All of these methods of collection are incredibly time consuming and the customer would have to wait along time in order to find the information they were looking for. This therefore makes the paper file system inefficient.
To over come the above problems I would create a database to store all the information. I would use two separate tables one for cars and one for customers.
The car table would consist of all the cars that are owned by the company. It would store the same specific information about each car. The table would have queries attached to it in order to obtain the specific criteria that need to be met by the customer.
The customer table would include a list of all the customers the company has recording the same specific information about each. The customer table would be kept in alphabetical order so the records were quick and easy to find. The customer table would also be connected to a mail merge so that information could be mailed to the customers about special offers etc. This would create a letter, which could be either sent or emailed to a selected mailing list quickly and efficiently. The database would be made in Microsoft access and the mail merge would be made in Microsoft word.
I collected my information by sending letters and questionnaires to the following companies:
Graypaul Loughborough
The Coneries
Nottingham Road
Loughborough
Leicestershire
LE11 1DZ
Sky Ford
202 Rickmansworth Road
Croxley Green
Watford
Hertfordshire
WD18 7GH
Citygate Chalfont
Chalfont Station Garage
Station Approach
Little Chalfont
Bucks
HP7 9PN
Amersham Audi
4-8 White Lion Road
Amersham
Bucks
HP7 9JD
I wrote to the companies to find information about the current system they were using and what information they stored about their customers and cars. I asked the following questions:
- What information do you keep about you customers? I would assume that you would store their name and address.
- What type of system are you currently using?
- Are you using a mailing list of customers?
- What information do you keep about the cars? I would assume that you would store the make and model.
- What problems do you encounter from your current system? And any methods you have of controlling them.
- Any documents or forms that are being used in the current system.
I also used questionnaires to find out more about the company’s current systems and records. (See enclosed questionnaire).
An alternative method of collecting this information would be to either visit or telephone the companies and talking or visiting the customer services.
The advantages and disadvantages of doing this are:
The reason that I chose to send letters and questionnaires is because it is a more practical way of finding out the information as it gives the company enough time to find the best and most suitable answer to my queries. It also enables me to obtain the most amount of information I can. It also gives the company time to find out information from other branches of the company. Whereas by visiting I would get limited information and the information would not be as complex.
The current system used by the company has a number of different inputs and outputs but only one process. These are:
This system is not efficient and not fast enough the new system would be electronic computer database which would have all the cars available entered into the database and the information needed by the customers could be found quickly and efficiently but using a query function.
The Hardware and Software needed by the system would be:
For the proposed system a database package would be more efficient than a spreadsheet package because the database package is designed around the concept of data and records. E.g. a database consists of tables, records, fields, data types, relationships between tables, queries of data, built in forms, and generating reports. Whereas a spreadsheet package is designed around the concept of calculations and models.
Instead of having a system of database word processing and spreadsheet packages from different manufacturers I would recommend using an integrated family of software packages by one manufacturer which all run under the same operating system. This is because the import and interchange of data between the packages is built into the integrated system software packages.
Design:
The Table below shows the file structure of my database:
Customer Table:
An alternative to this design would be to change the Field Size for example the 50 field length for “Car_Wanted Model” and “Car_Wanted_Make” could be changed to 30 as 50 would not be an appropriate size of field length.
Car Table:
Alternatives to this table could be using Currency instead of Number in the Price field data type. Instead of typing “P” and “D”, or “M” and “A” the validation rule could be changed so “Petrol” and “Diesel”, or “Manual” and “Automatic” is entered instead. An input Mask could be used in the price field so that a £ is automaticly placed into the record sheet.
Part Table:
Alternatives to this table could be to have “Car_ID” as an automatic number in the data type instead of “Carpart_ID”.
Mail Merge Letter:
Bucks Motors
53 – 59 Market Square
Chesham
Bucks
HP5 3NB
«Title» «Name» «Surname»
«Address1»
«Address2»
«County»
«Postcode»
«Contact_Number»
«Mobile_number»
«Email»
Dear «Title» «Surname»
The query that you made about the «Car_Wanted_Make» «Car_Wanted_Model» in your recent visit has been followed up and that car is now in stock. If you would like a viewing or further details about the car you can contact us on 01494 785440 or E-mail us at the following address . The car that you have shown an interest in is £«Car_Wanted_Price». Please do not hesitate to contact us about any further queries. If you would like to be contacted about special offers please E-mail or telephone the company and leave your name and address with them.
Bucks Motors is a large company with branches all across the country. We stock a wide range of cars and can order almost any model, Our customers can trade in or part exchange old cars for a newer updated model. We pride ourselves on our customer services and are always willing to help at every opportunity.
Regards,
Bucks Motors
L. Carvey
[ company manager ]
Alternative designs to this mail merge letter could be to use a customised signature at the end of the letter i.e. L.Carvey. I could use a template to set out the letter in a more formal way. Put the company address into a header.
- Print Screen of a query in Design View 1:
Print Screen of the query proccess :
Print Screen of the output of the query i.e. the results
- Print Screen of design layout of a query 2:
Print Screen of the output:
The advantages of Layout 1 are:
- Easy for the user to work as the parameter querys have instructions in th dialogue box
- Easy to be used as a set query
The disadvantages of Layout 1 are:
- The parameter query limits the amount of things that can be searched for as they are designated in the design view
- There would have to be many different queries for each table
The advantages of Layout 2 are:
- There is no limit to what the query can be used to search for
- Only one query would have to be set up per table
The disadvantages of Layout 2 are:
- The user would have to edit the design view and if they were unfamilliar with databases this would be challenging.
- There are no onscreen instructions to help the user.
In my final database I have chosen to use parameter queries as they are more user friendly and enable the search to be more efficiently. There is also no risk of the database being edited as the design view is not used in the process of the query.