· Changes and corrections can be performed at the touch of a button.
· Validation check minimises the chance of any errors.
Disadvantages
· The hardware and software can be very expensive.
· Employees will need to be trained regarding usage of the computer.
· If the computer crashes or there is a power cut, access to data in the computer is lost.
Introduction
The company currently files all the information about the houses that are for sale or rent. They are all organised by the area that they are in. If any customer inquires about buying a house but doesn’t specify the are but sets other criteria then all the files have to be studied to find a house meeting the criteria set. If information about the area is given then it is a bit easier because only houses in that area have to be searched. Searching for the right houses can take hours because a lot of files have to be searched. House prices are constantly changing and it isn’t possible for the company to manually change the prices for each house. When inquires for a house which has to be between a certain price range is made, many houses cannot be made available because the current price hasn’t been updated and the latest price may be out of range. The company is losing a lot of business because it takes a long time to find the right properties for the buyers, the company also needs to employ many extra staff because excessive manual work is required.
Analysis
This is my interview with the owner of ‘Folly’s agents’
How long have you had your own business for?
Along with my brothers I have been running this business for 18 years now.
What does your business involve?
We collect information of properties that are for sale and when enquiries are made for properties, we search for the properties satisfying the criteria set.
How do you keep a record of the properties, and how do you change the information?
All the information is written on paper and is put into cabinets. The filing cabinets are sorted according to different areas, if any information needs to be changed then one of the staff will have to do it manually.
What do you do when you receive an inquiry for properties?
This depends on whether the area has been specified by the customer, if it has then we find the properties in that area with the required criteria. If the area hasn’t been specified then all the areas have to be looked at to find a property matching that specification. This can take a lot of time and the company is losing out, we are losing customers because our service isn’t up to standard and at the same time I have to pay the staff for all the manual work they have to carry out.
What advantages do you think the system will have?
The system will be very useful to my company because I will be able to find properties matching the set criteria very easily, the information will be up to date because it is easy to update. This means that time will be saved and the customer will hopefully be satisfied. At the moment I am paying my staff for doing a small task which takes a long time, but with this system their work will be simple and I will save money.
What disadvantages do you think the system will have?As far as I can see there are no disadvantages in using this system that isn’t also a disadvantage in our current system. I am looking forward to using a computer based system.
Specification
What must the new system be able to do?
The data will need to be stored in an organised way - using tables to present the data in a clear way i.e. a database could do this.
The system would need to be user friendly - simple instructions could be provided so that everyone could use it easily and effectively.
The data should be put under suitable field names such as: -
ID number- this gives each customer an ID, which when searching for a certain customer, the owner can just search for his ID number and the customer’s details will appear on the screen.
Street name- The name of the street, this is usually text
House/Flat number- The number of the property, this is numerical
Postcode - The postcode is a mixture of numbers and text, but they are set out in a particular order, so that will have to be taken account of.
Town/City- The area where the house is, this is set out in text.
Contact name - The name of the person who needs to be contacted regarding the property, this is usually the owner. This will be in text.
Telephone Number- The telephone number of the owner, this is numerical but is in a particular order.
Type of property - This will be a drop down menu and show whether the property is a semi-detached house, detached house, flat etc.
Number of bedrooms - The number of bedrooms the house contains. This is numerical. Must have a range to help avoid data entry errors.
Size of master bedroom (square m)- The size of the main bedroom, the size of other bedrooms isn’t considered important. The answer should be numerical.
Size of living room (square m)- The size of the main room, this should be numerical.
Size of garden (square m)- The size of the garden (if any), this is numerical.
Type of sale- A drop down menu asking whether the property is for rent, lease or freehold sale. The owner could also be considering all options so this section doesn’t always have to be filled.
Rent per week - The asking rent per week, this doesn’t have to be filled if the property is for sale. This is numerical.
Price- The price of the house, this also doesn’t need to be completed if the house is only for rent. This has to be numerical.
Conditions/Additional information - If there are any conditions or restrictions regarding the property then they can be put here. For example if the house is on lease then a brief outline of the conditions should be put here. The information here can be a mix of text and numbers.
