Interview:
- What are the enquiries you offer to customer?
We offer our customer all jobs we do. What we do for customers are their pictures or a design transferred on a object to do this we need to print the information out. The objects that we transfer information on are. Pens, key rings, badges, fridge magnets, mugs, T-shirts, banners, dairies and lots more
- When does the customer pay for the job and what payment styles do you accept?
When enquiries are made, the customer as to pay 50% of the balance before the job gets worked on. So try we make them pay 50% on the day of order. And the rest of the 50% is paid when the customer picks up the job. We accept all types of payment. We take cards payment as well and cheques. But if a customer was to pay in he wouldn’t be able to get his/her job until the bank as verified that there is enough money in the account.
- How long does the business give their customers before job is being picking up?
When a job is being ordered, a time limit is giving to the customer to tell them when to come and pick up their job. The time limit varies. It depends on hw much job your doing and what type of job some job takes a week some takes 2 weeks. Customers could get their job quicker than the time giving by the company but a rush fee would need to be paid. E.g. if the customer want a job that is meant to take a week and the customer needs it in three days, the business could rush the job but a 20% of the normal balance would be added on the balance as rush fee.
- How long does the business tell their customers to come and prove check the job before it is done?
When a customer orders for a job, before the customer goes we tell them what time they should come back and check their work that all the details are right and that there is no wrong information in the job. And we tell them to sign to prove that they accepted all that was in the job so that when the job is done, there would be no arguments about mistakes.
- What job does most customers prefers to do?
Most customers that come to print ministry, are always ordering for key rings and also for leaflet to be printed out. Key rings are always the most orders. At the end of each week there is often about 500 key rings order that needs to be done. The leaflets are also often a lot because different companies are always bring out new offers and when they do this they need to put it in a leaflet or brochure so they come to us and we design it for them and print it out.
Analysis Interview
This information would help me to know what the company is lacking, and it would help me to know what to design for the business and what they need to help them ICT wise.
I would need to create a page that shows all what the business offers to their customers. So that, when a customer comes to the company for an enquiry, these could be printed out and handed to them to let see all what the business offers.
At the bottom of the print out, there would be a text telling the customers that they have to pay 50% of the balance.
I would also need another message that would show the customers that they would be given a 2week time to come and prove read their job.
Input, Output and Processing of the current system
Input
Customer details -name, address, whether or not they want to be added to a mailing list.
Product details –description of the order and its price amount required.
VAT –the percentage rate
Date- the date of order
Discount rates
Collect 50% of the balance on day of order
Confirmation of news of product information and charges
Processing
Designing the order
Asking customer to prove read the job and asks for their satisfaction
Calculating of invoices to include:
Totalling of products
VAT
Discount
Charge for product information
Filtering of customer details to select those who wish to be added to a mailing list.
Output
Printing out the job to get transferred on to the customer’s choice of order
Transfer the printed order on the specific job
Customer picks job on date given and pays the rest of the 50% of the balance
Itemised invoice
Customer records
Product information
Mailing list
Problems with current system
The company does not have a system. The recordings of their transactions are all done paper based. This is where the problem is. Their transactions are done on papers. And they are a high chance that they get information wrong at times. The company does not record its transaction on pc. The receipts that are issued are not saved on a computer they are just on the manual book. Customers complain sometimes about their balance. When customers lost their receipts and do not know how much their balance is they argue with the company. And the company cannot show them that it has being saved on pc to prove that they have the right information. This leads to customers being under or over charge and then of course to the daily taking being compromised.
An additional to ineffiency in the current system is that the business those not use ICT when recording data. The only data the company has is their computer is their regular customer’s name and telephone numbers.
Their day-to-day customer’s details are left in the purchase order.
Another problem is that customers often ask for discount when they order a job. And the company has no written detail to show that they only give discounts.
When a certain amount of job is done so they tend to lose some money there.
The manager (my Uncle) does all the calculations of the transactions of the business. He tend to use is free time to calculate it. Most of the time this is done every Friday night. He could have cut this additional work by having a system that does this for him on a computer and does it accurately.
How the Current System Works
When customer’s comes to order they are given an order form to fill. The customer needs to fill all the information in the form, before the business could start working on it. This form tells the company the customer’s details and the description of the job the customer wants. It tells the company the Customer’s name and address, the customer’s phone number. After this form is filled, the customer needs to pay 50% of the balance on the day of order. If it could not be paid, the order form would be kept in a folder until the customer brings 50% of the balance fee, then the job could starts to get worked on. There are also told to come and prove read their job in after 5 working days. They call the customers to come and prove read their job and then sign that it is what they asked for. This is done because the business has gone throw some problem when customer’s job has been transferred to their item e.g. mugs and mostly when there are in a large quantity like 250. Some times the name of the customers is wrong or a spelling checks so we always get customers sign that the job is ready for transferring.
The jobs are then printed out on a transfer paper and then transferred to the items. The day the customer come to prove-reads the job he is told the day he should come to pick up is job. When the customer is picking up the job, they now have to pay the rest of the balance 50%. And that is the end of the transaction. That’s how the business those transaction. And all transaction is not record.
OBJECTIVES OF THE NEW SYSTEM
Print Ministry’s new system would have the following:
- All their enquiries would be on their PC
- When enquires are made the customer details would be record on the pc at the same time
- Their invoices would be issued on the computer.
- The system would automatically calculate each customer’s invoice when the order is made.
- The system would calculate the customers 50% that has to be paid on the day of order
- Would tell them how much profit they have made each month first day of the month
- Easy to look up how much profit and loss the business is going through
- Generate receipts automatically
- Print out a copy of an order a customer makes when ordered. This would be for the designers to work on.
