FIDEL TECHNICAL SYSTEMS

“We Help You Enjoy Technology”

STAND SALES INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

(SSIMS)

Developed By: Chivige Fidelis

Fidel Technical Systems

Shop No. 2 Development House

(Opposite Post Office)

7th Street, Gweru

Contact: +263-775 692 901

A. BACKGROUND

In an attempt to complement the efforts of the government in the implementation of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET), various individuals and councils have ventured in the business of property development so that the housing crisis in the country can be reduced. Each of these companies have visions to become a leading land developing company which is committed to ethically deliver efficient responsive services which enhance the quality of life for all citizens.

Like in any other business, property developers are facing challenges which are hindering the success of the companies. The greatest challenge still stands in information management systems in use. Since critical planning and evaluation of the success of a business is centered on the accuracy and reliability of the information provided, most of these companies lack information management systems that help to easily record, update and analyze the stored information for productive decision making. Due to a large client base and the traditional information management systems in place, most companies are facing challenges in tracking payments made by each and every client, late identification of defaulters and in some cases there is double allocation of stands.

The above mentioned challenges can be overcome by integrating businesses with information communication technologies. The use of automated systems help to save time, stationery and human resource, ensure the organization is furnished with accurate and up-to-date information pertaining to its business operations and ensure that proper decisions are made that help to maximize profits.

B. PROPOSED SOLUTION

We proposed the development of a computer based system, Stand Sales Information Management System (SSIMS). This system will help land developing companies achieve their vision of delivering efficient responsive service by automating routine clerical tasks and reducing paperwork which requires a lot of manual processing. This will also help to reduce in inherent human errors and also results in reduced labor and stationery costs.

C. PROJECT AIM

The aim of the project is to develop and implement a data management system for land developers. This main will be achieved through the following specific objectives:

i. Analyze the current systems in use with the view of getting an in depth appreciation of the land developing companies’ operations.

ii. Gather requirements of the new system.iii. Design, develop and test a computer based system to computerize the operations of land

developing companies and automate some of the routine tasks.iv. Implement the computer system and train users. v. Offer post-implementation technical support.

D. DELIVERABLES

The following are the project deliverables:

Operational Data Management System – The system will be developed to meet all the requirements of a land developing company as well as non-functional requirements such as security, reliability and data integrity.

System User Manuals – User manuals will be provided so that users can easily refer to them for clarification. The manuals will be context sensitive and integrated with the system for easy access.

Technical Manuals – Manuals on how to carry out system administrative tasks will be provided.

User Training – Users will be trained on how to use the system as part of the project implementation.

E. PROPOSED SYSTEM

The proposed system will be developed using Visual C#.Net and will use Microsoft.Net Framework 4 technology. The system database will be running on Microsoft SQL Server.

Figure 1 below shows the main screen of the proposed system.

Figure 1: SSIMS Main Screen

The proposed system will be made up of several modules which will interact with each other. The following section provides a brief description of the main modules that will make up the system:

Stands Module – The stand module will have a functionality for managing the stands including creating new stands, editing details for existing stands, reserving stands and allocating stands to clients. All stands will have to be captured in the system before they can be allocated to clients. Upon allocation of a stand to a client, the system will automatically generate and diarize the payments. Reports under this module will include listing of all stands per project / scheme, list of allocated stands, list of unallocated stands. The system will also give access to General Plans (GPs) for each project site of scheme.

Figure 2: Stand Count of SSIMS.

Clients Module – Client module will handle all client details and have a functionality for capturing, retrieving, and editing client details. Reports under this module will include a list showing clients and the stands by each client, amounts paid and outstanding balances and clients with payments that area in areas.

Figure 3: Snap shot of Clients Module for capturing, retrieving and updating client details.

Figure 4: Snap Shot of SSIMS Payments Record

Payments Module - All payments will be handled through the payment module. Functionality will include receipting cash from clients, paying out suppliers or contractors and other expenses. Each payment captured will be issued a system generated receipt number which can be used to track a payment. See figure 4 above for snapshot of payment module from the system.

Invoices Module - The invoices module will allow the capturing of all invoices issued to the company and keep track of payments on those invoices. Various reports to show pending invoices, paid up invoices and partially paid invoices will available in the system.

Administration Module - This module will be used mainly by the system administrator as it has functionality of carrying out system administrative tasks such as user management, user rights / privileges management, system parameters management and database administrative tasks.

Reports Module – All system reports will be hosted under the reports module. The system will provide options for generating reports in various file formats such as PDF, Word or Excel as well as options to directly print reports.

F. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

The proposed system will be a client-server system structured as shown in Figure 6 below. The server will host the database and the services used by the application. Clients will connect to the server through a wired or wireless network.

The client server architecture offers the following advantages over other systems designs:

It reduces the load on the work station on which the application is running because queries are processed and tables are scanned on a server that is specifically equipped for these operations.

It reduces the load on the network because only the result of a search is transported to the work station and not all the data that was scanned.

As the scope of the database grows, the work stations do not have to be equipped with additional disks or memory. These changes only affect the computer on which the server database runs.

All data is stored at the same place. In this way, management of data becomes easy. Since data is stored on the server, it is easy to make a back-up of it. Also in case of some breakdowns or if data is lost, it can be recovered easily and efficiently.

G. EXPECTED BENEFITS

After the proposed system has been implemented, land developers will enjoy the following benefits from the system:

i. Completeness – The system will ensure that the users have easy access to all the information they want. Checks will be done when data is entered into the system to ensure that all critical information is provided.

ii. Integrity – The system will ensure that all the captured data is correct and consistent (no contradictory data). This will be achieved through validation checks that will be applied before the data is saved in the database.

iii. Flexibility – The system can evolve to satisfy changing user requirements.iv. Efficiency – The system will ensure that users will not have unduly long response times.

With the proposed system, users will be a few clicks away from whatever data they will want and we guarantee system response time of less than 10 seconds.

v. Usability – The proposed system will be easy to use and minimum training will be required for any user who is computer literate.

vi. Security – In the proposed system users will be able to access only the data they are authorized to access and do only do only what they are authorized to do. This will be achieved through the use of access rights and privileges in the system.

vii. Accountability – The auditing module in the proposed system will keep track of the user activities in the system. The system administration will be able to check who did what in the system.

NB.

Fidel Technical Systems is ready to engage with interested companies to develop and deploy the proposed system. As the system developer, we are ready to integrate new functionalities that will help the system to meet specific user requirement, if any. Tailor made systems better meet user expectations, are easier to user due to the provided user training and technical support and have less nuisance because only relevant and useful modules are incorporated. In contrary, some packages may be difficult to use “out of the box” and because of lack of enough user training, challenges are continuously faced which may include failure to carry out some desired functions that the user feels necessary.