ICT Spreadsheet System

Outline portfolio – incomplete but can be looked at as Exemplar

Introduction about the organisation

The business I have selected is a grocery shop called A S Toor. At present they operate in a paper-based system. The owner of the grocery would like to have a system whereby he can have computerised ordering system and stock control. This will help the owner of the shop to be more organised and keep track of when and how many products are sold.

Also, how many customers are attending the shop and what time of day the business is doing well in. This will replace the old paper-based method. This will make it more efficient and therefore will have fewer errors. Finally, making the business aware when stock needs replenishing

I will investigate the possibility of customising standard application software before the implementation of the system.

The current system

The current system is paper based. The stock details and deliveries are listed on a piece of document. This is long and strenuous procedure and could lead to mistakes. As it is a paper based system, this means the information on it can be easy lost of altered. To order replacement stock, the owner places bulk orders over the phone with a number of suppliers.

The supplier’s details are kept on piece of document. When stock arrives, the suppliers send an invoice, which the owner keeps in a filing cabinet. The invoices are separated into different copies. A copy is made for the owner and one for the supplier. This makes it even more complicated and is more of a manual procedure. There are part-time workers, which stock the shelves with the new stock.

The people involved

The people involved are the main proprietors who run the organisation. They keep all tracks of the businesses going on; how much stock is needed is done manually and can lead to errors. This is because they might run out of stock and there might be customer needing the product. This can lead to various problems.

The current documents

The current document the organisation uses the stock controlling document. Another piece of document is the invoices, they are all paper based and not backed on any computerised system. The deliveries are important for the business and are needed to be delivered at the correct time. The business needs to keep track of all accounts. They need to know where the money is going and on what it is going on. If it was computer-based it would be a lot faster and efficient.

The problems

The problems affecting the business are the issue of not having enough stock available to the customers. If they don’t have correct stock, they might not be doing business at all.

The finance of the business has to be recorded at all times and in this business it is not done properly. Often, stock runs out and the owner does not know until, the customer asks for the product. They would have to make emergency deliveries; this is time-consuming and costs the business. Other issues are the VAT, the calculation of the figures and estimates.

The controlling bodies

The controlling bodies in the business are the VAT Inspector. The business has to keep track of everything. The taxing on the business has to recorded and shown to the tax man. Furthermore, the health and safety inspectors are an issue that, the business has to face. They have to keep track of all the regulations. Finally, the European Laws and other issues regarding this.

Source of conflict

The major sources of conflict would the following:

The employees might be resistant to change. The proposed new system might not accepted by the worker of the business. They will have worry of change of job description and pay. Finally, there might be issues on job security. The employees might not consider or like the new system and will not handle well in adapting to it.

The Investigation

Questionnaire

Design questionnaire in draft, final then use it. Collect information and analyse it.

Interview

State why Interview is needed and what purpose it is meant to be fulfilling. Why interview and not other methods?
List initial questions to be asked, record interview response and then produce a summary of key points

Summary of Interview

Problem Statement

Input

Stock Information: -

product number,
description, units,
price of the products
re-order level.

Sales Details: -

Customer name,
receipt number,
date of the purchase,
number of items purchased,
subtotal,
VAT,
receipt total.

The problems of the data being entered are that, they have to complete a new form and this can be tedious, thus leading to more errors. Also, this paper-based method is very time consuming and become very boring, therefore making the employees demoralised in their duties.

Process

Finding a particular item is in stock or not – the person has to go through a lot of items to confirm whether the item is obtainable or not. This can be a long process and the customer will be left waiting. The employees will have to find a particular item manually. This is a long and strenuous procedure. Finally, stock controlling is carried out manually as well. They get part-time workers to count all the stock and double check it.