BSA5

This project involved the development and design of the Sales and inventory management system which is a computer based application made to aid in the management of the SalesCo company. The primary aim was to design and develop the system to allow the company to easily manage their sales, product stocks, employees, records, printing of invoices and receipts as well as the improvement of the data security of their transactions.

Initially I brainstormed and integrated different ideas of how the application will be in terms of the user interface as well as the backend database that will store SalesCo’ s data. I created sketches of the interface as well as research on the best database to handle the data storage.

After the development of this design, I carried out a test of how it would look as well as how good and responsive the interface was. I also carried out tests to see how fast the software could interact with the database itself.

After testing, I found the best way was to use the ribbon forms design in combination with the access database to create a fast and operational system that could handle the daily use in the organization. The use of the system during the formal usage is expected to be successful.

Industry Background

The software industry is an extremely large industry originating from before the 1970s. Programmers used binary code to make applications which was long, cumbersome as well as extremely hard to work with leading to systems that were hard to maintain, improve or debug. The years passed, better languages were developed like C and C++ that solved majority of the issues and were easier to make systems and applications with.

In the present day, the software industry has developed into many individual industries and groups that include operating systems, computer applications, mobile applications, network management tools as well as enterprise software that allow for the proper management of large and small companies alike.

Operating systems have been developed that control the basic functioning of computers and networks while other utility programs like antiviruses carry out support tasks. All this are developed by programming languages which have also become diverse and spanned across different fields in life such as mathematics as well as engineering.

Although software has been very important in the computer industry, this market did not become large until the development of personal computer happened. Companies like IBM and Apple developed them allowing any individual to acquire one, use as well as easily move them from one point to another. The popularity allowed the development of multiple applications to offer and solve issues that arose from computer use

Although software has always been an important part of computer history, the software market did not really take off until the advent of the personal computer. IBM debuted its personal computer in 1981. Osborne released the first portable computer that same year. Apple came out with the first graphical user interface (GUI) and mouse, two innovations that would have an enormous impact on the industry. The GUI made computers much easier for the average person to use. Previously, software was used primarily by advanced computer users, but the GUI allowed nontechnical people to make easy use of computers.

The software industry in America has contributed $475.3 billion to the economy which was in the year 2016, according to the Software Alliance, which had directly resulted into the providence of up to 2.5 million jobs.

The growing field of mobile apps has generated about $69.7 billion in revenue in the year of 2015 and was projected by Statista to reach $188.9 billion by the end of this year, 2020.

Technology Trends

The software industry has become increasingly big and sophisticated that has led to the development of complex systems designed to solve modern day issues in a faster way. Some of this new trends in technology include:

· Automated Intelligence: This are computer systems designed to mimic the human brain i.e. human intelligence and perform automated tasks. It has been heavily adopted and used in a myriad of industries such as hospitals to quickly analyze and find diseases based on various symptoms and behavior, in the transport system to perform automated delivery as well as automated driving of passengers etc. Its predicted that this field will create more than 23 million jobs by the end of 2020.

· Robotics: The heavy reliance of robots has ensued over the past few years and is set to continue. Complex systems are being developed to control robots that are used to carry out a plethora of tasks such as delivery, machine operations as well as in the manufacturing industry.

· Virtual Reality: Systems have been created to immerse users into a given environment allowing them to interact with it as if they were physically in that location. This has really improved a lot of areas such as gaming as well as meetings especially in this Pandemic days, and is set to gain more traction over the coming years.

· Cybersecurity: As much as this is not an immerging trend, it’s an important sector which is continuously growing as the different technologies come up. Different methods and software such as encrypts are being developed to boost cyber security. New methods are being developed to boost and increase security of data. This field is set to increase jobs in the US by 3.5 million by 2021.

The following is the software market trend from 2016 to a projected output of 2020 to 2021

Project Approach

The project used the waterfall approach which involved the identification of issues surrounding SalesCo, which was the lack of accountability, storage, management and security of their business. This system was thus developed to aid and eliminate all the above named issues by offering a secure system designed to store business records, allow for easy management of this records, offer employee accountability, keep track of products as well as transaction details, allow for the printing of invoices and receipts as well as offer reports and sales history all at a centralized location.

Research was done to look at the best methods, codes, databases as well as user interface designs that would best suit the organization. Interviews were also conducted at SalesCo to facilitate a better understanding of their needs in terms of customization and control arrangements.

The system was thus developed in the VB.Net language, with C# components as well as an access database (easily portable to SQL) offering the best and seamless transition from their already existing traditional modus operandi to a computerized mode.

Selected Vendors

The following were my selected vendors that aided in this project

Microsoft Cloud: Developed by Microsoft, which is a reputable organization, and is a cloud service that will allow the application to backup data In a secure manner on the cloud network

Microsoft Access: Also developed by Microsoft and allows me to manage as well as create the database needed to store and manage the organization’s data.

Microsoft Visual Studio: An integrated development environment developed by Microsoft that allowed me to construct, make and test the system itself.

Alternative Approach

An alternative approach that I can use would be the Agile approach which would entail that the, system be used as is while the development of other features is ongoing rather than completing all the features before the application itself can be used.

This will be easier for the users to build a rapport with the system and understand it, but at the same time it has its demerits in that not all the features would be accessible to the users simultaneously which may lead to a halt of some operations within SalesCo.

Impact Analysis

The current traditional way of business management is not fit for purpose, thus the new tailored business management system provides a more efficient and secure way of managing SalesCo as a company.

This however will require transition of all employees from the older system to the new system which offers a huge gap to be filled especially since it will be a full organizational change that will require a full overhaul with the introduction of new technologies such as computers, local area networks as well as network and system peripherals like scanners and printers.

This system will impact the employees who will require skills and knowledge to work with the system itself, technology which will result in the use of wireless and interconnected technologies to streamline data management and transfer as well as impact the regular business processes of data management by the introduction of a computerized module of work rather than traditional modes like files and folders and other physical or tangible items. The stakeholders will also be impacted as the business will experience a new method of operation.

This change will come with its own risk which include the risk of not addressing the skills gap effectively which will result in a high impact on the system since the system will be used and operated by individual employees. This will also result into poor usage as well as wastage of the new resources due to inadequate or improper usage.

Roles such as of the data managers, employee managers, stock takers, clerks and sellers will be affected by the system which may total to over 50 employees.

All this impacts can easily be mitigated by the proper training, coaching as well as face to face briefing of the system users. Active and visible support from the sponsors should also be encouraged.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

This project is highly feasible. The purchase and maintenance of reports as well as other utilities like writing materials. Storage locations far outweighs the development cost of the system itself.

In an example. The system development cost is slotted at $400. The cost for purchasing storage and writing materials per month is $250. Add the maintenance cost of an additional $150 per month, this results to the equivalent of the purchase for every month clearly showing the benefits of this system far out way the costs

Financial Analysis

The system will bring financial value to SalesCo as a company by directly reducing operational costs involved in the maintenance and usage of records and reports by saving on costs directed at this items as a whole.

The system will also provide an easy and fast way to access financial records as well as analyze profits and profit margin. This boosts the accountability increasing the effectiveness of the financial part of the company as a whole.

Risk analysis

Risks involved include:

· Poor training. This will result in the inadequate as well as inaccurate usage of the system which may result to inaccurate data as well as records that may result to invalid feedback from the system as well as tabulations.

· Employment. Some employees such as the record maintainers as well as the record keepers may lose their jobs as a result to the automated new system. This may result to cuts of loyal employees and bread wieners.

· Computer security. Computerized systems offer a new avenue for crooks such as hackers who may want to access the data and use it for illegal purposes, this is a high risk and as much as the system has sufficient security modules, employees need to be competent with security tasks and information that will aid enhance and secure the data and system too.

This risks can be heavily mitigated by proper training and education of the employees on the proper use of the system as well as secure methods to protect data and maintain the security of the system itself as well as offer consistent updates to the system.

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