

Recall from Chapter 3 that Remulak Productions, which specializes in locating hard-to-find musical instruments, primarily guitars, wants to replace its legacy order entry application. Company founder, owner, and president Jeffery Homes has contacted us to address his concern about his company's ability to keep up with technology.

Homes is not an IT expert, but he knows that success depends on the replacement system's extensibility into the future. His initial concern is the applicability of the Internet to his business. He wants to minimize cost outlays for the technology used while maintaining flexibility to change platforms later. He makes the following observations about the company:

• Many of its products are very expensive and require quite a bit of hand-holding and selling by the order clerk.

• Many, if not all, of its customers want to be able to get information on orders that have been placed and shipped without interacting with a company representative.

• Many of its customers want to order other products from Remulak that are not as unique as its instruments, including recording and mixing technology, microphones, and recordable CD players.

On the basis of these observations, Homes decides that an Internet-based inquiry capability could benefit Remulak. However, some cases still require customized, personal interaction, at least initially to enter the order in the system. So it appears that all but the most complicated orders could utilize an Internet-based order solution. These facts are crucial to consider as we devise our initial software architecture for Remulak.