1.0 Introduction
Technology and developments in the printing industry have led to the emergence of higher definition and more realistic images. This is more pleasing to the audience and gives a clearer message. Following a high demand in high quality 3D printing, an opportunity arose to fulfill this need. The business will to serve its customers with quality 3D prints. Following this keen evolution of printing technology, there is a feasibility of starting a printing business, which will work with other related products and services. The business will be a sole proprietorship. The proprietor will make all the decisions. The owner will be the sole provider of the capital and an employer to four employees. Sole proprietorship is a business owned by one person and the managed by the same individual (Madura, 2007). He pays the taxes for the business and the profits come to him directly
2.0 Organization
The business will be a sole proprietorship with four employees. It will provide quality 3D printing services and support services. The proprietor will be the director of the business. The will have the highest level of command and authority and it will be delegated from him. The four employees will be report directly to the director, except the secretary who will have links to the other employees directly for ease of administration. Delegation will make the activities of the organization to run smoothly and decision-making easy (Ghuman & Aswathappa, 2010). The staff includes a finance officer, an IT officer, a purchasing and sales officer and a secretary.
The finance officer will be responsible for controlling the movement and management of finances in the organization and will report directly to the director. The roles and responsibilities under that department include preparation of the budgets of the firm, managing financial statements, advising the director on financial decisions, preparing of checks for procurement, salaries, wages and other financial responsibilities of the firm. The finance officer will also provide cash for purchases and payment of workers. These roles will require qualifications in related finance fields. The finance officer will be required to be an accountant who is certified and has experienced in the field and be conversant with accounting software.
The IT officer will be in charge of all the computers, machinery and technical support; His tasks will include researching trends in the market and advising the director as needed. The IT officer will act as the point of contact on anything related to the computers in the firm, which are in use directly or indirectly in the production process. Maintenance of the equipment will be his duty as well. The IT officer will be required to have all the relevant qualifications in the Information technology sector and an experience of not less than three years.
A purchasing and sales officer will report directly to the director and will be responsible for; preparation of projecting sales forecasts, participate and advice the director as necessary in the generation of marketing objectives and making all other marketing decisions in consultation with the director. A degree in sales and marketing will be a prerequisite and two years of experience.
The secretary will take up the following roles; be the direct link between the customers and the firm, keep contact with the client, maintain records on official meetings, and other day-to-day office administration tasks. The secretary will be required to have good communication skills, recognized office administration credentials and should have a working experience of at least one year. The other employees will link to the secretary directly.
3.0 Network System
Each employee will have their own workstations equipped with a computer, and a desktop phone. A local area network will serve the computers, which will enable exchange of information within the organization. This will enable the employees to communicate with each other and with the director. Documents exchange will occur in a more resource saving method where emails and file sharing is utilized. The director will be able to communicate with the employees whenever need be. The desktop phone will function for urgent verbal communication.
A star network topology on a client/ server network will be most suitable for the organization. This is whereby all the computers belonging to the employees connect individually to a main server through a router (Elahi, 2001). This will allow for easy sharing of resources within the small network. All data flowing through the organization will have to pass through the server before reaching the recipient. It will also make it easier to monitor the network. A star topology gives a better performance because data does not have to pass through many devices. It will also be easier to connect or remove new devices without affecting the rest of the network. There will be five workstations connected to the server. The server and the clients will be connected by a UTM router and the other shared resources in the office like the printers. The UTM (Unified Threat Management) gateway router is Ethernet based and has advanced features. They are more secure and give protection against malware, spamming and intrusion detection. This is important to ensure an unhindered business growth environment.
These workstations will serve The Director, The Finance Officer, The secretary, The Purchasing and Sales Officer and the IT officer. The IT Officer’s station will have the extra responsibility of designing and preparing the jobs that needed for printing. The client/ server network will best serve the purpose of the organization and provide a smooth flow of information and efficient sharing of resources.
4.0 Data Management
The organization will employ two database management systems due to its nature of operations; object oriented database system and Hierarchical Database system. Object oriented database is able to handle data of various kinds and from various sources. It can manage Photographs, graphics, audio and video and produce it in a multimedia format as well. It is able to mix and match objects and it provides multimedia capability of a high quality. Hierarchical Database management system will be best suited to manage clients’ records as well as employee records. It is easier to access and update information because it is in a tree like structure and provides easy relationships to the data involved.
The server will have an internal memory of one terabyte and an operating RAM of 4 gigabytes. This will be useful to store and retrieve pictures and relevant information without the need for external storage messages. Individual workstations will have an internal capacity of 250 gigabytes and a RAM of 4 gigabytes. The employees will be playing an equal role and thus the computers that they will be using will have the same capability. The network requirements of the organization will be set out in paper and arrangements made to source them at favorable prices. In consideration will be size of the organization and the requirements.
4.0 Conclusion
The developing trends in the technology sector will see to it that the business sustains itself. There are many unexplored territories in the printing industry and if well handled, they will turn this opportunity into a successful business.
References
Elahi, A. (2001). Network communications technology. Albany, NY: Delmar.
Ghuman, K., & Aswathappa, K. (2010). Management: Concept, practice and cases. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.
Madura, J. (2007). Introduction to business. Mason, OH: Thompson/South-Western.
