Harriet and david gift baskets

Harriet’s Fruit and Chocolate Company was established in 1935 in the Pacific Northwest of the United States to ship gift baskets of locally grown peaches and pears to customers in the United States. The company also makes chocolates and baked goods to include in the gift baskets. It has grown extensively over the years and is currently one of the biggest companies in the Pacific Northwest.

Recently, Harriet’s descendants, who still run the company, have identified a need to immediately report when fruit is starting to ripen and should be picked and placed in cold storage. Employees in the marketing department have identified a need to access inventory data for the fruit in the orchards and in cold storage. With this data, they can design and sell gift-basket products that take advantage of the ripe fruit. This data must also be fed into e-commerce applications so that web orders can correctly specify product availability.

In addition, the company recently hired an ambitious programmer who is anxious to use her knowledge of SAS programming, SQL, and DB2 to design reporting applications for senior management. She calls you every day with new ideas on what she could accomplish if the network were upgraded so that she could reach up-to-date data from the orchards and cold storage buildings.

As the network designer for this company, you have been charged with selecting network technologies to reach the orchards and cold storage buildings. Each of the six orchards has a shack with one or two standalone PCs and a printer. The three cold storage buildings are huge warehouses that include a few standalone PCs and printers. The local telephone company has suggested that you lease fractional T1 links, but these links are expensive and possibly beyond your budget. Wireless technologies are also possible, but you have heard that fruit trees, especially full-grown trees that are tall and leafy, can absorb a wireless radio frequency (RF) signal. You have also heard that the cold storage buildings have ice hazards, making it hard to install equipment. But you will not let these challenges faze you.