CASE IN POINT 10.3: R/WAY TRUCKING COMPANY
You are the new IT manager at R/Way, a small but rapidly growing trucking company
headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. The company slogan is “Ship It R/Way — State-of-the-Art
in Trucking and Customer Service.” R/Way’s information system currently consists of a file
server and three workstations where freight clerks enter data, track shipments, and prepare
freight bills. To perform their work, the clerks obtain data from the server and use
database and spreadsheet programs stored on their PCs to process the data.
Unfortunately, your predecessor did not design a relational database. Instead, data is stored in
several files, including one for shippers, one for customers, and one for shipments. The system
worked well for several years, but cannot handle current volume or support online links for R/
Way shippers and customers. The company president is willing to make changes, but he is reluctant
to spend money on major IT improvements unless you can convince him that they are necessary.
What would you recommend and why