Video World Data System

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Video World Data System

AS ICT PROJECT

BY GRANT WINKLES

Dated:  January 2001


CONTENTS


Analysis

Introduction

Video World is a video rental shop, located in Ashby’s town centre.  It is a relatively small shop and has 31 members who live in and around Ashby de la Zouch.

The shop is owned and managed by Gary Lane.  He set up the business two years ago and has two other staff working in the shop on a part time basis.  

Gary currently has a filing system that occupies a great deal of space and is very time consuming to analyse.  He gives his members cards and has to manually record which video members are hiring.  The old paper filing system is very inefficient in notifying when members are overdue with bringing the videos back. This in turn means other customers are unsatisfied when the video they want isn’t in stock and so Gary loses out on revenue.  Gary Lane possesses greater than average IT skills and is keen to introduce a computer-based system for the rentals of his videos.

The system both old and new is needed to:

  • Keep track of members and their details.
  • Keep track of the number of videos each member of staff rents out to customers.
  • Have a listing of all the staff in the shop
  • Have a list of all the videos in stock
  • Have a list of all the videos rented
  • Enable a showing of which videos are rented by which customers
  • Show when the video is due back
  • Be able to add/delete members, videos and staff

Investigation Methods

An interview was arranged with Mr Lane and a list of points to be discussed was drawn up before the interview.  Also I contacted Gary Lane by telephone and e-mail to pick up certain points.

Topics for discussion:

  • The reasons for requiring the new information system
  • The problems with the current manual system
  • The methods currently used to record data
  • The information that needs to be kept in each of the following areas:

                Staffing

                Videos

                Rentals

                Members

                Video costs

  • The required output
  • Any hardware or software limitations – for example what was the hardware and software to be used?


Summary of the Interview

The nature of the paper-based system was discussed.  Basically everything including customers, videos, staff and rentals are all written out manually onto a standard form every time something needed to be updated.

There are a few problems with this filing system:

Keeping track of when videos are due back.

Because all the data is kept in files you must continuously check if people are not bringing data back.  Obviously this can be very time consuming and errors are likely to be made, resulting in lost videos, lost assets and revenue.  It is also not immediately obvious when a date is overdue because there is so much writing on the forms and so you cannot always see an overdue video.

Seeing how well the staff are doing.

There is nothing in the old system that tells Gary how well his staff are doing.  If he knew how many videos his staff sold each month he could perhaps reward them with bonuses or even employee of the month awards.

Stock levels.

It can also be a nuisance for Gary to go into the storeroom to get a video only to find that the video has already been rented out.  There is no way to check if the video is in or out before he goes into the storeroom.  This can be quite serious because while he is in the storeroom it can leave the shop unstaffed with potential thieves in the shop.

The amount of time it takes to document a new member.

With the manual system it can be very time consuming, just entering data for the new member.  The form has no tick boxes and Gary has to write it all in full by hand.

There are no links.

All the different files are all kept separate from each other and so there are no links between: The video the person who rented the video and the staff member who rented the video out.  If these files were linked relevant data and information could be retrieved.

Concluding Remarks

Mr Lane the end user is used to his position and is suffering from a paper based management system that is inefficient.  Gary Lane realises his problems and is very willing to become more efficient in his workplace.

The computer on which Mr Lane will operate within Video World is a Windows 95 system and the workstation has a specification of a 200 MHz processor with 32 MB RAM and 4 MB graphics cards.  He has a Microsoft Office 97 professional suite that includes Microsoft Word, Access, Excel, Publisher and PowerPoint.  He is very keen to have a solution implemented, which makes use of the applications within Microsoft Office.  His initial ideas were centred on the use of Excel and Word, with which he is very familiar, although he is willing to learn how to use Microsoft Access.


Objectives for the New Systems

Qualitative

  1. Data entry should be as intuitive as possible.
  2. The input screens should explain themselves.
  3. Data entry should be quick.
  4. The mechanics of the application chosen should not be apparent to the user.
  5. A main menu should be loaded automatically when the database is loaded, and the whole system should be menu driven.

Quantitative

  1. It should be possible to rent a video without referring to video or member input screens.
  2. It should be possible to input new videos, staff members, and customers in less than thirty seconds.
  3. It should be possible to provide reports in less than 60 seconds in each of the following areas:

  • Videos rented
  • The staff that rented the videos out
  • Staff currently employed
  • Videos owned by the store
  • Customer details

Constraints

Hardware

The solution will be installed on a computer on which is a Windows 95 system and the workstation which consists of a 200 MHz MMX processor coupled to 32 Mb RAM and 4 Mb graphics cards.  Gary has no problem with the amount of storage available.  Access will be able to perform efficiently with the amount of RAM available.  The graphics card will allow complex screens to be refreshed at fairly fast rates.

The Development will be performed mostly at school, on the school network which has a minimum specification of machines with 32 Mb RAM and 200Mhz Processors, This is nearly the same as Gary Lane’s shop computer so I will be able to see how fast or slow it will work.

Software

Video World’s Applications Suite is the Microsoft Office 97 Professional, which includes Word 97, Excel 97, Access 97 and PowerPoint 97.

The development will be performed at school using Access 97 as part of the total Office 97 Professional suite.  As Video world uses Microsoft Office 97 there shall be no difficulties in exporting files.  Also I have Microsoft Office 97 so I will be able to do perform some of the tasks at home.


User’s IT Skills and Knowledge

Join now!

The end user Mr Lane is an experienced user of Word and has a basic knowledge of the operation of Access.  He is also quite good at using Excel.  His keyboard skills are standard.  He has used Publisher for the making of cards but never on a professional basis.


Design

Comparison of Possible Solutions

A number of possible solutions could be considered:

  • Use of Excel 97 Spreadsheet
  • Use of Access 97 Database

Excel 97 is a spreadsheet of considerable power including database facility.  However the relationships required would be difficult to implement ...

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