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Registrar-Accounting Integration Software System Proposal

Prepared for Mishken College Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Prepared By Market Research Department Charisma Software Company 15 September 2012

Charisma Software Company Arbegonch Road, Addis Ababa P.O.Box 1234

15 September 2010

Dear Ato Tesema Chane, PhD Head of Operations Mishken College Addis Ababa, Ethiopia P.O.Box 1230

Dear Ato Tesema: Our companys sales and market research department has recently discovered a Request for Proposal document from your company that details the need for and specifications of a software system that your college needs for integrating its Accounting system and Registrations system. As has been mentioned in the request the software you need is aimed at alleviating the problems that arise from the lack of collaborations between the Accounting department and the Registrar where data of your system is fragmented among the systems and were unable to get consistent data from them that can be used in the management or future processing of the students data for various purposes. The software system we propose to build for your college is intended to solve the problems detailed in your Request for Proposal. Our proposal includes the techniques we will use to make the new system is one that doesnt make the old data obsolete but make use of it thus making the transition from the old system to the new as smooth as possible. We are confident and completely competent that with we can design and build the system to integrate the two systems with the currently available, cutting edge, and industrially proven technologies. Sincerely,

Yimesgen Birhanu Technical Chief

Table of Contents 1. MANAGEMENT SUMMARY________________________________________4 2. INTRODUCTION_________________________________________________5 3. PROBLEM AREAS________________________________________________6 2.1. Redundancy of data______________________________________6 2.2. The use of error-prone techniques by the accounting department_6 2.3. Difficulties in reporting to upper management________________6 4. Productivity Improvement________________________________________7 a. Purchase of new hardware components_____________________7 b. Upgrading of software technology__________________________7 c. Conversion of current data format to a common data format____7 Calculation in savings and payback_________________________________8 a. Increase in speed________________________________________8 b. Time cost savings________________________________________9 c. Material cost savings_____________________________________9 d. Cost savings due to errors of accountants____________________9 Recommendations______________________________________________9 Plan of completion______________________________________________10 Budget________________________________________________________12

5.

6. 7. 8.

Management Summary
Our team has used several standard methods to study the current system to assess the strengths and weaknesses:

Observation of the employees of the concerned departments at work. Interviewing the employees Use of the system by our testing people for some time.

The software design and implementations detailed in this proposal is useful to the college in two ways; firstly it facilitates the collaboration between the concerned departments which in turn make the following benefits obvious

The use of integrated data system makes accountability and responsibility framework stronger than it was before.

The system enables the college make use of the time wasted in searching and verification of the integrity of the data presented by one department to the other.

The use of a central system offers the management the ability to get reports from the concerned departments in a timely manner so that the it can make decisions without waiting for one of them.

The system enables the registrar to verify the financial eligibility of the student for a new academic period without wasting time. Conversely, the student may have unsettled accounts in the accounting department upon registration during which he can settle and pay more if he is asked.

The side benefit of the system is to preventing manual errors caused by the use of humans in transferring the data of one system for use to another which can waste money and time.

The hiring of a specialist, who is responsible to interpret and convert the information of one system to another systems data format, will also be avoided. Other Benefits: The use of an automated system helps the accounting department employees to get financial information about a student quickly than had the hardcopy of the documents were consulted. The registrar may make use of the system to allow the student to have the opportunity of late pay by considering the previous history of timely payment and academic status.

1. Introduction

5 Mishken College has consulted us about the situation with the help of the employees of the Mishken College Charisma Software Companys Requirements Collection Specialists studied the existing system of work and we were able to determine the pain points of current methods of processing data has analyzed ways how to solve them. Our team has been told that the inconsistency between the data maintained by the accounting department and the registrar has caused serious problems in the normal workflow of the organization. Charisma Software has proposed to complete its development of the software required within the time period of September 20, 2012 to October 31, 2012 when the normal academic operations will halt and make room for unobtrusive implementation and testing of the system. The above study has been completed during the time period of August 10, 2012 to August 20, 2012. The cost of the system will be no more than 82,000 birr. We have taken on a lot of projects like this before so we are confident we will make this project a success. In order to increase efficiency and effective utilization of the colleges employees time, using our very rich experience in the field, we analyzed the above mentioned problems in the following ways. First, we have asked the employees how they think our system can improve their day to day experience and what they expect it to do. We handed out questionnaires so that they can make suggestions and remark on what their current problems are. Second, we have arranged for a brainstorming session. Third, we requested accounting data that has accumulated through the years and analyzed for trends of errors and deficit caused by the previous system of work. Fourth, the registrar has kindly gave us complaints from students that gave us indication of as to how the student views the current system. The study conducted has revealed four problems. Firstly, the use of manual system by the accounting system has necessitated the conversion of hardcopy documents to computer data by the registrar to make use of them while registering the student. This causes redundancy of data at various levels. Second, the use of a manual accounting system has caused considerable time and energy wastage to the registering students because they have to verify their financial status, that means whether they have an accounts receivable balance or accounts payable balance, which is needed by the registrar to enroll them to the new academic year. Third, the maintenance of data by the individual departments has made verifying the integrity of the data impossible thus by making fraudulent changes to the documents a possibility. Lastly, the management wasnt able to get a data readily from the two systems without the need to go to the concerned departments which may or may not have the required documents on time.

2. Problem Areas

6 2.1. Redundancy of data. The data received or generated by the accounting system has to be duplicated by the registrar to use to its own internal operations. This has caused wastage of time and energy by the personnel. The duplication also caused duplication of documents so that there are a lot of documents to store and maintain. It also causes loss of student data. 2.2. The use of error-prone manual techniques by the accounting system. Errors in calculating the amount of money required in the registration process The study revealed that the errors caused with use of manual techniques to compute the money required in the registration has caused anger and disappointment in the student community. To make the experience of the students during their stay or new students attitude more pleasant there needs to be a streamlined payment process upon registration. 2.3. Fraudulent changes to each copy of data maintained by each department. The possession of a copy of data by the individual department may cause a fraudulent or unintentional change which will cause problems later on. Inconsistency of data of students has been a major source of complaints from students for years. A student asking for his official transcript may face difficulty when asked to bring documents from the accounting department upon which he finds the documents are outdated or missing. 2.4. Difficulties in reporting to upper management. When the management wants to obtain a students academic or financial report it may have to go to both departments to have the data it wants. The data requested may not always be available or consistent. This has caused the management to make important decisions on time.

3. Productivity Improvements
3.1. Purchase of New Hardware Components

7 We are not able to implement the software on the existing system due to the following reasons: Low data storage capacity of the current machines (20 Giga Bytes). This is an issue because due to the centralized nature of the proposed software there will be large amounts of data stored in one place and for robustness ,security and backup we require to have back up disks. Very low processing power and memory of the current machines we are unable to install applications servers and database servers. The high volume transactions generated by the application can only be supported on a modest to high-end computer hardware. 3.2. Upgrading of Software Technology The database technology used currently is Microsoft Access 2003 by both departments which by todays standard is not suitable for enterprise applications and is not scalable. This is a problem because if in the future the college intends to expand the data has to be copied manually and moved to the locations. But this is not a viable approach in that it amounts to cost in time and energy and means handing out data to individuals who may or may not understand the critical nature of the data. 3.3. Conversion of Current Data Format to a Common Database Format We recommend the copy of previous data remain untouched but for future use of data we need to convert the legacy data maintained by the college to the format used by common database format to be used by the registrar and accounting. Converting the current data format (.mdb) of Microsoft Access to that of common format has the advantage of: Ease of application development in the future on the existing data. Easy transition to new versions of the software.

8 Integration System Manage ment

Report Generate

Central Database

Web applications for different Parties

Accounting Clerk Enter Accounting Data

Verify Student Financial Details

Registrar

4. Calculation of Savings and Payback

Mishken College will achieve expediency in the day to day registration and accounting tasks within the shortest possible period of time. The satisfaction of student will be greatly improved by the very smooth registration process and other businesses they have to perform with the Accounting department and the Registrar. 4.1. Increase in speed Very little time is lost searching for documents which translates into more work time for other tasks New or other students will feel most comfortable to come and ask for their information because they know they will be served quickly. This in the long term increases the goodwill of the college. 4.2. Time Cost Savings

9 On average a student wastes a day to be registered and on worst cases it may take 2 days because the accounting and registrar are not in synch. But the system we propose will shorten this to 30 minutes. 4.3. Material cost savings Copy of the documents in hardcopy costs at least two papers which cost 0.5 birr per paper. The college registers and reregisters at least 2000 students in a semester. The cost savings in paper = 0.5 * 1 * 2000 * 3 = 6000 birr. 4.4. Cost savings due to errors of accountants The figures below are not guess works that are intended to impress; they are actually based on the accounting data we have collected.

Payback Period
The money spent will be paid back in a little more than 6 years.

5. Recommendations
Purchasing 5 brand new machines with the following specifications: at least 1GB of memory, 2 GHz per core dual core processor for redundancy which ensures continuity of work in cases of machine failure.2 of the computers are allocated to accounting department while the other two are allocated to the registrar. The remaining computer will be used as a server where web server software and database server will be installed. Purchasing 1TB hard disk Toshiba brand for backing up data. A 2 switches (networking equipment for connection 2 or more computers), one for each department must be bought to ensure continuous and reliable connectivity. Use of open source database, MySql database, which is very robust, scalable that can support Transaction based systems such as that utilized by the college. This database has features such as recovery, replication, access privilege control, administrative workbench. It is also easy to administer. Installation of web application server on the purchased computers. Also working hand in hand with apache is web scripting language which is used to write the software code.

10 PHP is a very popular technology used in the enterprise and World Wide Web to serve very dynamic content with in a very short time frame. In the colleges perspective it is used to implement

6. Plan for Completion

The milestones below indicate the plan for completion of the project. And we have provided ample time to test and find bugs that may remain in the system after deployment. The deliverables are divided into modules that are not cohesive; meaning the change on one does not make the other systems to be changed thus ease of maintenance is guaranteed. Our team uses the agile software engineering method thus depends on continuous iteration of products. But its merits are products are developed in a much short period of time. Due to the quick lifecycle of the software engineering process initial versions of the system may experience deficiencies such as low performance, but the system gets into operation in the shortest possible time. October 1 5: Installation of new hardware bought as per the recommendation given above. Installation of new computers and installing the appropriate operating system which in our case is Windows 8 which is the latest operating system from Microsofts line of softwares. It has the latest security updates, new features that assist its use. Installation of networking hardware, switches and cabling, which are used to interconnect the two systems in the accounting and registrar departments. Installation and testing of Apache software server, MySql database server, PHP software for apache and a firewall that are used to serve content to the departments. October 5 - 8: Development of the data model from the previous analysis and additional documents the college maintains. October 9: JAD (Joint Application Development) session will be held. Refinement of the data models developed in the previous days by presenting it to registrar and accounting department representatives. We intend to get feedback as to how the data model we developed could be improved. October 10 12: Process Mapping is undertaken to identify key business process; those processes that are essential to the normal operation of the system.

11 October 13 20 : Design of the system: Structured process design Identification of a computer system Model construction User Interface design: Dialogue design Screen Design Outputs Design

Database Design Relational data model of the database Physical design of the system using MySql server.

Development of a UML diagrams for the classes( software entities representing real world objects.) we use in coding of the system. Development of Use Case diagrams to model the interaction of different actors using the system. Development of activity diagrams to identify and document the different situations that users run into during use of the system. Oct 21 November 10: Coding of the system Development of algorithms using tools such as Pseudo code, Flow Charts Iteration of the algorithms developed. Coding the core parts of the system. These include the registration system data conversion software, accounting system entities, Development of the web pages to support the accounting and registration tasks. November 11 12: Training of Employees

12 November 13 15: Deployment for beta testing The application will be deployed on the premises of the college and it will be tested by the actual users. Every day for 5 days the users are required to report to us the issues they have encountered while using the system so that we can work on them. November 16-20: Correction of bugs that are reported by the beta testing users. November 21 25: Final test by our test experts. November 25 30: Delivery of the system to the college.

7. Budget
Material Costs 5 Brand new Dell Machines ___________________________5 x 5000 birr = 25,000 birr 2 D-Link switches ___________________________________2 x 1000 birr = 2000 birr 1 Terabyte hard disk_________________________________1 x 1500 birr = 1500 birr Labor Costs 2 Developers (programmers)_________________________ 2 X 3000 birr = 6000 birr 2 System analysts__________________________________2 x 3000 birr = 6000 birr Total cost___________________________________________________________40,500 birr