An I.T. System for Estate Agents

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Introduction 1

Specification 1

Analysis 2

Design 3

Input 3

Storing 3

Processing 3

Output 3

Testing 3

Evaluation 3

Introduction

I am going to be designing a system that will be used by estate agents. This system is being created so that it will make the estate agents job a lot easier and more organised. At the moment estates agents are using a paper-based system but I am going to change this to a computerised system as I think it will have more advantages for them.

Estate agents have many different jobs, which they have to carry out but the way in which they are organised is not very efficient and I have found a few problems that need to be solved within the way that they are currently working. The main problem that I have found with the way that estate agents work is that the system that they are currently using is a paper based system, to solve this problem what I am going to do is design them a new system that will be created on computer. This will hopefully help them in a great deal and improve their way and quality of working. The different jobs that this system will help he estate agents to do is a number of different things including:

* Searching for houses in certain areas and price ranges

* Storing details on houses and customers

* Collecting data

* Mail merging letters to customers

* Contacting solicitors through email

* Giving quotes

* Sorting mortgages and many more.

Specification

The new system that is being created for estate agents is going to improve their way of working by making them more organised so their jobs are quicker and easier for them to do. I have looked at the existing paper based system that the estate agents are currently using in detail and found all the problems that I think are necessary to change and also found solutions that I think will work appropriately. The new improved system is being created to enable the estate agents to be more organised and to work faster and easier.

Estate agents have many different jobs, which they have to carry out, these jobs need to be as easy as possible to do, so as much work as possible can be done.

The system that I am creating will allow the estate agents to do the following jobs easier and more efficiently:

* To store details on the houses for sale and the houses that have been sold.

* To store details on vendors and buyers

* To search for houses in a certain area

* To search for houses in a certain price range

* To mail merge letters to customers

* Create enquiry forms

* Input various information

* Access information

* Contact vendors

Below I have produced a table that shows all of the existing problems that I have found with the current system and the solutions that will improve the system.

Problems

Solution

All house records are kept on paper, making searching difficult and slow.

Create a database, which will store all information on houses.

All purchasers' records are kept on paper, making letter writing slow.

Create a database to keep details on customers. When writing letters use mail merge.

Matching suitable houses to customers is a difficult, long, boring job.

Create queries combined between two databases, which will automatically select houses fitting to what the customer wants.

Recording information from data capture forms is time consuming.

Create a database to enter all information from forms into.

The computer is not being used enough, it is only being used as a word processor.

The computer needs to be used for much more, storing information, mail merging letters etc.

Needs some one to do all minimal jobs including writing letters, finding records etc, can waste time.

By using the computer it will save time as it will be much easier and quicker to mail merge letters and find records.

Lots of papers are easily lost or misplaced.

A copy of everything can easily be made and put onto disk so that nothing is ever lost.

Only one person can use the documents at any one time.

Everyone can have all information stored onto their own computer so everyone can use the information whenever they need to.

Analysis

After looking at the existing system that the estate agents have been using for many years and I have identified the problems that need to be looked into in some detail and suggested suitable problems that I think will make sure that these problems do not stop the estate agents from getting a new improved way of working.
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The main problem that I have found with the system is that it is a paper-based system and only the minimal things are done on computer. The reason why I have identified this as the main problem is because I have found many disadvantages that this type of system has and when looking into a computerised system I know that this type of system will have many more advantages for estate agents. The main problem with this system is that it is very time consuming and wastes a lot of time.

The main solution that I have ...

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