SCENARIO

You are part of an IT company specialising in the design and development of computerised business systems. Your consultancy has won a contract from a client. They are looking to replace the old manual system they have had for the last 5 years with a new computerised system.

You have been provided with a description of the client company below.

Client Information

The Chocolate Box Company is a wholesaler that buys confectionary items in bulk from suppliers and then supplies retailers with small quantities of items which the suppliers are not willing to supply. The company holds a limited amount of stock but orders any additional stock that it needs from suppliers on a weekly basis.

To purchase products, a retailer must first register with The Chocolate Box Company. Once registered, retailers may order meals using a Chocolate Box order form. Those retailers with poor credit status are asked to pay in advance for orders. This information, together with other retailer relevant information, is kept in a yellow folder. Selected retailers are allowed discount on orders, the level of which depends both on the size of the order and the credit history of that particular retailer. All orders are placed in a green order tray and processed at the end of the week by the purchasing clerk. A copy of the purchase order is filed in a red folder.

The purchasing clerk works through the order tray and raises purchase orders for the products needed. All purchase orders are satisfied within 7 days. Product codes and supplier details are obtained from special supplier catalogues.

Each supplier sends their confectionary items together with a delivery note and invoice to the goods department. The stock manager deals with both the checking of incoming goods from supplier and the distribution of confectionary items to the retailers. Those items are sent out with a shipping note and a Chocolate Box invoice. Copies of these items are placed in the Despatch History file.

The company currently pays a local printing firm to create their catalogue but would rather create their own catalogue from the data held in their local database. They are eager to add further retailers to their information system so that they can email them with any special offers that are currently available as well as sending them the printed catalogue which is currently produced every 6 months. This will act as a spur to encourage sales in the marketplace and keep the retailers up-to-date about the new ranges of items available for purchase.

A review of the retailer file is carried out once a month. Information about retailers that have not placed an order within the last two years is archived.

Sometimes retailers enquire about orders and this involves looking at the dispatch history or pending orders to respond.

The general manager would like to have a system that:

1. Provides a user friendly screen to allow easy entry and recall of new sales.

2. Provides a reporting facility so the company will know how much they are purchasing every month from various suppliers.

3. Provides a facility to keep all the retailer details on hand.

4. Produces a comparative analysis - so the general manager knows how much is being spent year-on-year.

Assignment Task

Using the details given in the scenario, you are required to address the following individual assignment tasks so that you can prepare a single final report for the client.

Task 1

a) Discuss the importance of following a procedural/staged lifecycle in a systems investigation.

b) Briefly evaluate the system lifecycle models that could be used in this project. Decide on one of these system lifecycle models that would be suitable to follow for this project and provide a brief justification for your choice. Remember to relate your reasons to the actual problem.

Name and briefly outline each of the main steps that this lifecycle uses to solve a problem.

c) To undertake a systems investigation to meet a business need you need to identify the business needs for the proposed system. To do this you will need to create a set of survey questions that you can give to the relevant stakeholders (users) - this will be used as evidence, that this is a worthwhile problem worth solving.

i) Write six (6) open type questions.

ii) Write six (6) closed type questions.

Task 2

a) The main feasibility criteria for a new proposed system need to include the following types:

Technical Feasibility.

Organisational Feasibility.

Schedule Feasibility.

Economic Feasibility.

Discuss why each of these components is important in the development of a new system.

b) Using a spreadsheet program and the sample spreadsheet shown, create a Profit/Loss spreadsheet. You should include the revenue (income generated) and also costs. In subsequent columns enter the Years (i.e. Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3). You should have at least 6 tangible costs. New Sales should increase by £40,000 each year: beginning with £40,000 in Year 1. You should be looking to achieve profitability after 2 Years!

i) Create, and enter into the spreadsheet, a set of fictitious values that will suggest a return on investment for the new system within the next two years.

ii) The completed table and the line graph should be copied and pasted into your final assignment document.

iii) Assess the economic feasibility of the proposed system by discussing what the table and final result means.

Task 3

a) Use the various systems analysis techniques, as explained in Unit 3 of the online materials, to create the following set of diagrams that describe the specified system, by

i) A Context Level Diagram and a Level 1 Dataflow diagram.

ii) An Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD).

iii) An Entity Life History Diagram (ELH) (for this part only, map the part of the case study that deals with "Retailers").