What technology and communication requirements do you see?What are the hardware requirements, and what kind of equipment will provide viable options to the system? What would you recommend to Bill?

Answer 1

There appear to be four locations that will require interaction with the system.
1 . Customer Web pages where customers can list packages for pickup and also make payment. Regular customers may also print out their own labels.
2 . A work station where a clerk can handle phone requests for pickup.
3 . The warehouse where sorting occurs and tracking information is entered.
4 . The delivery trucks where pickups are noted, payments are accepted, labels are printed, deliveries are noted. These delivery trucks are mobile, and should have real time interaction with the home server.
Equipment to support these functions might be:
- A central server for the Web pages and for clerk entered pickup requests
- Warehouse equipment, such as scanners, to note tracking information.
- Mobile devices for the trucks. Probably tablet computers Internet access and with scanning wand. Also a mobile printer in the truck. (If rates are by size, then they can be measured. If rates are by weight, then set of scales is also needed.) The mobile devices will need Internet access to communicate with the home office. This can be provided either with cell phone technology and support, or with wide-area Wi-fi that is available in some cities. Cell phone access to the Internet is more widespread.