Company Profile:

Zenith Paints is one of the leading wholesale suppliers of paints and painting accessories in Worcestershire. Currently having a customer base focused mainly in Worcestershire, but are actively seeking to expand this to cover the majority of the UK. As a result of this expansion plan, Zenith Paints are updating all of their current systems to utilise Information Technology. This specified transaction processing system is an extension to their recently introduced batch transaction suite of programs. These programs were a starting point to their overall move towards an entirely electronic system.

System Overview:

The existing system that is being used by Zenith Paints was recently introduced. As a result of the new system the users and their managers have realised that the current system could be made to accomplish more. Currently the users enter transaction data via a simple text editor. There is still a lot of room for user error with this method and both the users and their managers have requested that this method be improved. There is also a new requirement that the stock master and index files are updated via entered stock transactions. The proposed new batch transaction processing system will incorporate the requested changes and help reduce transaction processing further and substantially reduce the number of errors being entered. Meaning that Zenith Paints will move even closer to dealing with a greater number of daily transactions, enabling them to expand their customer base, and increase sales. With the proposed extension of the current system it is hoped for greater customer satisfaction, with more efficient handling of customer orders leading to fewer errors.

The new process will be split into seven distinct tasks, three of which are new additions to their recently introduced system:

Transaction input program, making data entry much simpler and less prone to user error. A report will be produced at the end of transaction input (when the user exits from the program).
Validate the transaction data, producing an error report for invalid transaction records and two new files for valid transactions (customer transaction validated file and stock transaction validated file).
Sort the validated customer transactions into customer number order, create a new file to store the sorted transactions and produce a report of this new sorted file.
Update the customer master file using the sorted customer transactions to create a new generation of the master customer file and produce a report for transactions that cannot be actioned.
Produce a report of customer details from the new customer master file, indicating those customers whose balance has exceeded their agreed credit limit.
Update the stock master file using the validated stock transactions. All errors encountered during the update are reported to the printer with an explanation as to why they were rejected.
Produce a report of stock items from the newly updated stock master file, indicating when a stock item is below its minimum stock level or if it is completely out of stock.

System Use:

The programs must be executed sequentially, from program one to program four.  The programs can be executed by typing the following at a DOS prompt:

494792PX <ENTER>

Where X is the program number, 1 through to 4.  To run program one for example, you would type:494792P1 <ENTER>

NOTE: There are additional command-line arguments that maybe used to override any of the default file names used by each program. Details of these additional arguments are given with each programs documentation.

System Requirements:

The system will be developed to run on Zenith Paints’ existing computer system, which consists of an IBM compatible PC of the following specification:

Pentium III processor running at 500 MHz
192 MB RAM
Microsoft Windows XP Professional (DOS Prompt)
Hewlett Packard DeskJet 600

Development:

Currently Zenith Paints employs a small team of Information Technology personnel, numbering 2 in total (actually just me). This small team may be expanded in the very near future. This is to help move Zenith Paints into a more technology advanced company. With the aid of information technology the company hopes to increase its customer base to encompass the entire United Kingdom. As it is intended that customer’s orders are processed in a quick and accurate manner; therefore allowing more orders to be processed in a shorter period of time than currently achievable.

At this moment in time only one programmer is available to work on the implementation of the given specifications. This programmer shall be responsible for the implementation, the testing and also end user training. It is hoped that another IT trained person will become available to assist in the training of the developed programs.

Testing:

The testing of these programs has got to be very rigorous because if any customer or stock records are lost or incorrectly updated this could mean loss of revenue, and could also lead to Zenith Paints getting a bad reputation with its established customer base. As this move to using IT is supposed to increase business, these seven programs must be tested with every erroneous eventuality being considered. The existing programs must also be tested with any data produced by the new programs.

It is recommended that when the testing phase is considered to be completed that the programs are used along side the current method of customer record processing (as a further level of testing). When it is proven that the new programs process the data correctly in a consistent manner then they will be introduced to the existing system and used as the main method to process customer transactions and stock records.

This method of testing will also give the intended users the opportunity of hands on training of the programs before they are to become the main method of processing. This should increase the end user’s productivity when the programs are introduced on a full term basis.

Time Scale:

There are no fixed time scales to work to for this project, although it is expected that the programs are completed and being used on a full term basis within 6 months. This seems to be a very reasonable expectation.