Drawbacks of the existing system

Though, it seems that the existing system is easy to use but as the world is moving on
to service oriented nature, the existing system seems to be very much time consuming
& is not suitable for a company with high ambitions. The current system has many
drawbacks.
Limitations of the existing system

Errors and Inconsistencies:-

It is virtually impossible for a human being to be accurate and

perfect all the time. This is where errors occur. Sometimes doing the routine job day in
and day out becomes very boring and bugs an individual like anything. This is where
an individual’s concentration takes a beating and he makes mistakes which can be
very serious and can cause an irreparable damage.

Slow, tedious, time consuming:-

Searching a record of a particular consumer from a big fat

registers is certainly a very time consuming and tedious task. This is because the
search requires the managers to go through all the registers/ledgers and search the
particular record from a set of 500 to 1000 records or even much more than that.

Lack of security:-

Since the different information pertaining to a consumer is

maintained in a register and stored in cupboards, shelves, drawers etc. it is not at all
secured from the crooks who would like to change it as per their advantage. Such
changes could end up being very serious not only to the department but also to the
entire organization. E.g. any changes in the connected load or maximum demand may
end up being very expensive for the organization as a whole.

Information redundancy:-

Every month the register containing the records are updated by

copying the necessary information of the consumer for the new month. Such
redundancies are not required as the information is already stored previously but the
manager can’t use it effectively as it is stored in an inconvenient way.
The drawbacks include the following:
 There is no proper security provided and anyone can access the confidential
documents.
 If a customer's information is to be known than the whole file has to be referred,
which being a manual process is a tedious work.
 If a specific purchase is to be made then the file is referred to search for that
particular products vendor.
 The company is unaware of their weekly, monthly sales & profits. Even if they
desire to do so it is a tidy, time-consuming process.
 The company does not have the glance of all customers at a particular time.
 Inconsistencies in information can be found if the data is not updated at all
places. The workload in the company is always at heights.
 Loss of information on time can lead to loss of valuable customers & business.
 As the data is maintained at various places there are chances of data redundancy.
 Salary for the employees had to be calculated manually which was a tedious
process.
 Proper track of the investments made was not kept.
 Many a times the payments that had to be received from some customers were
overlooked.
 No provision for back ups in case of damage or loss of data and information.
 Proposed System
As the technology is continuously changing the current methodologies that are
being used need to undergo a drastic change. It is also seen that the existing system
has many drawbacks; we would like to overcome the same by developing a system
whose characteristics are more advanced then the current processes being undertaken.

The areas that are to be automated include:

 The billing system.
 The investments management.
 The purchase records.
 The sales records.
 The customer records.
 The supplier records.
 The payment records.
 The employee’s record and their salary.
 The back ups.

So we propose the following changes that are incorporated in the new system:
 Customer & Supplier details at a centrally located database are provided.
 The bills can be generated with the customer details.
 The status of sales & purchase can be referred for strategic planning.
 All the fields are updated by a click of a button.
 Daily, weekly & yearly, sales report can be viewed at regular intervals whenever
required.
 The company can have a glance of all the customers, their monthly purchase and
any credit by them.
 The company can have a glance at all suppliers selling products and at what price.
 Profits and losses incurred in investments made can be easily calculated.
 Records of all the employees can be maintained properly and salary can be
calculated easily.
 Proper security is provided and care is taken to prevent unauthorized access.
 Back ups can be taken and restored in case of system failure.
 Scope and Objective of the system
The company used a traditional method of doing business. It used to
Maintain the stock in the registers, the bills were made manually, the documentation
for investments made was done manually etc. The piles of files increased and the
paper had the fear of getting damaged, or lost. New employees were brought in to
handle the company paper work. The increasing workload forced the company to
change its method of working. The Shares Manual Updating leads to data
inconsistency at various levels. The customer records are kept in a file that is to be
opened every time any transaction with that customer/supplier takes place. It does not
know the annual, monthly, weekly, daily sales report. It does not get any idea that
whether it is moving towards its mission. It is completely ignorant about a particular
customer’s sale, the credit limit it has reached, the purchase made in a particular
period, etc.
As the company had set its goals it could not afford to loose its valuable time, and its customers in the fast moving world,
so it wanted something that could help in serving its valuable customer in a more efficient, better way.
It was than that the company decided to change the existing system. The new system will keep a track of daily, weekly,
monthly sales. All the documents and the values will be automatically placed and printed. It will keep records of all the customers,
suppliers & products. All the stock will be updated automatically as the sales or purchase is made. All the different reports that are
required to run business successfully are generate at a click of a button, which includes the purchase/sell at any particular date
can be known, the payment made to any supplier, any pending bill of any customer, etc.

Considering the complete new entry in the technology world the

languages used are very user friendly, and very easy to operate. For Front End Visual
Basic 6.0 and for Back end ‘Microsoft Access’ are

used. Visual Basic is used as it is easy, efficient, flexible, and it helps in making good
GUI. Access is used because of its easy availability, security, etc. Crystal Report used
for generating different types of reports. Crystal report has many wide features like
sorting, filtering, grouping, formatting etc.
 Problem Definition

Defining the problem is one of the most important activities of the project. The
objective is to define precisely the business problem to be solved and thereby
determine the scope of the new system.

This phase consists of two main tasks:-

 The first task within the activity is to review the business needs that
originally initiated the project.

 The second task is to identify, at an abstract or general level, the

expected capabilities of the proposed system

A clear understanding of the problem will help us build a better system and reduce the
risk of project failure. It also specifies the resources that are to be made available to the
project.

The problem that is to be solved by the new system includes the following:

 The Bills should be computerized.

 The investments tracking should be computerized.
 The Customer records should be maintained in a place, which
can be utilized to for making bills and other documents.
 The employee’s records storage and salary calculation should be
made easier.
 The manual documentation processes should get reduced.