Background
Consolidated Messenger is a shipping company that
specializes in overnight parcel delivery. The company serves North America and
Europe, and it provides both ground and air services. For delivery, the company
uses its own vehicles, which includes trucks and aircraft. The company handles
an average of 100,000 parcels every week. One of its most important services is
business-to-business delivery.
Because the shipping market is declining, the company often sends out vehicles
that are less than completely full. To maximize the use of space in its
vehicles and to increase revenue, the company wants to offer a new service to
independent transportation brokers. The new service will enable the independent
brokers to use the company’s vehicles to send large shipments between cities.
Each shipment will consist of a large number of parcels. The company’s existing
business applications must be enhanced to support the new service.
You are a developer employed by Consolidated Messenger. You will lead the
development of a solution that uses the Microsoft .NET Framework to meet the
requirements of the new service.
Existing
IT Environment
Existing Applications
The company uses a parcel-tracking application that
runs on a Microsoft Windows 2000 Server platform. This application has
interfaces to client computers, handled PCs and the Internet. Company employees
use client computers and handled PCs to track the movement of parcels.
Customers use the Internet to track the shipping status of their parcels.
For each parcel, the existing application tracks the following information:
·
Waybill
number
·
Account
number to change
·
Terms
of payment
·
Weight
·
Sender
name
·
Sender
address
·
Sender
telephone number
·
Recipient
name
·
Recipient
address
·
Recipient
telephone number
·
Current
shipping status
Users do not need to be authenticated to check the
status of a waybill.
History records are maintained to track the location of parcels. A history
record is written each time a parcel changes location. A history record
contains the following information:
·
Waybill
number
·
Date
·
Time
·
Route
number
·
Depot
number
·
Current
shipping status
The average parcel requires 1KB of storage space
for the parcel information and all associated parcel history records.
The company also uses a vehicle-scheduling application to track vehicles and
their routes. This application schedules routes between depots, tracks the
availability of vehicles and assigns available vehicles to scheduled routes.
The vehicle-scheduling application uses its own database, which includes the
following tables:
·
The
Route Definition table describes the characteristics of valid routes between
depots, including scheduled departure time and arrival
·
The
Vehicle table records the type and size of the vehicle and its availability
status
·
The
Route Instance table associates a specific vehicle with a defined route. Every
time a vehicle transports a shipment between two depots, an entry in the Route
Instance table is created.
Physical Implementation
The parcel-tracking application and the vehicle-scheduling
application were developed by using Microsoft SQL Server 2000, ASP pages, COM+
components written in Microsoft Visual Basic 6 and client software written in
Visual Basic 6. The parcel-tracking database is currently 1 terabyte in size.
The company operates a private network that spans two continents. Its public
Web servers run on a separate network and are protected by a firewall.
Standards
As a company standard, Consolidated Messenger uses
Windows 200 Server computers and a SQL Server 2000 database management system.
The company plans to use the Microsoft .NET Framework for new applications and
for significant enhancements of existing applications.
Interviews
IT Department
IT Manager
The new enhancements must be integrated with the
existing parcel-tracking and vehicle-scheduling applications. An online
registration process must be available to the independent brokers so they can
request access to these applications. Once they are registered, the brokers
must be properly authenticated for security purposes. We also want to be able
to track the revenue associated with each broker. We are not planning to add
any additional staff to develop or support the enhancements.
Business Stakeholders
Vice President of Operations
Currently, depot managers report that our vehicles
are not being used to capacity. The existing vehicle-scheduling application
does not track the amount of space that is being used on each vehicle at a
given time. However, the new solution should enable us to track this
information. This enhancement will help us manage our vehicles more
efficiently.
To handle the anticipated volume of new shipments, my department needs to know
the pickup depot, the dimensions and the weight of each shipment.
The new solution must include an interface for independent brokers. These
brokers must be able to use the Internet to schedule their own shipments.
Brokers usually comply with strict time constraints. If response time is slow,
they will not use our services. To keep our costs low, each broker must be able
to track its own shipments. However, no broker must be permitted to see
information about the shipments of any other broker. We also want to be able to
track the amount of business that each broker gives us over a period of time.
Requests for the new service will be fulfilled in the order in which they are
received. When no vehicles are available, independent shipments must wait until
the next day. However, all independent shipments must be completed in three
days.
Finance Department
Chief Financial Officer
Company revenue and profit margins are declining.
The new service is extremely important to our financial outlook. My forecast
shows a 20 percent increase in the number of parcels delivered during the first
year of the new service and a similar increase in each subsequent year. We can
handle this additional volume by using our existing vehicles more effectively.
However, the new solution must be capable of scaling to meet the continuously
increasing demand.
Users
Depot Manager
My staff is comfortable with the existing
parcel-tracking application. I want the new solution to be well integrated with
this application so the staff does not need to learn a new interface. I also
want to ensure that our existing handled PCs and bar code readers can be used to
track shipments.
Response time for the bar code readers must be fast enough to handle the new
shipping volume, without any errors. Response time for the vehicle-scheduling
application must also be fast. Delays in updates can delay a shipment or reduce
the amount of space used on a vehicle.
The current parcel-tracking application tracks only the weight of a parcel, not
its dimensions. To ensure that space is fully used on each of our vehicles, my
staff will need to know the dimension of each parcel, expressed in terms of
height, length and width.
Business
Process
Vehicle Scheduling
Currently, Consolidated Messenger operates a fleet
of 200 aircraft and 600 trucks. Vehicles operate in all major markets served by
the company. Vehicles are scheduled one month in advance on the basis of
anticipated demand. One master schedule is in effect Monday through Friday.
Each weekday follows the same timetable. Saturday uses a different schedule. No
deliveries occur on Sunday.
The master schedule indicates the type and size of the vehicles needed to meet
delivery requirements for the week. Available vehicles are associated with a
scheduled route to form an active route. In total, the company’s vehicles
complete approximately 3000 routes each week.
Parcel Tracking
Currently, each parcel is assigned a waybill number
when it is picked up. A waybill bar code is affixed to the parcel. This bar
code is scanned at various checkpoints in the shipment process. A typical
delivery includes the following checkpoints:
·
Picked
up
·
Received
at depot
·
On
delivery truck
·
Delivered
Customers can query the status of their shipment by
using a Web browser. Response time to the customer is not critical, as long as
this response is faster than telephoning a customer service representative.