INTERVIEW DOCUMENTATION
Name of System:Customer/Product Tracking SystemPage1
Date: Oct. 1 2006
Interviewers: Juanita Martinez & Richard Meyer
Interviewee: Cindy Stone, Sales Manager
Purpose: Gathering information for system requirements
Location: BTS office
Q. How does your system manage the flow of information?
A. Customer information is the first thing you gather, after which we handle their request. Generally this is for a new order, but it can also regard information about a previous order for things such as warranty information, etc.
Q. What kind of information do you collect? What is the most important information you collect?
A. Customer information would include: Name, address, phone, and company name if it relates to a company order. The order information would include: employee and customer reference information, total cost, customer account balance, as well as order/inventory reference information.
Q. How does your order system work? Do youoffer discounts (for larger orders)? Do your products contain warranties?
A. We currently take desk orders and orders by telephone. So a customer would be communicating directly with an employee through the ordering process. An employee wouldtake customer information, and handle the customer's requests for an order. As the customer describes what they're looking for the employee would query the separate database for products matching the needs and build the computer with the customer's continued input.
For larger orders it is possible for us to provide discounts per unit. For example a small business may order three dozen workstations, we may be willing to cut the cost down per workstation by $100. This is a case by case basis.
And yes, our products do contain warranties. Warrantiesinformation istracked on the product/item level and applies to the orderto when the order is finalized.
INTERVIEW DOCUMENTATION
Name of System:Customer/Product Tracking SystemPage2
Date: Oct. 3, 2006
Interviewers: Juanita Martinez & Richard Meyer
Interviewee: Bob Jenkins, Inventory Specialist
Purpose: Gathering information for system requirements
Location: BTS office
Q. How does your system manage the flow of information?
A. Inventory information is the first thing you gather, generally this starts when we add a new product, but it can also regard information about current inventory items.
Q. What kind of information do you collect? What is the most important information you collect?
A. Product name and description would be essential as well as warranty and price information.
Q. How do you manage your inventory? How would you like to manage your inventory in the new system?
A. Our inventory system is on-demand. We keep a limited stock of commonly used parts, however we have ready access through online vendors to order components on demand. This helps reduce our risk of holding onto outdated products. For the new system, it would be great if we could have a list of products we can provide the user, because of our on-demand vendors quantity won't be an issue. We will also need a way to flag products as discontinued so we know not to sell them after a certain date.
INTERVIEW DOCUMENTATION
Name of System:Customer/Product Tracking SystemPage3
Date: Oct. 4, 2006
Interviewers: Juanita Martinez & Richard Meyer
Interviewee: Jim Conners, IT Manager
Purpose: Gathering information for system requirements
Location: BTS office
Q. How does your system manage the flow of information?
A. Since our company started small, the ordering and inventory systems collected information as separate systems and was managed by the Sales and Inventory departments respectively.
Q. What kind of information do you collect? What is the most important information you collect?
A. Our company collects/maintains employee information, customer information, sales orders, and inventory management.
Q. How would you like the organization to manage thedata in the new system?
A. Overall, the customer sales order, employee and inventory information should be consolidated in a web-based intranet. Which collects customer information as a single reference account that can be edited or viewed by authorized employees. The inventory should be also accessible by the authorized employee in terms of completing the sales order process and to view/track a customers’ order. In addition, product information and warranty information should be accessible at the customer’s request.
INTERVIEW SUMMARY
Name of System:Customer/Product Tracking System
Date: Oct. 5, 2006
Prepared by: Juanita Martinez & Richard Meyer
Purpose: Gathering information for system requirements
Project Scope: The existing separate systems have created an inefficient way of tracking customers, inventory information, and order/warranty statuses. This has created a base of poor customer relations due to lost orders and duplicated data that was not cohesive throughout the organization. Must of the problems occur when the customer’s data was obtained in the Sales Department. The customer’s information was inputted into a Customer database, and again in the Order Process system. When the customer’s information was updated in the Customer database, this was not necessarily true in the Order Process system. The intranet would consolidate the necessary information into one system that would allow the accessibility of customer information and their orders, inventory tracking, and employee information. The implementation of such a system would allow better management of the information and would promote better customer relationships. In addition, it would improve inventory tracking and reduce lost orders.
System Objectives
- Consolidate current information
- Improve the operation
- Improve customer relations
- Reduce inefficient way of tracking information
- Reduce lost orders
Required System Features
- Employees should be added into system for reference/reporting purposes.
- Required employee should be able to log into system
- Sales staff will record new customer information and update any customers. At that moment should be able to record and complete customer order
- Employees should be able to provide customers with product and warranty information
- Employees should be able to add/update product information and that information should be automatically available in the inventory portion of the system.