RMControls : Senior Project

Team

• Jonathan Malanche : jmalanch@yahoo.com
• James Zucchi : zuke71@hotmail.com

Advisor

• Barry Floyd : bfloyd@calpoly.edu

Background

RM Controls Inc. was founded in 1985 to satisfy a need for representatives in the process control industries of California. RM Controls currently employs 14 people, including 10 salesmen who serve regions throughout California. Their product line consists of products from numerous manufacturers and each product serves a unique purpose in multiple industries. An example of a popular product is the pressure transmitter, manufactured by Yokogawa Corporation of America. This uniquely configured product can provide value to multiple industries such as refining, brewing, and others requiring gas or liquid pressure monitoring. RM Controls currently represents 20 manufacturers and software companies based in California, Nevada, and Hawaii. In 2001, the senior project team created a static web site for RM Controls. The company was very pleased with the end result, and agreed when we offered to upgrade their site to include dynamic content as our senior project...

Proposal

To better serve RM Controls Inc. growing customer base, it has become necessary to provide them an easy to use, content driven website. Customers must be able to seek out documentation for particular products as well as request additional information from an automated system. For marketing purposes RM Controls must be able to monitor web statistics and relate these statistics to individual customers. Due to the changing nature of distributor relationships, as well as employee turnover, it has become necessary to create a database to store all related information for easy management through a web interface.

Project Information

• Project Diary
• Function List
• Preliminary Load Test Results
• Logical Data Flow Diagrams
  • Context Level Diagram
  • Level 0 Diagram
• Entity Relationship Diagram
• User Documentation
• Screen Captures
• Satisfaction Letter From Company President

General Requirements

This site must provide technical white papers related to the diverse product base. Detail and vendor information must also be provided to the customer. To keep content dynamic and up to date it is necessary to create a relational backend. This site must include the following:

• Dynamic products page. This page must include product detail, images,vendor information, and all technical papers. Customer should be able to select product and request additional information from the appropriate salesman.
• Dynamic Home page. This page must contain the latest news and links, which will be easily updated by the Webmaster. Old news must be archived in an effective manner. Professional graphics must be implemented.
• Content management console. Only accessible by the administrator, this page will contain the ability to alter all database content thus affecting the overall appearance of the site. The admin will be able to add, remove, and edit: products, vendors, employees, information, links, and technical papers.
• Customer tracking system. This component will log anonymous users during their visit to RMCWeb. Utilizing domain lookup and IP logging, the user relationship will be established once a user requests more information about a product. This information will be displayed via the management console and will provide customer information that may eventually lead to a salesman contacting the customer.

Technologies used

• N-tier structure
• Business components via COM
• Console via thin client ASP
• Relational DB
• Microsoft IIS 4.0
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

To view this site

• The public site is located here
• The mangement console is now a live secure site.

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