The Bookshop Company Essay Example for Free

The Bookshop Company Essay1. Introduction1.1 BackgroundThe company that I have chosen to do my project on is a sm wholly book distribution company c whollyed Bookshop. Bookshop is a small company base in South London and was set up in early 2002. They have a small men of 4 people. each person therefore has a astronomical and important role to the company. Each worker is al sorts hard pushed to meet deadlines for schools and social centres demanding books. Beca physical exertion that are a small company they cannot ease up to have large computer staff to assure after al their accounts. They are limited to the time that they can spend on different tasks. Each day they deal with a round 1000 worth of decrees, but this might vary to as much as 4500 or as modest as 500. The director of the company has put in a large lump sum as a loan to chute off the company, which she hopes willing trunk into profits, which she will later recoup.1.2 Statement of the fussI have conducted an interview with the director of the company and we encountered the following problems.* Because the bookshop is new, there are to a greater extent things that could go wrong and caused bankruptcy. There is the fact that the company has no real image and cannot conduct commit on customers. Therefore they use up to profit maximise. They need all staff working to their full potential. They need no wastes of time with things that can be done automatically.* Also with the small amount of money on tap(predicate) to them they had o make do with old computers, which ran old computer programs that are DOS based.* The problem that ABC Books as a company has is that it is limited to the workforce that it ca spend on different tasks. Therefore time is a major part of what is wrong.* If there were a way that was quicker than the current way to do it hence the time taken by each person would be greatly reduced and there may be a gamble that each person would have more(prenominal) time t o do other jobs. For example two people handle all the accounts.* If there were an easier way then they might only need 1 person and therefore there would be an extra person left over to do other work.Because of a shortage of time that they spend on the accounts, orders dont get delivered and because it is a small business, it needs all the orders it can get and any a late order and schools will look to other suppliers. This was picked up on by Pat Horsefield (director) when a meeting was held to discuss the problems with the musical arrangement.Mrs. Horsefield feels that* with the introduction of a computer accounts constitution,* a system that can process customer orders faster and more accurately,* a reduction in the amount of paper generated by the system and feels that a centralised system could improve communication between staff,then the whole company will run more smoothly and then they would make more money and she would start going in to profitAs the company is new they have not got enough capital to go out and but fleets of vans and cars, they have to rely on people let cars and transport of that of a delivery company which all costs money. Because of this they need to save money on expensive large especially designed programs by large specialist companys that produce such programs.2. Investigation2.1 The current systemThe current system that the company use is a spreadsheet package that was created 17 years ago and is therefore quite canonic and not easy use for all the staff that are used to more modern forms of spreadsheets. At the moment as each school places an order, it has to go through a processing system that takes a long time to play out.InputProcessingOutputForenameSurnamePositionSchoolAddressHome PhoneMobileBooks orderedTotal Price gainfulPayment methodThis is the route that the current data takes.2.2 Constraints of the Current systemThe format of the current accounting system is in DOS and therefore has no GUI that is useable to a user for formats ilk EXCEL. The software and hardware are old and need to be replaced.* That main one is that it is not like the new accounts systems such as EXCEL and SAGE Line 100. There are some(prenominal) problems encountered when external people wish to view the accounts i.e. Auditors.* Another problem is that when outside people wish to review the accounts, they are totally unfamiliar with the system and are not able to use it correctly. This is mainly because of the layout and the basic look of the interface.* There is one major problem with the actual system and that is that it does not automatically perform calculations. Therefore all calculations need to be done development a calculator. This is time consuming. If there were a way that the users could just put in poem and the computer could automatically calculate the totals and the answers the user would have more time to do other things.* Due to the lack of complexity of the system, errors are often made.3. Require ments of the new system3.1 General objectivesThe general objectives that I hope to be able to achieve are* To create an up-to-date system that can be easily used by the staff and new staff* To be based on a modern GUI that all users will understand* To make it self explanatory so that new users will be able to pick up the methods quickly.* It will need to be able to hold the companys accounts* There will be no need for passwords to any of the data, as no strict personal data is held on the computer3.2 Specific objectives quantitative* Customer accounts should be found in less then 20 seconds* The user should be able to locate a page by using in the click of a button.* All users should be able to use the system to do accounts.* Customer Details should be able to be printed off at the click of a button.* There should be buttons to do all reasonable jobs (print/open/add)* All pages should have links back to all the other pages, with the click of a macro and should be clearly labelled. 4. The current systems4.1 ironwareThe hardware that is operational to the users is a small LAN of 4 computers and a server. All the computers have a barcode scanner for scanning in book barcode numbers and ISBNs. The computers that I have available for me to use are a set of 5 networked PCs at my house of which one has a barcode scanner. At college there is a large number of networked PCs for pupils use. They are all networked so that the users can log on to his/her area. The hardware available to me isSpecificationsOperating SystemMicrosoft Windows XPConnectorsAudio Line In (1/8 Mini)Ethernet RJ45 Twisted-Pair (XBaseT)IEEE 1394 4 fleur-de-lis UnpoweredIEEE 1394 6 pin PoweredKeyboard 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2)Mouse 6 pin mini-DIN (PS/2)Parallel 25 pin D-shell (IEEE 1284A)USB Universal Serial Bus 2.0Video 15 pin High-Density D-shell (VGA)Included DevicesKeyboardMouseBarcode ScannerChassis StyleTowerInput DevicesKeyboardMouseModem go1mb Cable *networked to all 5Modem TypeNaInc luded Network CardEthernet (10/100 Mbps)normalized- central processor look sharp2000Video IntegrationMotherboardIncluded MonitorNoIncluded PrinterNoSound Support3D AudioCD-ROM Read Speed40 X (CD,CD-R)CD Rewrite Speed12 X (CD,CD-R)CD Write Speed32 X (CD,CD-R)DVD-ROM Read Speed16 X (CD,CD-R)Hard Drive Capacity80 GBIncluded DrivesDVD/CD-RW ComboFloppy DriveHard DriveNumber of Hard Drives Included1Bus Speedfour hundred MHzInstalled Memory512 MBMax System Memory1.5 kBShared Video Memory32 MBNumber of PCI Slots2Processor ClassIntel Pentium 4 ProcessorProcessor Speed2.0 GHzAll 5 of the PCs that I have available to me at my house are all the same. (see above)4.2 SoftwareThe software that the user has available is Microsoft Windows 95 professional edition with Office 95 and all relevant software for the barcode scanners and for the tele-book ordering. What I have available to use is Microsoft XP professional with Office 2000 which has excel, which Im using to create the new spreadsheet prog ram4.3 Users IT skills and knowledgeI feel that the users ICT knowledge and skills are limited to what they can do. They are inexperienced in computer use and therefore they have not developed, because of this there will need to be a basic and informative and obvious interface. I think that the interface will need to be bold and relevant to the tasks.The user manual will have basic information in using the system as well as a trouble shooting section.1. Consideration of a possible solutionThere are many different packages that I could use to create an accounts program there is Sage Line100, which is widely used in large company businesses. There is also Microsoft own Excel, which is widely used, in smaller businesses. I am going to use excel to create the program because it is the most commonly available and is therefore the better(p) choice to use. I think that it is also the easiest to use out of the two because many people use the program already and have a basic knowledge of t he program already and how it works. It is also a lot clearer to see than the basic graphics of Line100. there is also the case that Excel is cheaper to buy than a copy of Sage Line100. at 250, Line100 is rather too expensive for a small company. I feel that with the cheaper, only 89.99 Excel they will have a better deal on their hands.Microsoft Excel clearly dominates the spreadsheet market. Not too long ago, Lotus 1-2-3 was considered the standard spreadsheet. Excel now holds that distinction, with an estimated 90% market share.