Use of Converged Network Solutions in Rapid Freight

Posted: November 29th, 2013

Use of Converged Network Solutions in Rapid Freight

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Use of Converged Network Solutions in Rapid Freight

Rapid Freight is a freight transport company that incorporates a supply chain management system of operation where the supply chain management is the planning, execution and controlling of supply chain activities aimed at creation of net value, competitive infrastructure, and synchronizing supply with demand and therefore aiding in measurement of performance globally. The diverse systems include dispersion of data through a wide area network, maintenance of data flow through the main data center and the integrated services digital network telephone system with a voicemail system. This occurs with the drivers using personal digital assistants to scan consignments that are synced via GPRS to headquarter that aids in keeping track of the consignments. Through the WAN integrated systems, the customers can know the progress of their orders and create documentations on the freight to generate reports (Dijk, 1999).

All this data involved in a transaction, that is data sent through PDAs by the drivers and data of operations sent from the various offices situated in different nations, is managed in the main data center in the headquarters. The company also maintains an integrated services digital network telephone system, which allows simultaneous transmission of voice, data and other network services including broadband hence allowing internet access and better quality voice. The company also incorporates electronic data interface that allows communication between the different branches located in different localities to track business proceedings in this interfaces.

With the growth of its employee’s number and the customer base, the company’s wide area network (WAN) is overcrowded that leads to the server or the main data center crashing hence leading to communication failures which are also known as network outages. This period of unavailability in the system can lead to delays in deliveries of transactions and data between organizations. The ISDN telephone system in the company fails due to the increase in flow of data as there is increase in the market base of the company. This is the system depended on for communication between clients and the company and between the management of the different branches of the company. The voicemail system too is overcrowded with the bills increasing due to the increased traffic that becomes unmanageable.

For these problems experienced by Rapid Freight to be soluble a converged networks solution has to be integrated. This system integrates multiple communications services into one hence making manageability of data easier (McQeurry, 2003). This system integrates data communications and telephony into one device, which leads to digitization and integration of transactions. Here the integration is defined by the content transferable through the medium. The medium that undergo integration in this system is data broadcast, phone and information technology infrastructure where they are combined into one all-purpose network platform (White, 2011). By converging telephony and other systems, the unprecedented increases in telephone bills can be cut down and there can be a permanent solution to the issue on overcrowding voicemails. A converged system can be integrated into the company by incorporation of VoIP, where online telephony can occur (McQuerry, 2003).

The company would still be able to carry out transactions without increase in cost from its ISDN service provider. This would lower the costs as charge would be according to data bundles. Application of convergence network would lead to use of less physical hardware application. For example, in VoIP the system will include transfer of data and telephone services via internet eliminating telephone need. This will lead to high availability of service from the server lowering incidences of downtime and network outage, which will lead to increased reliability.

Convergence would also lead to the ability to consolidate traffic, which would simplify the management challenge and increase the ability to streamline service interaction with different speeds (Dijk, 1999). This would aid in reduction of traffic and more manageability of data in the system. Another means of convergence for the company would be the inclusion of multi-device support for their PDAs enabling more transactions to occur there, making it easier for the customers to keep track of consignments, and making data updating between the consignments and the main office to be faster (Dijk, 2009).

Reference

Dijk, V. J. (2009). The network society. London: Sage Publications. Print.

McQuerry, S. (November 19, 2003). CCNA Self-Study: Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices (ICND), Second Edition. Cisco Press. Print.

White, C. M. (2011). Data communications and computer networks: a business user’s approach. Boston, MA: Course Technology. Print.