Iram Ahmad                 12JBL

        

Background Information

Sapori is an independent business specializing in the production of ready to eat meals. It is based in the South West of London. The shop was built in 2005 and has been running for 3 years. The business involves the production and distribution of variety of foods, which mostly specialize in Italian. The business currently has 4 staff running and is managed by Mr. Kabir. When a customer makes an order by phone, the staff member then writes down the order on a piece of paper which is then placed in a filling cabinet. The order is then sent of to the chef, and is then prepared. Once an order has been made a receipt is made and both products and receipt are delivered to the customer. The receipt is made on an a4 plain paper.

Problem Statement

Mr. Kabir has many problems with his current system. The main problem is that it is manual. By using a manual system Mr. Kabir’s order forms get lost occasionally which means he wastes time searching and also customers are not receiving their food. Sometimes he writes down orders incorrectly, which results in loss of customers. Mr. Kabir also finds it very difficult to make quick reference to his customer’s details. The customer details are stored on the order form and the order forms are filed. He then finds it difficult to locate a specific customer details. Based on his manual file-based system of operation, he writes his receipts himself by hand. This result in inaccuracy in his records, because there is often an error in the calculation, therefore an incorrect receipt would be served out to his customers and he will then lose business. This can be seen as very unprofessional. Moreover in his manual system there is little security protection, hence the system is very venerable.

Mr Kabir has asked me to try to solve his problems.

I will create a computerized system that would allow Mr. Kabir to create professional order forms, to store information about current customers and also to produce receipts for the food ordered. This system will perform calculations so that less human errors occur. This will increase accuracy and will hopefully increase Mr. Kabir’s profit. A computerized system will also make it easier to see daily sales and to recognize which food is most popular. Moreover he will be able to hold all his customers details, product details, and all the orders been made by his customers. He can easily update his customer’s profile/details; he can easily delete or add a new customer into the system without problems. However this solution is quite expensive and training may also be required for current employees.

Moreover using an ICT solution will be a suitable way of solving this problem because it is quicker, easier and more accurate to use. Data can be saved on the computer; this allows you to print lost data easily. You can keep large amounts of information in a small place. Searching for records will be quick and fewer staff will be needed to look after the system. A computerized system would save time, would look far more presentable than a paper based one and be more accurate. A paper based system is time consuming and errors can be made easily.  Duplicates of mistakes on a hand written system are likely and the system would have to be rewritten, which will waste time. Files can also be password protected so the there is less chance for fraud.

Interview with my end user

Before creating the system I determined to interview the end user to expand my understanding of his current system and identify the user needs so, I can provide the end user with clear documentation of the user requirement specification and it will also, enable me to create the appropriate system for my end user. I decided to do this by conducting a questionnaire that I put forward to Mr. Kabir during the interview. The questions which were asked in the interview and the response from Mr. Kabir are shown below:

Q. What is the current system you are using in the store?

We currently have no computer system and it is manually based, for storing customer details, orders and receipts. We take orders down by phone calls only. When an order is made the user writes down the order on a piece of paper. Details such as customer name, address, telephone number, product name, size of product, price, quantity and the total price is added on the order form. This information is received by the customer and by searching the product/prices book which is placed under the till. Once the order form is completed it is then sent to the chef where the order is prepared. After the order has been made a receipt is created manually by the staff, both receipts and products are then delivered to the customer.  

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Q .What disadvantages do you find with this system?

Everything is unorganized. It is all on paper, orders get lost, and it’s hard to keep track of client’s orders. Orders get mixed up and end up at wrong houses. It just looks very unprofessionally.

Q. How do you calculate your costs?

We are currently using an ordinary calculator to add up the total cost

Q. How do you keep records of your members?

We keep records of orders and members on a hand written document. The members’ details are kept on cards and sometimes lost.

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