Consideration of Alternative Solutions
People could phone up the office and request a prospectus be sent to them. A brochure would have to made. The brochure would have to be appealing to the eye and informative. It would be printed, and sent off. Desktop publishing would have to be used.
The difficulties of this system is that the phones will not be picked up after Mr Shah and Mr Lester and the employees have left the office. Also, a graphics computer, or graphics package will need to be used, and a colour LaserJet printer would also need to be bought, and these items can be very expensive. The cost of postage may be quite a lot, if foreign-based companies would like to see the brochure.
They could put all the information on the internet. A website manufactured in FrontPage would have to be used. An internet site has already been made for the company, but I think the internet site is dull and not many people would be convinced to use the expertise of Langmeads & Charlesworth.
A presentation package would be very useful, because is not bland, and can produce information in an interactive environment. This has many features. Text and animations can be well presented in different styles. Digitalised video clips could be used to show the people at work. Sound could be used to narrate things. This would certainly catch the attention of people, and has a very strong chance of attracting them to Langmeads & Charlesworth. Hyperlinks can also be used to take people to different internet sites, or other places in the presentation.
Another way is to use an overhead projector to have a presentation. A date can be set each month, where representatives of different companies come to Langmeads and Charlesworth, and view a show done with overhead transparencies.
The best way to solve the problem of Mr Lester and Mr Shah will be to set up a new system using a computer. I have decided to use a computer because:
- Computers can store large amounts of data in a small space.
- There is already a range of computers that can be used (there are some at the office in which there is Office 2000 where there are a range application packages)
I have decided to do this using an application package because:
- Application packages can be changed and customised to suit the needs of the user
- I have learned about different application packages.
After careful consideration of the various methods, the presentation package would be the best way of solving the information handling problems of Langmeads and Charlesworth. This is because it provides an excellent variety of features, and is easily editable by Mr Shah and Mr Lester. The presentation package has many features. It can loop over and over again. It can be made interactive with the use of buttons and hyperlinks to go to either a website or another page. Video clips can be added to the show. This is a great way of showing reality.
User Requirements
After speaking with Mr Lester and Mr Shah, it was concluded that these items will be compulsory on the system.
-
The Langmeads and Charlesworth logo must be on the 1st slide.
- The system must be user friendly; this means that a clear set of buttons and hyperlinks must be used in order to navigate the user between slides, and sometimes to an e-mail address or an internet site. The buttons should include one that that takes the user to the start of the presentation, one that takes the user to the next page and one that takes the user to the previous page.
- Headings of each slide shall stand out, in order to catch attention. They may be constructed using graphical text, such as WordArt. They can also have backgrounds, if necessary.
- Each slide must contain no more than 30 words.
- The text in each slide must be font size 32 or higher. This is so that anyone in the room can read the text
- Each slide must have colour
- The system must include pictures and/or video clips to see how the office is run
Analyse
Current Resources
Because Langmeads and Charlesworth is an accountancy firm with 2 owners and employs 6, they will obviously have ICT resources. There are 8 PCs all connected in a network
5 of these computers are exactly the same. They have:
- A Pentium III 750MHz Processor
- Windows 98 operating system
- 32 MB of RAM
- A 10Gb hard disk with 4.6Gb of free space
- A floppy disk drive and a CD-ROM Drive
- It has MS Office 2000 Standard. This has Word 2000 and Excel 2000, but does not have PowerPoint
- 1 USB port Hub
The other three are better computers. They have
- A Pentium 4 one GHz Processor
- Windows XP operating system
- 64Mb of RAM
- A 40Gb hard disk with 27.5Gb of free space
- A floppy disk drive, a CD-Rom drive, an a DVD drive
- The software package is Windows XP Professional. This has PowerPoint 2000, Word 2002, and a Microsoft Works Suite 2001 package, which contain other software
- Broadband internet
Choice of Software
I have already mentioned that I will use presentation software to make a slideshow. I
