L3 Database Development
Please see L3 Database DevelopmentDeliverablefor a visual example of how to format your deliverable. You must post your L3 to turnitin.com by the beginning of class when it is due.
Sales
One of the keys to sales is networking. Salespeople routinely network with multiple departments within a company. Oftentimes the last person that you want to talk to is the purchasing director. Why? The purchasing director’s primary interest is your price. Most suppliers would prefer not to compete exclusively on price. By establishing contacts in the quality assurance and research and development departments (as just two examples), you are able to make a case for paying a little extra for your product or service. It is far better to walk into the purchasing director’s office accompanied by,and with the blessings of, a key employee from quality assurance or research and development. Networking is so important that good salespeoplewill try to establish contact with around 25 people in the company in order to penetrate the account.
Networking requires the maintenance of contact information such as addresses, phone numbers, and titles. However, it also requires knowing what has transpired on the account. What did you promise to do and by when? What did the customer promise? This information should be recorded in a detailed task log. Reviewing this information the night before a visit to an account is invaluable.
In an ongoing account you should work with the purchasing director to forecast sales. Forecasts serve as early warning devices. If the following year, the company is not buying according to the forecast, then you need to find out why. Companies usually will not tell you that there is a problem with your product or your service. Rather the orders will trail off over a few months and then disappear altogether. If you can inquire early as to why orders have fallen off, then there is a chance to salvage the account.
While you will receive accolades and commissions when you exceed your forecast for an account, management tends to focus more on accounts that do not meet their numbers. This is because it is so expensive to acquire a new customer. Therefore, any report that comes out of a database should make it very easy to identify underperforming accounts.
Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Phases
The Systems Development Life Cycle specifies the phases in which a project should be tackled. Your project will be to design a contact management system for a beverage dispenser salesperson.
The five phases of the SDLC as applied to this case are:
- Analysis—what type of system do you use now to track sales? How could it be improved
- Requirements—what type of information should your new system supply?
- Design—How should the new system work? What should the forms and reports look like? What database design will support the system?
- Development—create the new system in Access
- Implementation—test to see whether the new system meets the requirements laid out earlier. Describe how you would persuademanagement to adopt the redesign.
Analysis
Most restaurants carry fountain drink products provided by Coke or Pepsi. Usually the beverages are served using beverage dispensers made by manufacturers such as Cornelius. These manufacturers must be approved by Coke and/or Pepsi before they can be used to dispense beverages. Once approved, the manufacturer must then sell the dispenser to customers. For large chains like McDonald’s the sales would take place at the corporate headquarters in Chicago. For smaller Mom and Pop stores, the dispenser might be provided by Coke or Pepsi with its cost amortized into the agreement for pouring rights at the store.
Assume that the salesperson is currently working with a Rolodex of business cards and handwritten notes to manage accounts. He keeps all of the notes in about a dozen expandable folders. Also, the attached file was sent down from corporate and contains sales data. The file is available electronically on the class website.
An example of the salesperson’s current system is:
Front of Business Card / Back of Business CardNotes from Meeting 04/01/05
Send catalog for Advantage 9000 to Sue
Michael will follow-up regarding new store location, send email reminder if nothing is received
Analysis—Deliverable:
What are the strengths and weaknesses of such a system? How could that system be improved? Write one paragraph to answer these questions and create an As-Is process flow.
Requirements
Requirements—Deliverable:
What type of information should your new system supply? What information should the system gather? What types of screens will the system need? Why? Write one paragraph to answer these questions and create a To-Be process flow.
Design
Your database design will have extra fields that were not in the L2. So, a good starting point is the database design from the L2. However, you will have to create a brand new database along with its forms and reports in MS Access. Look in this documentation for additional fields that were not in the L1 or L2 to include in database.
Design—Deliverables:
- Name two software products that compete with MS Access to develop this solution.
- What tables should your system contain? How should they be related? Create a diagram showing all tables and their fields. Normally, this diagram would be created first in Visio and then approved prior to development. However, you may simply use a screen shot of the relationships view in MS Access.
Development
Create your working system in MS Access. Customize the forms and reports to include the salesperson’s company logo. The file is named deespenzomatic.jpg and is available on the class website.
Hint: To resize the logo, right-click it and choose Properties. On this new small menu, change the size mode to Stretch instead of Clip. Now you will be able to use the sizing handles to shrink the logo.
Development—Deliverable:
For the deliverable, take screen shots of all forms and reports.
Implementation
Implementation—Deliverables:
- Explain in one paragraph how your system meets the requirements that you laid out earlier.
- What strategy would you use to “sell” your systemto management? Write one paragraph.
Computer Skills:Connections:
MS AccessMarketing