Disadvantages: The documents could be old and not show you how the business is doing currently. The documents could have been altered and you wouldn’t know.
The reason why I haven’t used Existing documents is because I am not guaranteed they haven’t been altered. And if they are a year or two old then they will not be much use to me, as they will not show me how the business is doing.
Group Discussion
Advantages: You get a wide range of views and most people will participate. You will get a wide range of answers.
Disadvantages: As with questionnaire you answers depend on which question you ask. Also if lots of people talk at once you might not get what you want to know. Some people may be scared to voice their opinions.
The reason why I haven’t chosen to do a group discussion is because some people might not voice their opinions and most people might just agree with others to get out of it.
Questionnaires
Advantages: You get a lot of different people taking your questionnaire so you will get a wide range of answers. The answers will be specific to your question.
Disadvantages: Your answers are dependant on your questions.
I chose to do a questionnaire as they are anonymous so most people will take it and I will get a wide range of answers from different people from people who wash pans in the restaurant to the manager.
Observation
Advantages: You get to see first hand how the business is run.
Disadvantages: People might behave differently when being observed.
The reason that I have chosen to do an observation is so I can see first hand how the business is run and no one will lie.
Inputs, Outputs and Processes of the Current System
When a Customer asks the company to sell their house:
Inputs: The customer details must be taken.
The details of the house they wish the estate agent to sell must be taken down.
Processes: The customer’s details must be written down.
The house details must be taken down.
The house must be designated to an employee.
Outputs: The workload of the employee will be up.
The employees system will be changed.
When a customer asks the company to rent their house:
Inputs: The customer details must be taken.
The details of the house they wish the estate agent to sell must be taken down.
Processes: The customer’s details must be written down.
The house details must be taken down.
The house must be designated to an employee.
Outputs: The workload of the employee will be up.
The employees system will be changed.
When a employee is hired:
Inputs: The employees’ details must be taken down.
The employees’ references and cv must be checked.
Processes: The employee will be added to all the necessary documents.
Outputs: All the documents that have been altered.
When a employee is fired:
Inputs- n/a
Processes- A reference must be created for the employee.
The employee details must be deleted from the necessary documents..
Outputs-The employees cv will be changed.
The necessary documents will be changed.
Weaknesses of the current system
The main problem of the current system is that employee’s can only look at their own files and house’s so employees cannot help each other sell or rent houses. If they could do this then they would not only make more money for my client but they would ease their own workload.
In the current system there is only one copy of each sheet which is a hand written version. If this is lost then client details and the contact details are lost. If the client can not be contacted to regain there details the company loses money and if they can be contacted they think the company is unorganised.
Employee’s record their details in different ways so even if they ask for help from another employee more than likely the employee will not be able to help as they will not understand their peers system.
The advantages of the current system the way it is dealing with the weaknesses are that every employee knows what is expected of each of them. If they lose their details then it is their pay packet which is damaged and Mr Carter’s overall profits at the end of the week. Everyone knows who to blame if something goes wrong. If an employee make’s too many mistakes it is them that loses their pay as they work on how many property’s they sell or rent so it is an incentive to work harder.
The disadvantages of the current system the way it is dealing with the weaknesses are that if employee’s keep losing documents then when they are on the phone’s they may misplace notes which they are taking down.
Alternative solutions
Some solutions to these problems are:
- I could improve the current system by making manual improvement’s on the current system by:
Making the people on the phone take photocopy’s off details and writing the name of the designated employee on the corner but leaving a copy on each employee’s desk.
Or I could solve the problem by giving each employee a set way in which they must record their details.
- I could make a spreadsheet based solution for the problems by:
I could have a different book for each employee but for letting each employee being able to look at each book but on the same spreadsheet.
- I could make a database solution for the problems by:
Creating an entirely new system. I will be able to connect the fields and my employee’s will be able to check any house’s going in certain area’s and in certain price ranges.
I have chosen to do a database solution as my employee’s will be able to search up in certain field’s and everyone will have access to it and it will be in my view very effective and not be as time consuming.
Specification
In this section I will specify what I expect from my system.
As the customer details are taken down while the customer is on the phone my system must be very easy to navigate. Also everyone should be able to choose where they want to go from the main menu easily and quickly.My employee should be able to add new clients in less than 2 minutes so the client will not get impatient.
The system should also allow my user to be able to search for certain price ranges and certain house’s in certain area’s in under 3 minutes.
My system should be secure and only employees; accountants and anyone that Mr Carter wishes to will be able to see it as the office will be locked when they are not there.. My outputs should be very clear and my employee’s should be able to see clearly what they want and it should be easy to print.
Design
The steps I will take to carry out the solution for my client are the following:
I have already carried out an investigation by conducting a questionnaire and by observing the business. I then analysed the weaknesses of the current system and went through the pro’s and con’s about the current system, then I thought about solutions for these cons and weaknesses some before deciding the best course of action was to do a computer based solution.
I will now take the following steps to make my system
Object design
Objects
In the below columns I am going to list my objects. An object is anything I am going to make and anything the system needs.
Hierarchy of menu
Conclusion
What my system will do will allow my client to easily access all his house related data showing him 4 different forms.
One will show him his customers contact details where they are looking to buy and their price range.
The second will show him the details about the house. The number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, number of reception rooms, the area, the price and the address.
The third will be about his landlord clients. It will show him how many property’s he has with the business, his address and a contact number.
The fourth and final form will be about the houses sold showing the house i.d so the house if identifiable to who and the price sold for.
Their will also be a query which will enable me to search for a specific area which will save time. Another will search for the houses in my clients price range.
Implementation
The hardware I will need for my system are the following:
A 17 inch monitor for my computer. I have chosen to use an lcd screen rather than a regular screen due to the fact that as it is flat it will not take up as much space. I have chosen it to be 17 inches because everything is easily viewable on this screen and there is no strain on the eye.
My processor will be 2.4 ghz and will be a Compaq rather than a dell as the screen is also Compaq so it will be more compatible. Also 2.4 ghz will allow everything my clients needs to happen at a reasonably fast speed.
I will be using a laser printer rather than a desk jet even though it is slightly larger. I chose it due to the fact that the print quality is better.
As the data on the systems will be very important to the running of my company every employee will get a 256mb flash disk to backup their data. So it will be able to fit everything very easily and there is always a back up.
I will have a 40gb hard drive as my system will not be that big and if I get a huge system it will just be a waste of money.
I will be using a 256 ram as this will be quite fast and as with the hard drive it will be a waste of money to get a bigger one.
The software I will be using will be a Microsoft office system which will give me Microsoft access, excel, word and PowerPoint. I will also have Norton antivirus to protect my computer.
My main system will be based on Microsoft access as I can link the tables within each other and forms are easy to be made. Also I can make queries which will be very useful to my client.
My system will allow me to view my data in my tables and edit them quite easily.
Also every page will have a link back to the main menu. Link back to main The main menu will have a link to every page. Menu
Main menu
Also I will have a search feature where you type in an area in the query and it will find every house in that region.
I will have another search which will search for every house in a certain price range.
This is how the date will be shown
The structures of my query’s are as the following:
The price query is structure like this.
The area search query structure is
The way I validated my data was that all the fields are either text or number so that incorrect data can not be entered also where it is necessary for data to be entered my system does not allow for that value to be left empty.
Testing
- Adding new records.
This form is currently empty and I will add a row of data.
Before:
After:
- Editing records.
This form will be edited.
Before:
After. The highlighted row has been edited.
- Deleting data.
The highlighted row in this form will be deleted.
Before
After
- Validated data.
This is what happens when something wrong is done to the system.
- Output.
This is the output after an area search for Clayhall.
Evaluation
As the customer details are taken down while the customer is on the phone my system must be very easy to navigate. Also everyone should be able to choose where they want to go from the main menu easily and quickly.My employee should be able to add new clients in less than 2 minutes so the client will not get impatient.
The system should also allow my user to be able to search for certain price ranges and certain house’s in certain area’s in under 3 minutes.
My system should be secure and only employees; accountants and anyone that Mr Carter wishes to will be able to see it as the office will be locked when they are not there. My outputs should be very clear and my employee’s should be able to see clearly what they want and it should be easy to print.
This is what my specification consisted of.
I have achieved everything from my system that is specified. The searches work especially well and accurately in my view and the only thing I can improve on is the colour design.
Mr Carter had this to say about the system.
Dear Mr Azam,
Thank you for completing the system in the short time delegated and to such a high standard. We are especially grateful for the search’s which will be a great asset and time saver and will make our business much more efficient. However the system is a bit dull and could do with a bit of colour. Apart from that we could not ask for anything more. Finally perhaps the system could have used a password to protect it but once again congratulations on a job well done.
Yours faithfully
Mr Carter.
