IT Database Identify Section

• Drawbacks of the Current System

One drawback of the current system is that members of staff require a lot of training to be able to remember the species and all the implications that come with buying those animals. The staff member needs to learn every animal and whether check ups are needed; how often those check ups are required; what type of accessory the animals must come with and also some must learn how to use the membership card reader. This training is time consuming and mistakes can easily be made.  The information they currently must know is stored in a word document and is distributed to all staff members. This is a waste of paper and is bad for the environment. Also the fact that paper copies are kept for everything mean that so must paper is being used that the filing takes up lots of unnecessary space and wastes so much paper that it wastes money as well as being bad for the environment.

• Alternative Solutions

Other solution include advertising in the shop all the implications with buying the pets so the customer and staff members are more informed and staff do not need training. However, this could discourage the customer from purchasing the pet in the first place from our shop and could also use a lot of expensive materials. An IT solution could be making a website that the staff would have login credentials and once logged in would have access to all the information they need for the pet shop. However, it would be expensive to hire the webspace. But the system would mean that training is not required apart from to use the website but this would be far less training than required than for the current system. On the other hand, staff would have to return to a computer point to check the information they wanted. This problem could be rectified by giving staff Blackberries with which they could remotely access the website and therefore the information required, on the go. This would cost the company a large amount of money because if every staff member had a Blackberry it would cost around £45,000 assuming the Blackberry costs around 250 pounds and every staff member required one. This expense is far too much for a company the size of “Paws’n’Claws”. However, if the information was put into a database then it could be loaded onto PDAs which are far cheaper than blackberries and for all staff to have one could cost only around £9,000 which is a much more acceptable figure for a company of this size. The database would be made on a computer and could easily be synced onto the PDAs using USB wires connecting to the PDAs and doing file transfers. The database would be free to make and the PDAs would have little to no running cost, unlike the Blackberries that would cost money to run the internet on them.

• User Requirements

• Must store members’ information such as contact details, address, transaction history, pets owned, check ups required, date of last check up, unique member ID, date of birth and membership type.
• Must store animals’ information such as breed name, size, weight, colour, price, mandatory accessory requirements, check up requirements and unique pet ID
• Must store accessories’ information such as price, pet aimed at, eligibility for percentage discounts for members and unique accessory ID.
• Must link members’ information with what they have the right to discounts on.
• All viewable tables, queries, forms and reports must be clear and viewable on any size screen.
• Must be easy to use with little to no training required for even staff with no experience of IT based tasks.
• Have a field for “current date”.
• Send letters to those that have not visited the store in the last month telling them about any offers that may be on in the shop at that time.