CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of Study
Business firms have increasingly turned to the computer-based system to help them perform the vital sales functions in the face of the rapid changes of today’s environment. Because of computers’ speed, memory capacity, versatility and accuracy, has been the catalyst in the development of sales and purchase management system, which integrate the information flow required by the many marketing activities. Computer is also used to make business decision involving millions of naira and so saves man from a tremendous amount of time consuming work. Today, computer is used as a control system for controlling purchasing costs, diagnosis of poor sales performance. Nevertheless, computer is also used as research system for advertising strategy, pricing strategy and evaluation of advertising expenditure and continuous experiment.
The greatest innovation that has taken place in the twenty-first century is the advancement made in information and technology. This is made possible by the introduction of the digital computers which is inseparable from communication. Computer in business has risen above the detailed clerical automation, to provide decision- making assistance at the highest level of management. The ability of computer to store, retrieve and analyse data at tremendous speed at low cost has made it imperative for large corporations and industries to depend on its accuracy and efficiency in its operation. With the environment moving at a fast pace, some organizations view this development as an opportunity to increase their influence and control the data processing of the organization. Business carried out in some organizations is now totally dependent on the accurate operations of computers. The Obisons and Law Company Nig. Ltd., is no exception to the capabilities the computer provides especially in the area of controlling orders made by customers.
Obisons and Law Company Nigeria Limited is a registered business firm, they specialize in Motorcycle spare parts in Anambra State. Their company has a portfolio of high quality brands of Motorcycle spare parts. For this Company to be successful in business, Customers must be there to patronize their goods else the Company will collapse within a short period of time. Therefore, the customers play a vital role in the development of the business. The Customers must be well served and the channel of distribution of goods and services must be made easier for them. Order as a confirmed request by one party to another to buy, sell, deliver, or receive goods or services under any specified terms and conditions. When accepted by the receiving party, an order becomes a legally binding contract. Customer order and control simply means processing of the list of goods placed as an order by customers. It equally has to do with customer order, invoicing, payment and delivery. It is also a form of administration control that is particularly essential in all manufacturing establishments. This project is conducted to find out the problem confronting Obisons and Law Company Nigeria Limited, which is my case study as a result of the manual mode of registering customers and checking stock out level of goods. Customer registration and stock system currently in operation and how their problems can be solved or reduced is by computerizing the system.
The need for a computerised customer registration and stock system for Obisons and Law Company Nigeria Limited, Anambra State, is to provide prompt, efficient and better quality services for customers and to ensure quick delivery of ordered goods.
1.2 Statement of the Problems
Some of the problems observed in the existing system are:
- Poor information circulation leads to loss of customers, as the customers may be unaware of changes effected or if they could not obtain most of the time, the quantity of goods they need.
- It takes a long time to process data concerning the goods and this leads to delay in the delivery of goods.
- Difficulty in determining when the branch is running out of stock.
- Mistakes are made in the invoice given to customers.
- The control system is time consuming, less accurate and less efficient.
- Not having enough and accurate inventory leads to profit loses.
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of this study is to design and implement computerised customer registration and stock system. The objectives are;
- To develop software that would help the computation of sales made on daily basis.
- To develop software that will keep proper stock record so that stock will not be over stocked or under stocked.
- To ensure that the accurate Invoices are given to customers.
- To ease the movement of goods to customers.
- To ensure easy flow of information between the company and their customers.
- To quickly compute whether the Company is making any profit or loss.
All these stated above will involve the computerization of the system, which will help in easy registration of customers, checking stock out of goods and moving the customer’s order in Obisons and Law Company Nigeria Limited, Anambra State.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The use of a computerized customer registration and stock system will go a long way to solve the problems encountered in the existing system used in Obisons and Law Company Nigeria Limited, Anambra State. However, the computerization of customer registration and stock system will provide advantages such as easy computation of sales made on daily basis, the system will keep proper stock record so that stock will not be over stocked or under stocked, it will ensure that the accurate Invoices are given to customers, ease the movement of goods to customers, easy flow of information between the company and their customers, the in-convenience brought about by the manual system could be over-whelmed by the use of more effective and advanced system, it will help in a good number of ways to ease the process of retrieving data and records in the system. This study will serve as a useful reference material to other researchers seeking related information. Afterwards, further development can be made on the project work in accordance to the rapid development in information technology in the near future.
1.5 Scope of the study
This project is primary designed to meet the needs of Obisons and Law Company Nigeria Limited, Anambra State. However this research is focused on the design and implementing a computerised customer registration and stock system in order to easily register customer, checkmate sales level and to calculate due cash sold by the sales man or driver including the budgeting. Salesman or driver record stock at hand etc., and how they recruit things stored in the database of the company as well as the software required for the computerization and tabulation of different area of the company.
It focuses on the following areas:
- Effective processing of data,
- Fast Movement of goods (delivery),
- Effective flow of Information,
- Security of documents,
- Sales forecasting,
- Analysis of sales results,
- Analysis of the customer’s motivation, practices, behaviour etc.
1.6 Limitations of the study
In the course of carrying out this research work a number of problems were encountered.
- Lack of adequate fund to finance the project: this was another limitation to this work because much money is needed to carry out a detailed research work which is not easily borne by every student.
- The limited knowledge of Visual Basic programming was great challenge to this project. However, more research was made to complete this project successfully.
- Time Constraints: Looking at the interval between the resumption of the final semester, the time given is too short for collection of required information and a more comprehensive fact finding for a better work would have been done if given enough time.
1.7 Definition of Terms
Administrator: Person who is responsible for software installation, management, information and maintenance of a computer.
Automation: This is the use of technology or computers to control and process data reducing the need for human intervention.
Customer: A customer is a person or organization that buys goods and services from shops, establishments, companies etc.
Data: These are raw facts which are not yet processed. Data is measured, collected, reported and analyzed, whereupon it can be visualized using graphs or images.
Database: This is a structured repository for data usually stored on a computer system. The existence of a regular and formal indexing structure permits rapid retrieval of individual elements of database.
Design: is the art or process of designing how something will look, work.
Information System: A collection of procedures, people, instructions and equipment to produce information in a useful form.
Information: this is the processed facts which are yet together or put together or processed already e.g. this project will have no value if the reason why it is written is not yet fulfilled, but when the reason is fulfilled we say that there is an information which means that the information is now processed.
Input: input is the act of entering data into a computer or data processing system.
Inventory Control System: A list of orders to be filled, and prompts workers to pick the necessary items and provides them with packaging and shipping information.
Invoice: A document showing the list of goods sold with price charged.
Minimum Stock Level: Level of stock at which a further order should be placed.
Order: This is the terminology reserved for a request to supply the goods asked for.
Output: output are inputs which are processed by a computer or the user in order to get the required information through output devices such as printers and the visual display unit and the matrix dot printer.
Physical Stock: This is the number of terms or goods physically available in stock at a given time.
Processing: This is dealing with something according to an established procedure.
Sales Analysis Report: This shows the trends that occur in a company’s sales volume over time. In its most basic form, a sales analyst shows whether sales are increasing or declining.
Sales Analysis: Sales analysis examines sales reports to see what goods and services have and have not sold well. The analysis is used to determine how to stock inventory, how to measure the effectiveness of a sales force, how to set manufacturing capacity and to see how the company is performing against its goals.
Security: This helps to prevent unauthorized users from illegally accessing certain data within the database, it protects your data/ files.
Software: is a program or a set of programs written to carry out some task in the computer, it also perform logical related programs that works together to control the hardware. Or these are set of logically related instructions given to the computer to perform some specific task.
Stock-out: A stock-out, or out-of-stock (OOS) event is an event that causes inventory to be exhausted. While out-of-stocks can occur along the entire supply chain, the most visible kind are retail out-of-stocks in the fast moving computer goods industry.
System: Is the collection of hardware and software, data information procedure and people.
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