Criteria B - Developing ideas

Research Question: How can a Business or an Organization modernize its records using Information Technology?

Design Specification:

My aim for this product is to create a spreadsheet on excel which will hold all necessary and important data for my client, and will also make it easier to make large number calculations. For my product I will be creating different designs to fit my client's needs to help make the best design most suitable for their company. I will create more than one design to make variety of options for the client to choose from. I will make sure that when creating my designs I will specifically mention any required data analyzing skills that are required or any formulas that can be used to calculate same amounts more easily. Some formulas that might be used for the designs might be: Addition and subtraction to calculate salary, profits, loss. Another one could be count if, this will help the company find the exact data they are looking for without having to go through heap amounts of data. There are many other formulas that can be used on excel such as: percentages, sums and counts, dates and times, text manipularion, conditional formatting, lookup and more, although I will not be using all of them. I will carefully decide on which formulas to use depending on the clients need and the type of data that is required to be inputed on the spreadsheet. 

The database I am creating for my client will have two tables to store employee and product data and they will be linked using a one to many relationship. It will have a form to help with add, delete and edit the records, making the product user friendly and convenient for the client. The spreadsheet will consist of various different features like combo boxes, option boxes and buttons to make it easy for the user (user friendly). I will go through all the data required and try to minimize the amount to make it easier and more usable for the company. (Only data which is unnecessary will be removed, keeping in mind the needs of the client). The employees and managers will be able to access various different options through a menu driven interface that will have many buttons to select the options on the spreadsheet. This will give the user a easy to use interface so that all the features of the program can be used easily and efficiently. 

The product that will be created will include the following design specifications to provide a successful and efficient solution: 

Aesthetics:	Every spreadsheet will have a simple layout making it user friendly. Each important detail will be in bold letters to emphasize points. All sections will be allocated different colors to make the spreadsheet aesthetically pleasing to the user, and will also help segregate different topics. The font will be chosen suitable for the context to make it easier to read the content.
Cost:	The only cost that will be necessary in this product will be the cost of the Microsoft excel document, everything else would be self made.
Customer:	This product is for an electronic company, who sell electronics for all ages. From children to adults.
Function:	The function of creating a spreadsheet is to create one spreadsheet that will obtain multiple areas of information, such as: name of employee, financial pricing, electronics sold, market value of these electronics, etc.
Manufacturing:	The resources that are there are the functions that are available on excel. Some limitations are there in creating this product as it will be difficult to manage to create a very effective and efficient product in the time span provided. I think to create the design more thought has to be put in, as well as more designs to create many options to choose from. Also, to create the best product for the client, I could let the client know about different designs and what their preference is, to suit their use in the company.
Security:	This spreadsheet which holds all the accounts can be easily secured by putting on a security password on the sheet while saving, this will help the company keep confidential information safe on their devices.

Plan of the client's table 1 (Employee Data): 

Staff ID	Name	Age	Gender	Nationality	Years Worked	Position	Qualification	Details	Salary
1277	Ben	28	Male	British	4yrs	Marketing	Masters	472113	20,000
3460	Dave	32	Male	British	1yr	Sales	MBA	234823	12,000
7224	Sam	34	Male	American	10yrs	GM	Software Engineer	109277	100,000
4141	Tina	40	Female	Indian	3yrs	HR	MA degree	887987	33,000

This table has all the data I will be portraying on my designs for showing employee data records. This will make it easier for the company to keep track and record of each employee working in the company, they will exactly know which employee has how much salary, what their position is, what is their qualification in their specialized jobs, etc. This will help the company maintain and keep same data for different employees on the same tab, this will allow the company to compare how different employees are receiving different salaries depending on their job/role in the company.

Plan of the client's table 2 (Product Details):

Stock availability	Supplier	Warranty of product	Product demand  (People in Millions)	Types of products
Phones - 200,000,000	Apple and Samsung	15 days	10M	Electronics
Laptops - 100,000,000	Apple, Sony, HP and Lenovo	2 - 3 years	8M	Electronics
TV - 500,000,000	Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic	1 month	7M	Electronics
Camera - 50,000,000	Nikon, Fujifilm and Canon	1 month	1M	Electronics
Printers - 70,000,000	HP, Epson, Canon and Samsung	1 month	3M	Electronics
Laptop and phone cover - 10,000,000	Apple and other distributers	No warranty	8M	Accessories

This table shows the data of the product of the company, this will be useful for the client to quickly look at the stocks they have left, or different suppliers they are working with, and demand and supply of these products. In the table above I have shorten down the data to have a clear view on few of the electronics.

Design 1 and 2 for employee data spreadsheet:

The first design I have made looking at the company and client's requirements, I have decided to make a spreadsheet for Employee data. This will help the company keep track of what each employees position is, or salary, or qualification, and since all of the employee names will be together it will be much easier for the company to compare employees when deciding to change, position, salary, etc. On the top left-hand corner you can see a logo has been sketched, this will help authenticate the sheet. In the middle there will be the title in a beautiful, eye-catching font.

On the bottom of the tab there will be a cell with a formula that will help the user calculate annual salary. 

In the second design for employee data the categories are still the same (Name, position, salary, etc). In the second one I have made significant changes to make this product more user friendly, to be easily accessible by clients/the company. For starters the font of the heading which is in the middle, is a more appropriate font, which is easily readable. To make the title stand out more, I decided to underline it making it stand out from the whole spreadsheet. I also decided to make the sheet more aesthetically pleasing by adding colors where necessary. I decided to give each different category a different color, and there will be a color legend on the bottom of the page. I will do some more research and try to find out whether colors can be used in formulas, this will make it much easier for the client or the company to calculate data effectively. I have also shown in the sketch above the different formulas I will be using to make my product more efficient and user friendly for my client. 

For calculating the salary, I have given the formula: = cell + other cell. On the left-hand side you will see the company logo, I did not make any changes to this. 

Evaluation:

Design 2 is preferred as design 1 lacks sophistication in controls, formulas, and user accessibility. Design 2 includes several options to the user and also has an option to look at categories with ease, because of the color coordinated scheme. This design looks well-structured and aesthetically pleasing, hence this would be preferred. In the design specification I have mentioned the requirements of my client, and they would like the product to be easily accessible and data to be clear and easy to find. Design 2 serves this purpose, as the title is in a professional font along with a dark underline to give further importance. The whole spreadsheet is based on the requirements, as the colors make it much easier for the user to quickly find what they are looking for. 

Design 1 and 2 for product and stocks data spreadsheet:

For product details I found that there was much more thought required, and since there were many calculations that would take place, I created a small legend on the bottom with all the different formulas. Again I have kept the logo on the left side. The title "Products", is written in an eye-catching font which looks aesthetically pleasing. Since, there are so many cells that may be hard to identify it made sense to make each cell a different color (Color code). To understand how to best make a product design, I had to think like the user's perspective to understand the flaws and make sure that everything on the sheet made sense and was user friendly most importantly. This is the 2nd tab of the spreadsheet and will have a similar layout to the first one to make sure they match. The different formulas I decided to add to this product to make it more useful to my client are: Count if, this will help the client (or company) find a specific category of a product they are looking for. For example, since I am doing an electronic company, they would frequently check how much stock might be available for a certain product, and for them to skim through all the data would be difficult, as it would be time consuming and not as efficient. There would be addition and subtraction to calculate prices of products together, easily. 

For the second design I did exactly the same as the first one but the only change I had made was making the title bold and underlined giving it more importance. I also decided to keep the font professional and readable for the client. This is much more effective and is good for office uses as it serves the purpose well. 

Evaluation:

Design 2 is preferred as design 1 lacks sophistication in controls, formulas, user accessibility, and variety of formulas to help navigate the system efficiently. Design 2 includes several options to the user and also has an option to look at categories with ease, because of the color coordinated scheme. This design looks well-structured and aesthetically pleasing, hence this would be preferred. In the design specification I have mentioned the requirements of my client, and they would like the product to be easily accessible and data to be clear and easy to find. Design 2 serves this purpose, as the title is in a professional font along with a dark underline to give further importance. The whole spreadsheet is based on the requirements, as the colors make it much easier for the user to quickly find what they are looking for. There are many more formulas in the sheet, making the product more user friendly and less time consuming. 

Gantt Chart - The chart below shows the timeline that will be used as a guide to aid me with completing the tasks: (This gantt chart was too large to fit clearly on one shot, I will be emailing the document as well)

Test Plan:

Even after evaluating the different designs to pick out the best it is not good enough to give to the client yet. The product has to go through a test plan to make sure it will be suitable for the client, and will work effectively without any issues. Firstly, I will be testing the buttons on the menu page to make sure, any coding work that has been done is working or not. The options that have been given in this product are useful, although if they do not work when necessary the client will have many issues with the system. All the features provided to the client by the product will be tested to make sure it performs as planned for example, when data is added the fields will be checked to see if the correct data is entered and stored, this needs to be checked to avoid errors in calculations when client is actually beginning to use the product. I will make sure different features and options are working as required, for example the add and delete button. If there is an issue with this there will be a problem in calculating data, and the user will be unable to use to product to its potential use. I will make sure formulas and options given on the page work to ensure a good product. 

Next feature I will check is the integrity of data on the spreadsheet using the validation rules. The tests will be carried out using 3 Types of Data. These data types are: 

1. Normal Data - This data is the correct data on the sheet, and when entered the system should recognize and accept it. It is also important to look at the display of the output, to ensure all features are mentioned and clearly to the user, for easy access. To test this more effectively I will type in a variety of data to make sure the system can cope with different calculations that may be required by the client, to fit their needs. 
2. Abnormal Data - Unlike the normal data, abnormal data will have many errors/mistakes, so that the can be denied by the software. This will test how well the software will work when incorrect data has been inputed into the spreadsheet, this will ensure the user doesn't make any errors. The system needs to tell the user that there is some error, to make the user aware of the error before putting crucial data or details about the company. There should be some message or indication from the system to help the user achieve their expected target. I will be entering several invalid or data with mistakes, to ensure the system works to its full potential/requirement. 
3. Extreme Data - The extreme data will test the rules used within the software. This data is far more easier than normal data and it should be immediately accepted by the software. 

Below is a test plan table  which will be used when actually testing the product for errors: 

Number of Test	Feature Tested	Input Data	Expected Result	Successful?
1	(In this box I will write the name of the feature I am testing)	(What I have received after trying this feature)	(What was this feature meant to do for the client?)	(Did the feature work as you planned it to? Yes or no?)
2	-	-	-	-
3	-	-	-	-

Diagram: This diagram represents the layout of the program and how the menus will be linked.

Employee data diagram:

(Unfortunately the resolution of my diagram is unclear, below I will write down the points mentioned in the diagram above).

• Add employee ID number, name (First and Last), gender, and age.
• Add years worked to spreadsheet. 
• Add position and qualification of Employee.
• Add salary or annual salary of employee. 
• Delete employee data. 
• Save or send employee details.
• Print employee details.

Product details diagram:

(Unfortunately the resolution of my diagram is unclear, below I will write down the points mentioned in the diagram above).

• Add product name
• Add product category (color coordinate) 
• In stock availability of product.
• Demand and supply of product.
• Supplier and warranty of product.
• Delete product
• Save and Print product details. 

Utilities diagram:

(Unfortunately the resolution of my diagram is unclear, below I will write down the points mentioned in the diagram above).

• Password - To secure confidential files/data.
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Word
• Graphics - For creating graphs to represent different data in the company. 
• Save data - This function will allow the user to save all the data they have entered to the product.
• Delete data - Any errors that the company would like to change can be made by deleting irrelevant data.
• Print data - To have a hard copy which can be given to multiple people. 

Flow Chart - This will show the order the instructions will come in:

This flowchart shows how the product will start out, creating this flowchart will help me look at any design flaws or any important data that needs to be added.

Reference:

• Exceljet. (2012). 300 Excel Formula Examples. Available: https://exceljet.net/formulas. Last accessed 20th Oct 2016.
• Jumbo Electronics Company. (2016). Jumbo Products. Available: http://www.jumbo.ae/. Last accessed 20th Oct 2016.

Criteria A - Inquiring and Analysing

Research Question: How can a Business or an Organization modernize its records using Information Technology?

Introduction to my Scenario:

I would like to help an electronic store's company (Sharaf DG), by creating a design to easily manage products in the company. This will make it easier to calculate large financial accounts in the company. Some aspects that can be improved in the business by this are:

• Rent of the store
• Cost of electricity
• Cost of different types of products in the company (Cameras, TVs, Phones)
• Product cost yearly (How much money goes into getting the products)
• Purchased product cost (How much money is made from each product)
• Staff Salary (How much does each staff member receive each month/year)

I would like to introduce a software that will allow employers working in the company, to easily and efficiently calculate large amounts of money, income, tax, etc. I have chosen this scenario because this company works with doing many calculations, and requires a more efficient method to store and calculate financial accounts in the business. 

How is my product useful:

I want to solve the problem of collecting data on difficult/outdated softwares, to make it easier to calculate big amounts. The best software I have found is Excel. The previous software that the company was using is called 'Open Office' which is a slow and difficult to navigate software that is used for the database calculations.

My product is useful because, Microsoft excel allows you to collect and calculate large data easily and efficiently. Many businesses collect data from multiple sources, which include in-store transactions, online sales and social media. This means that they need a quick and efficient way to gather the data together and analyze it. Excel is mostly used for financial information and the data that is relevant to financial information.

Advantages and disadvantages of using databases:

Advantages:

• The information can be easily inputed into the system
• The information can be easily accessed 
• Data can be stored in different files and labeled to avoid confusion 
• Reduces errors
• Improved data security
• Less time consuming
• Automatic calculation system
• Data can easily be added or deleted and stored easily
• Data can be secured with a password/passcode

Disadvantages:

• Loss of data, if infected by a virus
• Might be difficult for new users to navigate

Looking at this list you can see there are many more advantages than disadvantages to using a database on your computer to use for inputing data calculations. 

Comparison of two database software’s:

The company that I have looked at uses 'Open office' which is a software which allows you to collect database on to a spread sheet much like excel, although there is not a variety of formulas like excel. The formulas that are used in open office are very complex and are difficult to use for the first time, it is not as efficient and requires more time to do work than in excel. Comparing the two softwares open office and Microsoft excel, I think that excel is a way more superior machine to open office as it is user friendly and provides the user with easy accessible formulas which can be used to calculate multiple different types of data. (I found through my interview of a different software the company uses called "Oracle Financials"). This system will be discussed after the interview takes place, to have further understanding. 

Primary Research:

(Interview with head of Sharaf DG)

Question No. 1: What products does the company sell? 

Answer : The company deals in electronics products across multiple categories. These are: (1) Cameras (2) TVs (3) Printers (4) Flash memory Products (5) Photography Accessories

Question No. 2 : How many showrooms does the company have?

Answer : The company is a distribution as well as retail company. It has 30 own stores (Retail) and supplies to 70 stores of other retailers (as Distributor).

 Question No. 3 : What is the sale of the company?

Answer: For the year 2015 following are the sales numbers:

The category wise Unit (or Volume) Sale is as follows:

Cameras = 150,000 Units

TVs = 35,000 Units

Printers = 40,000 Units

Flash Memory Products = 250,000 Units

Photography Accessories = 50,000 Units

Category-wise Value (Dirham) Sales

Cameras = AED 125,000,000/-

TVs = AED 52,000,000/-

Printers = AED 35,000,000/-

Flash Memory Products = AED 20,000,000/-

Photography Accessories = AED 5,000,000/-

Question No. 4: What Financial System do you use? What Financial/ business details/ records does the system keep for the company?

Answer:  The company uses Oracle Financials ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) System. This system collects, stores, manages and interprets data for many business activities like- Product Forecast and Planning, Costing, Purchases & Sales, Stocks & Inventory. The system is able to generate several Reports, charts and Analysis which help in planning and running the business including maintaining all financial records of the company.

Question No. 5: What problems or shortcomings do you face in this system?

Answer: PROBLEMS

1. The system is difficult to implement in the first place (new introduction stage in the company)
2. The system has an outdated GUI (Graphic User Interface). It has complicated screens and one must use only keyboard commands to operate the system. This was done more than 15 years ago. Now a days easy to use click on the screen type of systems have come.
3. The system is slow in terms of processing information
4. It is difficult to customize the system to company’s specific needs. It is not flexible. It has in-built programs which operate only in certain standard ways. 
5. We are not able to use the Marketing and Service Module as these cannot be easily adapted to our company current systems.
6. The system is more suitable for large companies. Smaller new custom utilities are difficult to introduce.
7. The system is expensive to buy, maintain and upgrade.
8. The after sales support of local Oracle office is rather slow.
9. The system requires qualified IT professionals to support it.
10. The system has not been fully successful as some processes like balance sheet, HR and After Sales Service are being done using other supplementary systems.

Question No. 6:  How many employees work in the company? How is the employee salary calculated and disbursed?

Answer :  The company has a staff strength of 600 employees. The company uses Oasis HR System to maintain the attendance, work hour, salary, leave and incentive details of the employees. Once the parameters are set in the system and employee data is entered the system automatically maintains all records and helps in automatically calculating monthly salary of each employee to send to bank.

Current Software:

The software the company is currently using is called "Oracle Financials". Through the interview I found out exactly what kind of data the company is storing on this software. The company stores: Product Forecast and Planning, Costing, Purchases & Sales, Stocks & Inventory. The current system can generate several Reports, charts and Analysis which helps the company in planning and running the business including maintaining all financial records of the company. Hearing about this product I thought that it was very useful and effective for the company to store their financial accounts. Although, later when asked about the issues, I felt that the company badly needed a new software that could help conserve time. This system has outdated graphs and fit their company when it was built for them 15 years ago, now it is slow and functions are all outdated. The system cost price is also very high, whereas excel can be bought for a much cheaper price with more qualified functions. Oracle Financials also require high level of IT skills to operate, making it hard for users, whereas excel is an easy to learn tool, which is user friendly and helps save a lot of time.

Interview - Understanding of new system design:

After doing an interview I have an overview of how the company is run and exactly what financial details are required to be stored on the spreadsheet. The system used is old and outdated, which slows down the working speed for calculating income of employees and product pricing. Using excel I will create multiple spreadsheets with different headings for easy access, one with salary, one with product, and so on. For each sheet I will write down the suitable formula that will be used, to make the spreadsheet further useful, and a lot more efficient. However, before creating the product I will first make a list of all the things that are needed, so that I can satisfy the needs of the customer.

Secondary Research:

I have researched about electronics, and their importance in our society. I have come across many websites which explain how our society is now so well versed with technology, that it is very difficult to live without it. From every small thing we do everyday, it is connected to technology some way or the other. Nowadays, everyone I know has a laptop and a phone, which they use in their daily lives, and so do I. Being in the electronic business employees know how important electronic devices are to us and how frequently buyers come to buy these electronics. Almost all jobs involve electronics, whether it is using a projector at school for education or working on computers to input high amounts of calculations.

Technology is growing fast and many new changes have come forward in the past few years. Taking our school for example, starting from this year we will not have written end of year assessments, but digital e-assessments done on the computer.

Research Plan:

What will I research?	How will I gather the information? PRIMARY SOURCE	How will I gather the information? SECONDARY SOURCE	Why will I research this information?	When will I do this?
Electronic Stores	Interview: I will interview my dad who manages an electronic store, questions about products, prices, deals, etc.	I will research different electronic stores online, and gather information from the best website I can find.	I need to research to have a better understanding of how the product needs to be designed to suit the user/company.	Sep 30th
Products	I will ask my dad about different products that come into the store yearly, and what pricing do each of them have.	I will research different online stores which have they latest products and their pricing.	I need to research this information to know exactly what information will go into the excel spreadsheet.	Oct 1st
Salary	I will ask my dad about the salary system in his company, and about how the salaries vary in different positions in office/company.	I will research online about the salaries for employees at an electronic store.	This information will help me get an idea of the amount of money that will go into the spreadsheet.	Oct 3rd
Man Power	I will ask my dad how much man power is required for managing electronics in all departments. (Retail, Sales, Managing)	I will research online the same thing to gather more information from different sources.	To understand the work place better so I have a better and clear understanding of the task.	Oct 6th

SWOT analysis:

Strengths:

The strengths of creating these excel spreadsheets for the company is to make their work a lot easier and efficient. By using this software the company will cut its calculating time in half, because Microsoft excel provides many formulas which make it easy to calculate large amount of numbers and financial accounts. For example: Income, salary, product price, rent, etc.

Weaknesses:

It is not possible for you to "Carry around" your data, like you could on a piece of paper. This could be inconvenient if business men want to give presentations to other companies and just want to give an over view of some statistics in their company.

Opportunities:

Excel allows the user to analyze and evaluate data better by comparing different data on spreadsheets to determine calculations and findings through work/business. An opportunity can be to use this same tool, Microsoft excel for a different company. 

Threats:

A threat that could occur in the process of developing spreadsheets on excel could be that you accidentally delete the file, then that file is lost and a new one will have to be made to replace it. Another threat could be a virus in the computer which may corrupt the file, to again causing the file to be deleted, or maybe the virus might change the data in the excel database.

Tools used for the product:

To create an efficient and user friendly product I used the tool Microsoft excel to create spreadsheets to help a electronic company sort/organize it's financial numbers carefully and effectively. Microsoft excel allows the company to do many different calculations making it easier to sort financial accounts. There are different formulas available to use on excel, allowing the user to calculate through many different devices such as: Adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and many more, which can be discovered through using excel more often. 

Design brief:

My design is made for an electronic store, using an efficient tool called 'Microsoft Excel'. This product will help keep all of the banking records of the company safe in one place. This will solve the issue of using older models or paper to write down information, it is quick and efficient. I will be creating a spreadsheet with multiple tabs for different areas of calculation requirements for the company. I will be writing the formulas on a page to make my design more usable and user friendly. 

References:

• PALO ALTO SOFTWARE. (1996). 4 Free Alternatives To Microsoft Excel.Available: http://articles.bplans.com/4-free-alternatives-to-microsoft-excel/. Last accessed 5th Oct 2016.
• Unknown . (2016). Database - Advantages & Disadvantages. Available: http://www.cl500.net/pros_cons.html. Last accessed 5th Oct 2016.
• Reference An IAC. (2016). What are the advantages of using Excel?.Available: https://www.reference.com/technology/advantages-using-excel-80771ef843b7b15e. Last accessed 5th Oct 2016.
• Hearst Newspapers. (2016). Importance of Computers in the Business World. Available: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-computers-business-world-4013.html. Last accessed 5th Oct 2016.