Tourists or business men

The company chosen for my project is Holiday Cars. Holiday Cars are a car rental firm owned by manager Guarav Puri, there services are for people who require temporary personal means of transport e.g. tourists or business men. Their friendly and most helpful customer service and quality low priced cars have become popular especially with tourists, so therefore the companies database is rapidly increasing.

At the moment Holiday Cars current database system is not computerised. All information is recorded on pen and paper, customer contact details are kept in a desktop rolodex and all other information is stored in a file cabinet. The current system is inefficient; there is no form of organisation due to the unexpected rapid growth of the firm. All files are put into file cabinets by date, unintentionally.

As other departments of the firm who happen to be off site require the derived information from sales, they need to be transported safely, but in the past paperwork has gone missing on the way. Therefore Holiday Cars feel it necessary to computerise their system. By computerising the system, all files will be kept safely, back ups will be made. Also a WAN will be used so the other departments needing the information will get it instantly and safely.

Secondly with their unorganised system, Holidays car system of having current customers and past and possible customer have been mixed up, so as said before the new system will bring organisation to the firm. 3.1(ii) Investigating the Problem I had arranged and interview with the owner Mr Puri but as managing owner he was not available to help me with my investigation so he kindly arranged an interview with assistant manager Ian Wright. Rather than making questions before going into the interview I had listed a range of topics to discuss, so I didn't have to be very specific, therefore getting a better idea of what Holiday Cars want from the new system.

The new system is being made to replace the current system. It is only for storing and retrieving customer and service details. From this it will make Holiday Cars much more efficient. The system has been built to cope with the current large unexpected demand for the companies services, so ten times maybe even more of what is already attained can be stored. As VBA can be used in Microsoft Access, I can use it to make any modifications needed

Software

The software I intend to use is Microsoft Office XP. I have chosen this package as is has a wide range programs e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel and Access. Access will be used to store all the database information. Word will be used to create templates for customer information sheets and receipts.  A Norton's Anti-virus and Firewall, to stop any unwanted external users from accessing the system. Hardware Firstly to achieve my new system, we require a computer as Holiday Cars previously didn't require one.

Preferably the computer would have a 2.0 gigahertz processor, to have the speed to access the information instantaneously. 256MB of DDR Ram, so large amounts of information can be held open at one time. 80gigabyte hard drive, so massive amounts of information can be permanently stored. A CD rewriter, so information can be backed up by other means, just in case of a hard drive failure. This is an ideal system as it suits Holiday Cars needs and also I have a computer of the same spec so I can work on to develop the new system.

Also a printer is required. The printer must be a laser printer and of a high quality. To produce quality prints of receipts etc. Level I.T. Skills Employees Possess In my investigation, Mr Wright informed me that his employees have the basic skills to operate a computer and do have keyboard qualities. Therefore he assured me they would not have any problems in using the new system. Mr Wright did inform me that the employees may undergo minor training to use Access as most do not understand using query and form functions.

System Requirements The Office XP package is the most suitable package for the new system as it caters for all needs. The Word program will produce templates for customer receipts and customer forms. The Access program is being used to store all the information that Holiday Cars have. To back my decision to use Office XP, Mr Wright has not specified any software package to use as he is not knowledgeable in the field of I.T. Secondly I already have many skills in using Office XP's programs as I have used it previously to complete other tasks. It is available to me at home, so I can develop the system further.