BACKGROUND INFORMATION
BCorp is a Web analytic company specializing in the study of website visitor behavior. The company was formed by one long serving data analyst John Brown after realizing the importance of business data analysis. Having worked for investment firms for more than 20 years, Brown realized that analyzing good business information and advice out of various streams and sources could be manipulated to indicate patterns that can be essential for future prediction. The company contained only two employees at the inception and has risen to more than 20 employees in less than two years.
The company is located in NY and has been in operation for the last two years with a turnover of $25 million. Due to the expected growth of over 60% expected in the next one and a half to two years, it seeks an information system that will ensure that the company attains its anticipated growth. This is through the leverage of the web analytics and the operational data it has in its networks. As such, as the Chief Information Officer, the CEO of the company has delegated me the duty to design and implement and information system plan and framework that will ensure that the company achieve its anticipated growth in the given time frame.
The company obtains data from the web and integrates it with the operational data it obtains from its clients to arrive at a conclusion and forecast on the future. The data obtained in a mining process need to be analyzed, transformed and aggregated at different levels of abstraction. Thus, data content is one value added feature utilized by e-commerce sites to convey a relationship with the user. Data content is comprised of textual and graphic representation sourced from HTML/XML pages and scripts. The content data involves the semantic or structural meta-data that are embedded within pages sites, attributes descriptive keywords among others.
COMPANY PROFILE
BCorp is engaged in web analytics and helps small and start up businesses create easy-to-use dashboards that track key business metrics and better exploit their business opportunities. BCorp aggregates raw data from the web as well as operational data. Web features includes site visits, web log files, PHP and JavaScript pagetags. Operational data include data from financial systems, business related metrics and other sources. BCorp then provides simple tools to analyze the data and create graphs and dashboards. Other additional analytics include metric overviews, summaries and related links collected from the internet.
The company currently provides analytic services using its custom made tools that suites small start ups and developed enterprises. The BAnalytic is its proprietary software offered to its clients on a standard free version and paid version. Currently due to technological constraints, the BAnalytic software is outsourced from partner developers. BCorp’s strategic plan involves the development of custom made software’s for its clients according to their needs. As part of its strategic plans for the next 18 months, the company envisions to broaden its analytical tools through integration of social media metrics. By so doing, it estimates that the business will attract more than 60% growth due to increased subscription from start up as well as non-start up world.
The company envisages developing the necessary infrastructural, operational and analytic interfaces that will aid in the attainment of the projected growth. By following how many followers a business has on social media among other metrics, the company will provide accurate schematics to its clients that will transform their business for the better. There are numerous startups that do not know the basic metrics for strategic analysis. The company targets these small enterprises through simple aggregation for high level analytics.
PERSONNEL
Of the four information system personnel, (I included) two are involved in technical management of the BCorps networks. The technicians oversee the general operation of the BCorps networks and manage traffic to ensure that the clients feed in the required metrics and generate the anticipated dashboards. The role of the other personnel (Information Analyst) in the IT department involves first line support of all web application practices such as system monitoring, incident and problem diagnosis and management, advice on system architecture and development as well as management of existing technology upgrades. All the designated personnel stated above report to me as their CIO.
The company collects a myriad of information including financial information, social metrics, web analytics and other information envisaged by our clients. After rigorous analysis using our tools, the results in form web report analysis, marketing report analysis, and e-commerce report analysis among other deliverables are delivered to the concerned parties.
INFORMATION SYSTEM
Today’s enterprises have realized the need for a justified investment in every online presence they engage in. Studying and understanding the user behavior is essential to continuously streamline the online business, arrive at the best business decisions and justify the investments. Content management systems are desired for best integration with web analytics. Businesses desire cutting-edge tracking and analytics from the content creation process to its use. The importance of CMS in web analytics transpires from the fact that non-technical staff such as the marketing staff can efficiently participate in the process of managing, updating and deriving reports without relying on the services of html experts. Integrating CMS with BAnalytic will enable clients quick visibility of who visited their sites, what they searched for, what needs to be changed and what is working well. The CMS offers flexible workflows in managing data analysis and as such, offers efficiency and flexibility in the already resource constraint company like ours.
DATABASE MANAGEMENT
Web CMS offered as Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is offered as a hosted solution. The company anticipates taking its services to the cloud to minimize the cost of software and maintenance. As a result, an extension of the server in a fully web based application is the cloud. Cloud computing takes the place of clients task processing. Cloud of computers acts as giant devices that perform the task queries for the users. In this scenario, the cloud computing experience distributes the performance to numerous remote computers found on the cloud thereby, eliminating compatibility issues and promoting scalability.
The company uses a stand-alone cloud-hosted database for its storage needs. Database uses an Online Transactional Processing model that can be extended to other functions such as a warehouse. Microsoft SQL Azure Database is the preferred database the company prefers to adopt to manage its vast content on the clouds. Other facilities available on the Azure database include backup, testing, disaster recovery and collaboration.
ANALYTICS INTERFACE
The analytical interface of the CMS systems and the BAnalytic tools is the significant driver that delivers what the user understands and provides interpretable and actionable information. Analytical dashboards should, therefore, guide the user on what he has to do and provide mechanisms such as clickthroughs necessary for further analysis. The design considerations of such tools have incorporated design principles that are aimed at understanding the user interfaces. This includes; user-centric analytic models that allow the user space for setting modeling parameters and improved visuals. The visual parameters associated with size, space and position makes for faster adoption as well as improved summary.
INFRASTRUCTURE MODE WIRELESS NETWORKING
In terms of infrastructure and security, the company desires to expand its networks from a single floor to three floors within a six month period. In order to achieve this, it needs an expanded networking solution that guarantees better communication and internet availability. A wireless networking of computers and devices is the desirable option. Wireless network is the latest internet connection technology that utilizes radio signals and air medium for transmission. It provides affordable broadband connectivity and freedom to home or office users. Wireless broadband has the extra advantage of providing high speed internet connectivity without the use of physical cables used in the DSL or digital cable transmission.
The infrastructure mode wireless connection is possible with a wireless Access Point or router. The infrastructure mode is used for the connection of multiple wireless network devices in a predetermined range of the area of coverage such as a storey with multiple floors. The interaction is attained through wireless nodes via an antenna. The wireless access point converts the wired Ethernet data by the use of a bridge situated between the wired LAN and the wireless clients. In order to extend the wireless network coverage, multiple access points are connected via a wired Ethernet backbone. Thus in the office, a user who moves out of the range of one access point will utilize the range of the other. This roaming is seamlessly attained using the Access point domains
WI-FI PROTECTED ACCESS VERSION 2
This is an improvement of the 802.11i security standard having the Advanced Encryption Standard for encryption. Thus, it is superior to WPA and the most favored security standard for this project. Its security features are sufficient to protect sensitive computer data and privacy concerns.
In order to product wireless computers and information contained in it, the most secure step involve the reconfiguration of the default wireless router settings to safeguard the system from the hackers who have gained access to default information of most wireless router companies. Strong passwords are also essential for total protection of the system, in addition to, firewalls and antivirus software’s. Other measures such as updating the antivirus software’s and shutting down the computer when not are use is beneficial in keeping hackers and sniffing devices out of the computers. In order to secure personal data on the computer systems while using public wireless networks, it is recommended that file sharing features are disabled at all times (Haley, 2006).
Data in the clouds pose serious security challenges, and as such, the company will secure its databases through AES encryption techniques. Cloud information protection platforms at the company’s network edge ensure that data is fully protected before it leaves for the clouds. Other mechanisms include sufficient encryption key management and user policies
References
Haley, E. P. (2006). Over-the-Road Wireless Networking. John Wiley & Sons.
Shelly, G. B. (2012). Systems analysis and design (9th ed.). Boston: Thomson Course Technology.
