Design and Implementation of a Sales Management System (a Case Study of Gbemade Mini Sawmill and Woodwork)
Chapter One
Aim and Objectives
Aim of study
To design a Computerized sales Management System for the organization to ascertain stock level of a company , when to order for more goods, keep status and updates of transactions, thereby helping progress level, stock taking and managerial decisions,.
The objectives of the study were classified into general and specific objectives.
General objective
To improve on the sales records management at GBEMADE MINI SAWMIILL AND WOOD WORK SERVICES.
Specific objectives
I. To study the current system and establish both user and system requirements for sales management information system.
II. To design a new sales management information system that will maintain daily cash sales, stock purchases, invoice statements and generate report
III. To implement and validate the new system for logical conclusion.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
The review of literature provides a brief overview of the resources used to complete this project. Included in this review, is how this resource helped to contribute to this research project.
The Management Information System
The review on management information systems had existed since seventies. Many studies had been conducted in this area (Kauffman 1989) and many conferences had been devoted to this subject (The 15thInternational conference on management information systems research theme “improving productivity and adding value through information systems”. 13/14 September 1994 and 11/12 July 1995). Failure of value generation of information systems was also documented (Loveman, 1988; Svendsen, 1996).
A management information system is set interrelated components that collect/retrieve, process, store and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization. In addition to supporting decision making and control, information systems helped managers and workers to analyze problems, visualize complex subjects and created new products. An information system contains information about significant people, positions and things within the organization or in the environment surrounding it. In order to have an information system, there had to be raw data that had to be transformed into information, which was meaningful and useful to human beings. Laudon (2010) stated that information was a resource like any other commodities. It becomes stale and worthless if not used in time. This called for regular updates to replace old, stale and outdate information. Information collected and possessed had to be utilized for increased benefits to solve problems, appropriate decision making and for development (Abidi, 1991). At the same time, the right information was obtained (Yilmaz, 1995). Other scholars observed information as part of business existence and acquiring and processing it were fundamental aspects of life itself (Debons, 1988). Yet other scholars argued that information was power and even the Holy Bible said, ‘My people were perishing because of lack of information’ (Hosea, 1995)
A management information system is a computer based system that supplies the necessary information to efficiently manage an organization. This system entails three primary resources; information, technology and people. A management information system is designed to record information and enhance communication among employees (Knight et al. 2005)
According to (Ajayi, 2007), management information system is information that generates accurate, timely and organized information so that managers and users can make decisions, solve problems, supervise activities and track progress and focuses on generating information that management and other users need to perform their jobs.
Many scholars had put forward views and recommendations on how Management Information System (MIS) would operate and be managed especially with a sales management information system. Consequently, Poel et. al. (1989) looked at the different forms of architectures that made up the system to be in place that allowed continuation of information planning. In the process, information systems had evolved to support these efforts. Among the different types of systems, information architecture was found where information flow was required to support the business processes which led to the development of the application architecture where operational management had to indicate the functionality, how the information systems needed to interact and who was responsible for which data. The information architect identified and maintained the relationships between the different architectural levels and the whole structure of the information system led to supporting the company’s architecture and guarded the quality of the results i.e. conciseness, completeness, consistency, accuracy, effectiveness, timeliness of the system.
The development architecture used many methods but there was need to come up with one method for the system with the right software development process. With one method for use, operational management work would improve as problems got solved instantly in a sales Management Information System, easy to understand, elegant, consistent and complete. This would be implemented with a well-defined interface with data-hiding using passwords and usernames for data access from the system and loose coupling. The system developed had to know the different applications in place and had to communicate efficiently and effectively. The processing of the data was undertaken through sales transaction processing with open source that facilitated Management to get the required reports immediately. This helped in tracking and monitoring at the same time control the system for the extraction of the right information through an application. The response of the required report for well access correlated information across the Management Information System database depended on the data management system complexity of join operations and the differences between the data sources.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this chapter various sources of data collection methods, interviews and analysis of the current and the proposed system are discussed.
Research methodology talks about the procedure, method or approach adopted. To carry out a project effectively and efficiently there must be a method, there must be a procedure.
Research design
The study used both descriptive and analytical methods. Descriptive was undertaken to ascertain and be able to describe the characteristics of sales management system, and analytical based on qualitative and quantitative data both from primary and secondary sources. The study also based on the views of respondents to design and develop
Sampling technique:
The sample design was probability. Under the probability design; the researcher used simple random sampling simplify because it gives an equal chance for respondents to participate in the study and the results can be generalized to a larger population. This was because the respondents were within the building.
CHAPTER FOUR
SYSTEM TESTING AND IMPLEMENTATION
Introduction
This chapter provides a description of the different techniques that were employed not only to understand the business process but also to provide a foundation for developing the proposed computerized system for manages sales records and perform task for sales anywhere, anytime. The designer was able to study how work is done with the current system and clearly identify its weaknesses, and find out the requirements for proposed system.
CHAPTER FIVE
Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations
Summary
After the system implementation, accurate records are got, no likelihood of data errors, there is real time access data and unlimited User Access
Anticipated Limitations of the study
Lack of Knowledge. The use of management sales tracking requires the knowledge of number of related subjects. Deficiency in knowledge in related subjects like sales tracking principles, statistics, economics, principle of management etc. will limit the use of management sales tracking.
Psychological Resistance
Changes in traditional sales tracking practices and organizational set up are required to install the sales management system. It calls for a rearrangement of the personnel and their activities and framing of new rules and regulations which generally may not be liked by the people involved.
Conclusion
Basing on the objective of the study, it was established that sales tracking management for Restaurant sales has a great impact to decision making. Largely, the restaurant had registered a decline in service delivery because of the poor means of managing sales data.
Recommendations
I made the following recommendations for future improvements to the system. Widening the scope, the project’s scope was rather limited to only one department of restaurant .The scope can further be widened to include all the other departments like Human Resource and online services to make a more integrated system that covers the entire project. Increased accessibility, the system can also be further enhanced so that the managers themselves can be able to access their restaurant information online in a secure way.
Areas for further study
Widening the scope with accounting management information like Income Statements, Balance Sheets and Trial balances among others
REFERENCES
- Laudon, k, & Laudon, J. (2010). Management information systems: managing the digital firm. (11th ed.) Upper saddle River.
- Silverschatz, korth, Sudarshan. (2002) Database System Concepts
- Basekerville, R,L. and Myres, M.D…(2002). Management Information systems in Decision making in the south west Nigerian universities. educational research and review, 2(5),109-116
- Hennyeyova (2007), Database systems practical Approach to Design Implementation and Management.
