Both these computers are suitable for design of the system and for using the system because they can do basic tasks at a reasonable speed. The speed of my computer is not important because I will only be designing the system but the company will be using their computer to put the system into practice. If the firm has a computer of good speed it will mean the users time will not be wasted waiting for tasks to take place and also means that the company saves time and also money.
Here is some Hardware
- Hewlett Packard DeskJet 610C inkjet printer
- Produces good quality output.
- Very appropriate for printing artwork and coloured photographs and pictures.
- Provides a high resolution output
- Very quiet
[I would also suggest a Epson Stylus C20UX laser printer because is a non-impact stage printer. Te laser printer produces an excellent quality and is quiet.]
- It has an option for printing black and white or coloured documents.
- Very useful for producing notices, exam papers, and forms etc. because it can produce at a large scale.
- View Sonic coloured monitor
- Produces coloured screen output
- Can produce coloured error/ warning messages alerting the user that an error has occurred.
- Displays options at the top of the screen [usually]
- Have the appropriate keys for typing. Ex.- the alphabetical keys
- Has the certain function keys in front of you rather than choose it from the screen. Ex.- cursor keys, control keys etc.
- Samsung Mouse [with a scroll]
- A pointing device that helps a user navigates through a graphical user interface.
- Allows the user to select the options from a menu rather than using a keyboard, which takes a longer time since you have to look at the keys, see which one you’re pressing etc. Using a mouse, you can look at the screen and choose the option you want at the same time.
- To position the cursor when editing, deleting etc.
- To select the object to be moved, copied etc.
- The scroll lets you scroll up and down the screen rather than use the scroll in the right-hand side of the screen.
- So that I can add new software that will help the new system
- So that I can put some of the data into a CD as a backing store.
- ScanJet 4670 digital flatbed scanner.
- It can scan photos, documents, books etc.
- Its unique, ultra thin design allows the scanner to sit vertically and its easel to save space.
- Scan and size item, even negatives and slides, all with photo-quality results at 2400dpi optical resolution and 48-bit colour.
If there is an error, it can make a sound that will alert the user that an error has occurred.
INTERVIEW
I studied the company where my mom works for, so that I could find out how the business was structured. I found out that does what and how the finances are recorded. The owner explained how he runs his business.
Interview with the Owner of the business
How long has this business been operating?
We’re almost on our 5th year already – to be exact, on March 8, 2004.
What is the nature of your business?
Our company is an event management company. Its main activities include organizing concerts, fashion shows, product launches, sports events, creative designing, corporate functions and party series. To name some, PRiMEVENTURE organized musical events / concerts (4), battle of the bands competition for 2 consecutive years, about 3 fashion shows, and a various product launches and party series. PRiMEVENTURE is currently organizing a sport event (basketball) held at the Al Wasl Stadium every Friday and simultaneously, working on its upcoming Indian Concert featuring one of the fastest keyboardist in the world, Adnan Sami.
Its source of income are generated from the different projects that it organizes or produces. Revenues are derived from sponsorships, tickets sales, professional fees, etc.
How do you record your finances, what is involved and how long does it take?
Our finances and generally recorded electronically – meaning, very much dependent on our computers, copiers, scanners, networking system. Microsoft office plays a very vital role in our day-to-day office routine. From word to excel to powerpoint to Microsoft outlook … all these are widely used.
Our standard office procedure entails conceptualization of events. Then comes the issuance of proposals & quotations. If both parties come to a mutual agreement, a contract is executed and then signed. Corresponding invoice are issued then as a mode of billing. After payment has been done, we issue the necessary official receipts.
Proper documentation is needed to ensure accurate and proper recording of data for our financial statements. With the existence of computerization, calculations, recording and communicating was made easy for everyone.
What advantages and disadvantages do you think a computer system has?
The computer is accurate and will save me a lot of time but I am worried about the cost of a PC and software needed to run my daily work routine. Also, if anything happens to the computer all my files will be destroyed. Everyday, new innovations are being discovered and we should keep track of it.
What must the new system be able to do?
The new system must make things a lot easier for us. The information we need to be displayed in an organized way so that it is user friendly and the user can access the data easily. For this the information needs to be shown in some sort of order, i.e. it needs to be shown in rows and columns, by names, companies, and the like. The system must be able to save the information so that progress and any changes made can be tracked.
How will the new system perform?
The new system needs to be accurate, as it will perform important calculations. If any mistakes are made then overall profit/loss can become incorrect. It also has to perform quickly, when any of the data is changed, automatically all relevant data should change.
SYSTEM PLANS
Spreadsheet no. 1 – Total cost of models & event staff
- Employee
- Cost of each
- No. of people
- No. of days
- Total
Purpose
To be able to establish number of models needed to execute the fashion show and each models will have a corresponding dresser. All other dressers/helpers will be used for other jobs like ironing, or, serve as runners. If number of models plus dressers and helpers are identified, we assign corresponding fees to get total cost needed for this manpower expense.
Formulae
-
For the “Total Fees” → =B2*C2
-
For the “total cost for 2 days” → =D2*E2
Validation like the table lookup can be used to ensure that the numerical characters are keyed from the given list. A length check can also be used to see if the right number of characters is entered. A range check can be used to see that it is within the range of possible values. This worksheet is a printed based output.
Spreadsheet No. 2 –Total cost of Venue & F & B
- Expenses
- No. of people
- Day 1
- Day 2
- Total Cost
Purpose
This worksheet contains information on the expenses made for the venue and food and beverage expense
Formulae
-
For the “Total cost of the venue” → =Sum( B3 + C3 )
-
For the “ Total cost of the F & B” → =Sum( B4 + C4 )
I will also use SUMIF feature to calculate the total expenses of the event. The total expenses of each day can be shown in graphs. A validation like range check can be used to ensure that numerical characters are programmed automatically. A table lookup can be used to see if the data entered is from the given list. This worksheet is a printed based output.
Spreadsheet No.3 – Total Sponsorship Revenue
Purpose
This worksheet shows total sponsorship revenue raised for the fashion show.
Formulae
-
For the “Total” → =Sum(B2:B6)
Validation like the table lookup can be used to ensure that the numerical characters are keyed from the given list. A length check can also be used to see if the right number of characters is entered. A range check can be used to see that it is within the range of possible values. This worksheet is a printed based output.
Spreadsheet No.4 – total ticket sales
- -------
- Cost of ticket
- No. of people
- Total Cost
Purpose
This worksheet shows how many people bought tickets in day 1 and how many bought in day 2 where tickets are being sold at dhs.125. This will show total tickets sales.
Formulae
-
For the “Total Cost” → =B2*C2
-
For the “Total Ticket Sales” → =(D2:D3)
Validation like the table lookup can be used to ensure that the numerical characters are keyed from the given list. A length check can also be used to see if the right number of characters is entered. A range check can be used to see that it is within the range of possible values. This worksheet is a printed based output.
Spreadsheet No.5 – profit
Purpose
This worksheet contains the final transactions. It tells us whether the company made any profits.
Formulae
-
For the “total” → =B1*B2
-
For the “net Profit” → =B4-B5
I can also use the function VLOOKUP to copy all the previous amounts of both revenue and expenses. Validation like the table lookup can be used to ensure that the numerical characters are keyed from the given list. A length check can also be used to see if the right number of characters is entered. A range check can be used to see that it is within the range of possible values. This worksheet is a printed based output.
DATA VALIDATION
For Validation you can also use IF statements which will prompt you if there is the data entered goes beyond what you have specified. You can for example say that the data should not exceed stock level and if it exceeds stock level to write error so that you are aware. For this you can do many checks which will minimize the chance of any mistakes. One that I will use is the range check which is =IF(G2>STOCK!C3<,"OK","ERROR") In this the computer looks at G2 and looks if it is more than the stock in STOCK!C3, if it is then "ok" will be displayed and if not then "error" will be displayed.
Data Verification
Data Verification is checking that what is on the invoice is the same as what has been entered onto the system. Re-checking that the correct data has been entered can do this. You can also get someone else to re-type the information and the computer will check the two against each other. If the data is identical then it will be processed for further calculations and if not then you are told to check it. This can be expensive as two people have to type the information and it takes much longer. This method will be both time consuming and money consuming but proof reading will be useful if done by the same person.
Verification is when a human, through proofreading, checks data. You can do this in several ways:
- Proof read the work on the monitor or on a print out
- Check work on a monitor/print out with a manual copy
- Get somebody else to check the work for you.
Two people typing in the same data, and if the data is the same it is accepted for processing. The only drawback to this is the unlikely event that the two people actually make the same mistake, and the wrong data is inputted.
The advantages of verification are that data is less likely to be inaccurate. For many companies such as banks, data being accurate is crucial.
However, it does take time to check all the data, and in cases such as having two people entering the data, this is using another person that could be doing other more important work, and two wages need to be paid which would lose money.
Validation can be used in a database, where you set up the fields in a database so that only certain information can be entered. It's a check by the actual computer program and makes sure that the data is allowable.
There are many different checks that can be performed:
This check will make sure that the correct characters are entered into the computer.
Where the length of the word that has been entered is checked, and if this is incorrect an error message is displayed. For example when filling in a form, if the question "what sex are you" was asked, there are only two possible answers, male or female, so we know that the maximum number of letters that could be entered into this field would be 6.
You can perform this check on number, to make sure that they are within a certain range. For example, upon entering peoples ages, there are not likely to be any people older than 130, so you could set it up so that this anything higher than this number could not be inputted.
When a code is entered that checks if there is actually something in the field. This would be used in a field which must have some data entered into it, such as a primary key field which would define each entry into the database.
This only allows certain data to be entered. For example, "Title." We know that there are only a certain amount of titles which could be entered, Mr, Mrs, Miss, etc. So we could enter them all into the computer, and if anything else was entered an error message would be displayed and the data could not be entered.
The advantages of validation:
- There is less chance of making typing errors as the computer checks all your data for you, and you do not have to look through the document so carefully for errors, therefore this is a timesaver.
BACK-UP PLAN
Data needs to be backed up regularly. This is so that if the data is ever lost due to a virus, or accidental deletion, loss or corruption, it can easily be replaced. This would save a lot of time in re-producing all of the lost data, and if data were backed up every evening then it would only be one days work maximum that would ever be lost in the event of one of the above happening.
Even if your PC is password protected it can still be hacked, and files lost this way as many programs make this process very easy.
You can help to keep your data safer by backing up data every time you save a piece of work. You can back up data onto either floppy discs or if you have a CD writer, onto CDs. If you back up onto re-writeable CDs then you can overwrite these backups once you add to your work.
Physical safeguards
Some of the following physical safeguards could be used to look after data:
- Files locked away/discs kept in a locked room.
- Write protect floppy discs, this involves moving a small tab so that data cannot be written onto the disc.
- The small tab that is on tape cartridges can be snapped off which will prevent data from being over written.
- The computer could be password protected so that nobody without the correct password would be able to use the computer
- Peripherals such as the mouse or the keyboard could be removed, which would prevent anybody from using the machine unless they had spares with them, which would be unlikely.
Safeguarding the network
An organization could safeguard its network from who used it by:
These could be used to stop data coming into and going out of the network. Therefore hackers would not be able to gain access to the network, as the firewall would stop them.
- Give every person that is going to use the network a unique username and password. Then anybody that didn't know the passwords would be unable to gain entry to the network. Also the server administration could allow different people access to different things throughout the network to limit and track damage that could be done.
Passwords
Passwords are used to limit that can gain access to a computer. For a password to be effective it would have to be changed regularly and be difficult for another person to guess. However there are programs that can guess passwords very quickly through word lists that are programmed into them. To combat this the number of attempts there can be at entering the password can be limited.
For example, on the school network each pupil has a separate folder with a unique username and their own password. If anybody tries to gain unauthorized access to a folder placed on the network they would first need to know a username, and a password that goes with it, finding these could be a difficult task.
SECURITY OF DATA
Security of data involves the protection of data from anything that could destroy it, or introduce errors to it, as this may corrupt data.
Things such as hazards, for example fires and floods, or another person gaining access to the data and damaging it, can destroy data.
The security of data is very important, as many people store extremely important documents on their computers, for example bank or health records which may contain personal and confidential information about a person, which when discovered could cause major problems. If somebody were to discover another persons bank details through data being insecure, money could be taken from their account, which would cause confusion and disruption for everybody. Data does need to be kept secure, and there are many ways to do this, for example by backing up data or putting passwords on your files.
Hackers and viruses
Hacking is gaining access to a computer system without authority, usually to cause some damage to the system, or to gain information that would not usually be available to the general public. People that do this could delete or corrupt data, and copy it for themselves to use for their own reasons. Hackers are the people that attempt to do this. Hackers once gaining entry to a system are presented with unlimited options as to how they could damage the system. They could simply copy files, delete them, or bring down the entire system. Protecting a system against hackers has become an extremely important subject, since there is no end to the damage that can be done.
A virus is a program which when ran would usually attempt to disrupt the use of your computer in some way. Viruses can be written to do many things, from displaying messages on your computer screen to allowing another person unauthorized access to your computer to deleting files from your computer.
Nowadays, a very common way of spreading viruses is through the Internet. People often send viruses through e-mail, which unsuspecting people then open and damage is caused to their computer. Many viruses sent through e-mail now have the ability to forward themselves to everybody in the recipients address book, meaning they spread more quickly and to a larger amount of people. A virus that has been in the news fairly recently was the "lovebug" virus, spread through e-mail it would copy and forward itself to every person in every recipients address book before causing some damage the computer.
Protection from hackers and viruses
There are a large number of ways in that an organization can be protected from hackers and viruses:
- Using anti virus software - There are a lot of different anti virus programs available, which when loaded onto your computer can scan the memory and discs for any viruses that could be potentially harmful to your computer. The software would then remove any viruses found. However it is important to regularly update your virus software, as new viruses are being discovered all the time which old pieces of software may not be programmed to check for.
- Stopping people downloading files/placing files from discs onto the hard drive of the computer - This would be a very effective way of preventing viruses, as no unauthorized or potentially damaging software would be allowed onto the computer, as long as people did keep to the rules.
- Backing up the system daily - This wouldn't necessarily stop viruses within the system, but in the event of the system being destroyed then it would be easy to quickly replace everything that has been lost as it would be backed up on discs.
- Have one stand alone PC where discs can be checked for viruses, therefore if there happens to be a virus on the disc it will only affect the one PC and not bring a whole network down.
- Using user names and passwords that are unique. Therefore nobody would be able to access the system without authorization since they would not know these pieces of information.
-
Setting up a firewall on the system. This is a device that would monitor the ports of your computer and block unauthorized access. It can keep track of all data that enters or leaves your network, and even stop this data from doing so, therefore if you did get a virus on your computer you would have monitored when it was received and where it came from.
ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF OUTPUTS
In Microsoft Excel we can generate different types of:
- Reports in Data, Chart and Graph
Example of the Company’s yearly profits
By: Data
By: Chart/ Graph
