Q1: Do you have quick access to your computer and have you got Microsoft Excel, also you know how to use the program?
Q2: When you need to write something down or make a calculation do you have a specific time limit to do it in?
Q3: Is there any risk of personal information being copied? If yes, would you need backup systems?
Q4: What is the biggest difficulty that you are facing at the moment?
Q5: What is another problem that the Company is facing?
Q6: Are there any other problems that the Company is facing?
Q7: Are there any other problems that the Company is facing?
Q8: Where are your main expenditures and incomes coming from?
Questionnaire to staff of Company:
After having a one to one interview with the owner of the Company I thought it would be a good idea to ask these same questions to the other three members of staff. So I produced three questionnaires with a choice of answers so I would not need to bother the busy staff members. Here is the outcome of the questionnaire:
Q1: Do you have quick access to your Company computer?
Q2: Have you got access to Microsoft Excel?
Q3: Do you know how to use Microsoft Excel?
Q4: When you need to write something down or make a calculation do you have a specific time limit to do it in?
Q5: Is there any risk of personal information being copied?
Q6: If yes to Q5, would you need backup systems?
Q4: What is the biggest difficulty that you are facing at the moment?
Q4: Where do you think the income and expenditure in the Company is coming/going from?
………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Copy of existing documents:
When interviewing the owner of the Company he was showing me how the Company records data. With his kind approval he let me have copies of his documentations:
My personal observations of the system:
During my visit to the Company I was observing how the system was being run. From my personal opinion, I think it takes time for staff to use it. I am sure that in a few years time, they will find it easy to observe it and will find it easy to access it if a new computerised system is introduced.
Overall I think that the current system is keeping the Company from working at their full potential.
The Current System:
Since interviewing the user I have been able to fully understand how the current system for BABU MOTOR MAINTANANCE (BMM) works. They have been using the same system since the Company started eight years ago. When the Company first started off the current system was only supposed to being temporary until the Company grew but improving the system had never been got round to doing.
The current system:
- At the moment the Company stores all its financial information in file cabinets and it is all hand done. This had been alright before but now that the Company is expanding very quickly it no longer is an efficient way of keeping and producing information.
-
When the assistant of the Company needs to find out who has/hasn’t paid for there repairs, then he has to go through each of the customers file checking that they are up to date. This current process is done one a month, mainly because it takes so much time to do. It takes the assistant around 4-5 hours to check who has/hasn’t paid and to update the files. It is a very time consuming process.
- When the Company needs to find out how many customers they have, they have to count through all the files in the cabinet and make their judgement from there. When they need to find out statistical information such as average age, majority of sex and average time with Company. The assistant has to read through all of the files and calculate all of the information. Although statistics are not worked out on a regular basis they do need to be calculated and it takes a very long time to do.
- When the Company organises bookings for repairs. They haven’t been a huge success because they haven’t been well organised. The Company would just have people coming in and making as many bookings as they need and the Company do not keep a record of income and expenditure and the profit at the end. The Company doesn’t know how many bookings they would need to make and what price in order to keep the customers happy and make the greatest profit. When the assistant try’s to work out what the price of each repair should be, it takes him a very long time and is still not accurate. The Company does know how many bookings they need to make in order to break even and whether it will make a loss or profit. When organising a booking it takes the Company a very long time to work out all this data because it’s all done by hand.
- When the results from part orders are calculated, all the results are stored into a record book. This has proved to be fine until recently when the owner decided that the Company should have discounts for the top ten customers. The books have all the data in them but it is very hard to analyse the results. The assistant has been working out the ten top customers every week, for the past few weeks and he said it takes up a lot of time and is very difficult to calculate the top ten customers for the week. He thinks that it will be even harder to work out the top ten customers of the month and the year. The way that it is currently done is by manually adding up all the incomes of all the customers and then picking and then picking out the top ten. This is done at the same time as the expenditures are entered are into the book and it takes a very long time.
Statement of the Problem:
Sub-Problems:
Since interviewing the assistant of the Company, I have begun to break down the problems that the Company is having at the moment.
These are the problems that the Company is having:
The reasons why there is so much trouble doing all the above is because it is done by hand and it takes very long to produce and work out information.
These are some of the problems that the Company is facing. A system will be produced to meet all these problems and rectify them.
Objectives of the new system:
After speaking with the assistant of the Company, I have discussed and worked out what the Company wants. He has produced a list of functions, which he would like the system to entail.
The system should:
- Be efficient and much more organised than the current system.
- Be easy to use for everyone.
- Be able to search through customer’s files to find out different things.
- Be able to work out who has/hasn’t paid over each week.
- Be able to work out who is up to-date on their payments over the weeks.
-
Be able to work out how many customers the Company has.
- Be able to calculate the average age of the customers.
- Be able to calculate the majority of sex of the customers so that it can be used to encourage more people to use the Company.
- Be able to organise a booking as efficiently as possible.
- Be able to work out a parts list.
- Be able to work out how many bookings would have to be made to break even.
- Be able to change the price of the parts to see if the repair could be more successful. And to see it will encourage more customers.
- Be able produce graphs/tables, which could be shown to the owner.
- Be able to predict the profit before the actual repair has taken place.
- Be able to work out who the top ten customers for the Company are.
- Be able to calculate the best customer of the month/year.
- Be able to calculate the most unsuccessful customer over the month/year.
Performance Indicators:
In order to assess and implement the system a series of performance indicators need to be used:
- It should take no longer than 60 seconds, to find out who hasn’t paid their repair.
- It should take no longer than 60 seconds, to find out the top ten customers of the Company.
- It should be able to find the parts lists and prices.
- It should be able to work out the profit of a booking know mater what the price of the parts will be.
- It should be able to find out details about a specific customer within a few minutes.
- The system should be easy to use for any one even if they have very little knowledge of the system.
Hardware and Software availability:
BABU MOTOR MAINTANANCE (BMM) has a Pentium 4 Packard Bell computer with 256mb of RAM and 30 GB hard disk. Windows ME and Office 2000 are loaded on the PC. They also have a laser Hewlett Packard Printer to make copies of documents.
At the Company there is only one computer system and everything needs to stay only there and know where else. But all the files will need to fit on 3 ½ floppy disk for easy transportation between the Company computer and the assistants laptop computer.
The assistant’s laptop is Pentium 4 with 256Mb of RAM. It has Windows 98 and Office 2000. It is compatible with the Company computer and both the computers have a 3 ½ floppy disk.
Possible Solutions:
There are a few possible solutions for BABU MOTOR MAINTANANCE (BMM). These are:
- Using Microsoft Excel as the system.
- Using Lotus spreadsheets as the current system.
- Organising everything in a better way by filing it away in a more organised way and by hiring a part-time accountant.
- Using Microsoft Excel as the system for the Company would be very efficient for the Company the users of the system have the most knowledge of Microsoft Excel and they also have good knowledge of Office 2000. Excel can meet all of the needs of the Company and would be a very easy and efficient operating system. If they did have any problems in operating the system then Microsoft Excel is very well known and used world wide, so it would be easy to get the problem sorted. Excel is the most used Package around the world.
- Using Lotus spreadsheets as a system for the Company would also be very efficient. This software package can also carry out all the functions that the Company needs. The problems with Lotus spreadsheets are that the assistant has absolutely no knowledge of Lotus although the owner does know a few things about Lotus; he is not going to be the one that will be using it. So in order for this system to work efficiently the assistant would need to be trained or the Company would have to recruit a new member.
- Another possible solution is to hire a part-time accountant. He/she would organise everything in files and keep a track of record of customers’ payments and workout which is the best price to charge for repairs and to organise all the incomes and expenditure. This can result in huge problems for the Company. They would have higher costs if they recruited a new accountant. They would have to build a new room or office for the accountant.
All these solutions are reasonable but the best solution for the system would be to use the Microsoft Excel software package.
Justification of the chosen solution:
After discussion with the assistant of the Company, it has been decided that the best solution for the Company to take is by using the Microsoft Excel software package. The assistant felt that Excel would be most suitable because he knows it quite well; he knows that the features on it are very good. The features that he thinks that Excel has which will be very helpful to the day-to-day running of the Company are:
- “What if” scenarios
- Writing formulae
- Editing and formatting
- Using Functions
- Macros
- Filtering lists
- Creating charts
Although some of the other packages also have these functions the assistant feels most comfortable with the Excel software, mainly because he has had many lessons on Excel and because he does not know how the other systems work. He thinks that it would be a waste of time learning a different software package when the Company already has Excel installed and because many people know about Excel. The assistant said that it isn’t a wise idea to recruit a new member of staff because it could become quite costly and inefficient and the Company would not be able to afford it.
User’s Skill Level:
There will be two users of this system. They are the owner, Chagan Vadgama and the assistant, Tej Vadgama. The owner of the Company is computer-literate and he has good basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel. The day-to-day running will be organised by the assistant and he has good skills. He isn’t perfectly sure on the advanced features of Excel but he knows how to create formulas.