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I want to solve the problem of collecting data on difficult/outdated softwares, to make it easier to calculate big amounts.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.