Computerised systems in business.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Reyaz Tataria C.C Video Store

013828

Analysis

Background to and Identification of Problem

My project is based on a video shop called CC Videos who are located in South Leicester. This shop is owned and run by Mr Card and his wife who are successfully running this business. Although business is fairly good, he has a few problems with his procedure of renting videos. After observation, I found out why. Mr Card’s business is run on paper. He does not have a computerised system in his shop and all work is done on several books. He has three books. One book has records of all the videos that go out to his customers. The second book details all reservations for videos, and his third book has all the currant stock details. Mr Card has found on many occasions that he mixes up accounts and therefore this causes problems within his working environment. He has also found on occasions that video cassettes that are overdue go amiss and extra payment which occurs are not paid. We look at further problems in detail later on.

After much consideration Mr Card agreed that a computerised system would greatly benefit his business.

Identification of Prospective Users

The user of this system will be Mr. C. Card who owns and runs “C.C Videos” which rents video cassettes movies to members only.

Identification of User Needs and Acceptable Limitations

Mr Card’s current system is a written system on books. There are three books he works with, the Stock book, which details all his new and old videos he has available, and how many copies. The second book has all the details the members and the movies they rent out. The third book is the Reservation book where he stores all the details of members who have reserved a certain video copy.

To identify the needs of Mr Card, I interviewed him so I can thoroughly analyse his situation and find out exactly what Mr Card expects the new system to achieve. From the interview I have found problems within the current system, of which I will have to correct in the new system and they are: -

Sometimes information on renting videos is not placed and it can be a problem getting overdue videos back into the store

It is difficult to maintain system integrity as the whole system is paperwork and there are lots of duplicate information being recorded.

There is not enough information about the member so security is low. Any member can walk out with a video; all they need is a name.

Membership expiry date is impossible to tell because customers can never turn up into the store. The only way Mr Card can tell is if they come in regularly so they can keep checking the date.

The only way Mr card can view his overdue videos is by going through his books and searching up every record, ticking off whether a video has been returned or not.

Names, membership numbers, dates can be entered incorrectly at any point without the user knowing this and also because there is no verification being performed.

There is no method of notifying the member of an overdue video. A letter has to be written every time, in hand to notify them and this is time consuming.

As all the work is done on books, in hand writing, it is not always clear to read the information put down. Sometimes this is due to wear and tear of the books, or because of liquid spillage on the paper etc. Although a small point, it plays a big part in the problems that occurs in this shop.

Books are sometimes misplaced and can be hard to find at times.

Stock levels have to be searched everytime a reservation needs to be put forward. This is time consuming and results are not always correct.

The next step was to ask the user what he wanted to include in his new system, which I was going to be implementing. This is what he said (through an interview):-

Easy way to add new members
Easy way of deleting members
Easier way of editing the details of a member so if for e.g. If a customer moved house and his address details needed changing.
A computerised stock controls which shows what movies are available and how many copies.
Search certain details and filter out any not wanted details.
The ability to produce reports on data e.g. Reports on movies rented.
A secure system. Identity confirmed by a photo and member ID number.

The other thing which I found out from the interview and actually going to the shop and physically looking around is a rough idea of what the systems limitation are going to be and they are:-

There is a limited time frame in which the system has to be developed.
There is a hardware limitation, as the owner does not have a computer installed in his shop. But he said he would purchase one for this business upgrade.
Mr Card would like the system to be developed in Microsoft Access. This is because he went for a course where he studied this software package, so he has knowledge of this. However Mr card has limited computer literacy. He does not have much knowledge of computers overall so this is another limitation.

Realistic ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

There is a limited time frame in which the system has to be developed.
There is a hardware limitation, as the owner does not have a computer installed in his shop. But he said he would purchase one for this business upgrade.
Mr Card would like the system to be developed in Microsoft Access. This is because he went for a course where he studied this software package, so he has knowledge of this. However Mr card has limited computer literacy. He does not have much knowledge of computers overall so this is another limitation.

Realistic Appraisal of the Feasibility of Potential Solutions

I will do a feasibility study of the proposed system to understand the problem and decide whether it is worth proceeding.

Technical Feasibility – The technology for computerised systems have been in existence for quite a while now. The technical requirements for the proposed system are not complex so this should not be a problem. In fact all the technology required can be purchased from a high street shop.

Economic Feasibility – The proposed system will require a fully equipped PC with software and a printer. This will not affect Video Box as a computer is already owned. Printing ink will be required regularly because of the reports. Other than this there are not any great costs for the business, therefore the benefits of the system defiantly outweigh the costs.

Legal Feasibility – The customers will be notified that the data they submit will be kept for only as long as Video Box requires it. This is for future references, seeing as it is likely that a customer will return again to rent another video. The customers will be allowed to view the data being held on them if they wish to do so. The copies of software held on the system will have to be registered so they will not be prosecuted in the future.

Operational Feasibility – The new computerised system is fairly similar to the present system, as it is the same except for the fact that it has all been entered onto a computer. The users will have to do similar tasks but on a computer rather than on a piece of paper. Users will have to be trained on how to use the system. Mr. Smith and Mr. Fox do have prior or current knowledge of computers and so major training will not be required, also the proposed system will be menu driven therefore they will only need to be told the basics.

Schedule Feasibility – The designing of the system should not take too along time as it will closely follow the present system. The present system will be improved greatly by putting it on to a computer. Inputting all the data held on paper will take about a week. Training of the staff should not take a lot of time as the computerised system will be very simple to use because of the software and layout.

The feasibility report above confirms that my system can be a successful one.

Software

I feel that for this system, a database package would be suitable for the implementation of the system at C.C Videos so the system could either be developed using a database package such as Microsoft Access 2002 or it could be done by programming code to create a database by using software such as Visual Basic or Pascal.

Programming Code is I would say a more of a complicated way of creating a database. Programs such as Pascal are not always clear to understand as all work is done in code. Users would need a fairly good knowledge of this program in order to use it.

Advantage of Using Microsoft Access

Microsoft Access database design tools are used in creating small database applications for a variety of purposes. Microsoft Access is an optimal database design system for specific environments.

Ease of use

Microsoft Access is a unique product in that it provides tools, which can be mastered by even the most inexperienced database users. Filtering, sorting, querying, and form and report creation are fairly simple tasks, especially when using the many toolbars, wizards, and graphical interfaces provided with Microsoft Access. This flexibility allows the experienced developer to build framework database applications, which can be later modified and added to by the client. Instead of putting 100 percent of the database application's development and upgrades into the hands of the developer, the end-user has the flexibility to add to the application with his/her own hands.

Keep in mind that the ultimate flexibility of a Microsoft Access database is determined by the efficiency, flexibility, and security of it's database design. Any database design built around business processes, needs to have a solid framework, which includes built in rules as to how data and modules can be later accessed, modified, and added to. Without a solid framework with logical rules, a database can become unmanageable and/or corrupted within a short period of time. Thus, an experienced developer best performs the initial framework database design and programming.

Data Migration

When comparing various database design systems, Microsoft Access is by far the easiest way to share and move data. It's single file system makes it a breeze to upload, download, or copy and paste entire databases to other computers. The fact that Microsoft Access is the most popular PC database system in the world, makes it more than likely that your peer, boss, partner, or client will own a copy of Access. Thus, you can upload a copy of your entire database to another department, instead of tying up the network with over the network queries.

This ease of migration makes Microsoft Access a favored tool when developing small databases. The developer and client can easily exchange prototypes of a database design, without having to recreate and run new installations for each updated version. This saves time for the developer and cuts costs for the client.

Simple Back up and Archiving

The Microsoft Access one-file system provides a simple way to make backups. Instead of backing up several to hundreds of data files, only one single file needs to be backed up. Depending on the size of your database and location of your backup medium, this can be as easy as copying and pasting the file to another drive.

There is no easier product for making an archive of your database. Simply copy the file that contains your data, paste it to a safe place, and rename the file as an archive. You can continue using the original file as is or open an empty copy of your database to start a new day, week, month, quarter, etc. What an easy way to organize your data! Later on, you can combine your archives through queries, to analyze and report summaries for a particular group of data or period of time.

With efficient database design techniques, archiving can also be used to work around the capacity limitations of Microsoft Access.

Other advantage include:

Creation of Forms, which allow easy and creative views of records found on the database.
Filter and search facilities
Reports can be made to view records or whole movement of a certain member, video, or reservation. Reports can be made of any situation on the database involving any tables.
The ability to relate tables together

Disadvantages Using Microsoft Access

Limited to small databases

Microsoft Access is a low capacity database system. It is designed to efficiently manage relatively small numbers of database records. Although it lacks in high volume capacity, it makes up for this limitation with ease of use features, "Rapid Application Development" technology, and portability.

Microsoft Access 2000 has a 2-gigabyte file size limit for an entire database (MDB file). Although you may be able to append hundreds of thousands of records into MS Access database tables, performance will noticeably began to decrease when you reach a volume of approximately 25,000 records. Performance will decrease even further as you add more records and/or additional concurrent users.

The ultimate effect that a large volume of records has on performance is partly influenced by the database design. A Microsoft Access table record can contain anywhere from 1 field to 255 fields. Thus, a 2-field record will require a lot less resources than a 50-field record. The type and form of data being stored in a record also effects performance. Pasting a large JPG or GIF image into a record could make the size of one image record be equal to 50 or more "text only" records.

The good news is that efficient database design, data management, and archiving techniques can often work around the capacity limitations of Microsoft Access.

Limited to Low Transaction Rates

Using Microsoft Access for database design, allows the developer to utilize a wealth of input validation, formatting, data display, querying, and reporting tools. As far as user-friendliness, these tools are unparalleled by any other database system currently found on the market. Developers can quickly design database systems that provide maximum ease of use for end-users. Quick development and ease of use are the two primary advantages of choosing Microsoft Access for your database design and use.

However, prebuilt user-friendly tools come with a downside. Microsoft Access was designed with the primary goal of providing ease of use for inexperienced and experienced database users/developers. To accomplish this goal, Microsoft had to use a one file system and embed many of it's ease of use tools into the actual MDB file, data tables, and form objects. In fact, all of the objects and tables reside within one file format. This type of structure results in Microsoft Access performing sluggishly in high production environments, which require large volumes of data input per hour. Microsoft Access is definitely not a good choice for high production data entry environments.

Limited to low concurrent database usage.

Microsoft Access runs best as a singer-user system or a small multi-user system. Although, there are claims that 50 or more users can use Microsoft Access concurrently with no problems, this is not always recommended. As mentioned previously, the structural design of Microsoft Access will limit performance in high production environments. This also applies to high levels of concurrent usage, especially concurrent data entry operations. If concurrent usage does not entirely involve data entry operations, then higher concurrent usage may be possible without performance issues. For example, 10 users running reports and read-only queries may not conflict with an additional 5-10 users inputting data at the same time. Testing the various scenarios in your computing environment is the best way to determine what is optimal. Keep in mind that your hardware and operating system capability will also be a factor.

Justification of chosen solution

The solution that I have chosen to use to develop this system is a database package. This package is Microsoft Access. I feel this software has more benefit than disadvantage. Mr Card himself would prefer his database to be created in this software package as he has used this program before and therefore has the knowledge to use it.

I also have good experience with this software and would, personally speaking, prefer creating the system on this package.

SYSTEMS REQUIREMENTS

The system will require the following hardware:

A complete PC base with 5 Gb of hard drive space. It should be at least a Pentium III 733MHz (this will allows it run the Windows XP and Access XP smoothly) – This will be used to run the whole operating system while running at a sufficient speed. 256 MB of Ram would be required to store programmes that are being processed and being currently used by the computer

Monitor – This will display the records on screen. A monitor is crucial because otherwise the data being stored will not be able to be viewed by the user. The number of pixels on the monitor will not matter, as the proposed system will not be using extreme graphics.

Mouse – This is a necessity to any PC. It is used to aid navigation of the system around the WIMP interface. A mouse makes it easier for the user to use the computer. It is much quicker to point the cursor and click rather than to use the keys on the keyboard.

QWERTY Keyboard – This is used to input all the data. A standard keyboard should be used to ensure the users would be familiar with it. A keyboard is a cheap and effective way of inputting data onto a computer. It may not be as fast as a voice recognition system but it is far more reliable and accurate.

Printer – The printer is used to print reports of the repairs. The ideal printer will be a dot-matrix printer. This is because dot-matrix printers are cheap to run and print quite quickly if a lot of graphics aren’t used.

Zip Drive – This is used for backup of the information held in the system.

The system will require the following software:

Windows 2000/ XP – This is the operating system and will make using the database simpler. Windows is the most popular operating system in the world and most software require windows to run. Windows will make running the proposed system very easy. It will do all the difficult processes at the click of a mouse button for the user. This will mean that the users of the system will not require a great deal of training as they will be helped by the operating system. Tasks such as saving and opening will be simple using GUI’s.

Microsoft Office Suit – It would be preferred that the latest version is used, XP, although 2000 should be adequate. This provides the highest level programming language, so the latest functions and the break through could be used in implementing the proposed system.

Data Source(s) and Destination(s)

All data sources come from direct suppliers for this video shop. As soon as stock is ordered, an invoice is sent to them. They then pay off whatever the amount is. The Videos are then copied directly into the stock book.

The other data comes directly from the members who are mostly local customers.

Data Flow Diagram and Entity Relationship Model of Current System

ADDING A NEW MEMBER

RENTING OUT A VIDEO DFD

Current Forms

The user has requested that the forms in Microsoft Access 2002 look as much as possible as the forms which he is using in paper form this is the layout he is use to.

Objectives of the New System

The system that I design should meet the needs of the user, Mr Card. The main object of this system is for the ease of input of data into the system. I would like Mr Card to be able to do the following with ease and without problems:

Add a new member
Edit members details
Search a member
Delete old members
Allow a member to rent out a video
Allow a member to reserve a copy of a specific video

Allow members to return videos and check on any over due payments.
Search a specific video
Notify Mr Card when members have not returned over due videos
Notify Mr Card when a video comes in and it is on the reservation list.
Create Mail Merge – To send to customers who are holding over due videos, or generally to send promotional information to them through the post.
Notify Mr Card when typing errors are made, for e.g. if the date he input is incorrect via validation rules
Have a security system
Create backups of the database easily and quickly.

The main objective of the new system is to make the running of CC Videos easier and hassle free. It is also intended to bring CC videos in line with their local competitors. The new system will be far more efficient and tidy and therefore a better place for member service.

The system will be menu driven allowing the user to access many options and process tasks in an orderly fashion. It will provide a friendly and easy to view interface. The menu will consist of processes to add, amend and delete records from the member and video files. This is all done through the use of a keyboard and therefore all processes are fast and efficient. The adding and deleting can be quickly and accurately be done. The user will be able to view all theses records of movies and members at the same time. There will be ease at switching between one table to another.

Mr and Mrs Card will be able to add, amend, delete, search and print out member records, details, video information and stocks – all this at the touch of a button. When a new member is added to the database, they will automatically be entered at the end of the appropriate file. This way all information is kept in numerical order.

Users will have the ability to record the rental of a video on the system without having to write down all the member and video details. All they will need to do is enter the member ID and the video number. As all this will already be stored on the appropriate modules, the information will be recognised and updated on the rental file along with the date of return of the video. The system will also record this on the backup copy of the files and produce a printed transaction.

On the return of a video, the user simply enters the video number and the system will enter into the rental file and search for the date the video had to be returned. If there is an overdue, then the customer will be charged extra. However if all is ok, the record in the rental file is deleted and a printout is made of the return.

At the end of each working day, a copy of the rental files can be printed out as a report, and this can show the overdue videos along with the member details and the time set for return. This will allow the user to contact the customer via letter (mail merge) asking them to return the video ASAP.