Examples of SME
ACME Letting Agency
ACME Lettings Agency lets and manages student accommodation for Castle College.
ACME currently uses a manual system but has decided to move over to a computerised system. This will comprise of a database to store information about the day-to-day running of the business. Details of staff, lettings, owners and accommodation will be stored on the database.
When a property is available for rent with the agency, details of the property are recorded such as address, description, owner and facilities, which are available to all residents (this could include a laundry facility, communal shared garden, car parking). Each property is split into apartments for one student. Details of each apartment are kept such as weekly rent, deposit, facilities available in the apartment such as washing machine, telephone, furnished or unfurnished etc. An owner could have several properties that are used by the agency. However, each property has only one owner.
Students wanting to rent an apartment through ACME have to have all their details recorded including name, home address, mobile phone number and the member of ACME staff who dealt with the transaction. A legal contract is set up (the letting agreement) which is kept on paper at the agency and the student receives a copy. The start date of this agreement is entered in the student record and stored on the database. Students may rent many apartments and return year after year to rent the same apartment(s) but must renew their rental agreement(s) at the beginning of each year.
The agency also arranges all building repairs for each apartment. Details of all repairs are recorded for an apartment including who did the repair, a brief description, the member of staff who authorised the repair and the total cost.
Over time the agency has collected the details of reliable maintenance staff that are contacted to carry out repairs.
Eros Sports – Scenario
Eros Sports are a whole company who supply sports equipment to retailers throughout the UK. There are looking to replace the out of date system they have been using with a relational database.
The company takes orders by phone from customers who can order many quantities of many items that Eros have in their current catalogue. Items include cricket, football, tennis and golfing items to name but a few. Eros pays a printing firm to create the catalogue but would rather create their own catalogue from the data held in the database.
Each supplier supplies many items but each item is supplied by one main supplier. For example cricket balls are only supplied by Gunn and Moore but Gunn and Moore supply many other sports equipment
They would like to add all the customers to the database so that they can mail-shot them with any offers that are available as well as the catalogue which is produced annually.
Salespersons at Eros are paid a monthly bonus which is determined by the amount of sales they have made for each month. The company would like the bonus calculated automatically by the system.
As well as the monthly bonus figures Eros would like to be able to create comparative reports from the system i.e. sales figures for each month this year compared to last year
Felicities Flowers – Scenario
Felicities flowers are a wholesale flower sellers based in Nottingham. They supply flowers to most of the florists in the Nottingham/Derby area.
The blooms are sourced from suppliers all over the world and the company has over 200 main national and international flower suppliers.
Felicities customers phone or email their orders and these are transferred to an order form that has 3 carbon copies – one for the customer, one for Felicities and one for the delivery driver. As the blooms are perishable they have to be sourced and delivered within a day of being cut.
When a customer orders the flowers, sales staff at Felicities phone around their suppliers to source the blooms – Felicities has always managed to somehow fulfil customer’s orders. Orders are placed with the suppliers (each supplier could supply many blooms and each variety can be supplied by many suppliers) and the supplier arranges to have them ready for pickup from the growers or the port/airport
Felicities have a fleet of vans that collect the blooms from the docks/airports, if they are coming from abroad, or directly from the growers. Each van driver is responsible for their own van. When the flowers have been collected and delivered to Felicities the customer’s orders are made up and delivered within one hour.
Customers are invoiced at the end of every for all orders for each month. They have 60 days to pay from the receipt of the invoice
Felicities are currently using a paper based system for the business transactions and have commissioned your software company to design and implement a computerised system for them.
Luxury Limos Ltd - Scenario
Luxury Limos are a Nottingham based company that specialises in the hire of a range of executive and luxury cars. The type of cars available including Rolls Royces, Daimlers, Stretch Volvo Limos and a top-of-the range BMW’s, Mercedes and Jaguars. They also hire out executive sports models such as Masarati’s and Ferraris.
The company own a number of hire centres in and around Nottingham with each centre having a manager and several staff.
The company wants a robust database to handle all the hiring’s at all centres.
Customers who wish to hire a car(s) can either phone a centre or visit in person. Each customer’s details are to be entered onto the system along with details of each hiring. A customer can hire either one car for personal use or they may hire many cars, for example for a weddings or corporate functions. Chauffeurs are provided for weddings and functions but cost is calculated as 20% of the daily hire cost.
A deposit of £200 is required for each hiring. Each car has a separate daily hire cost and a minimum hire period of one day.
Every car is garaged at exactly one hire centre but can be hired from any other hire centre.
Milkmaid - Scenario
Milkmaid is a local milk delivery service. They currently use a technology system for stock control, their accounts and customer details.
To remain competitive and attract new customers they wish to expand the personal service they are offering by using web services such as online ordering, order changing, online payment and online communication methods whilst maintaining the traditional delivery services for their existing customers.
Peak District Holidays - Scenario
The Peak District Holiday Company offers a range of holiday cottages and houses which customers can book for their holiday. These properties are divided into categories such as small country cottage, luxury country cottage, town apartment and town flat. The weekly charge is dependent on the category of the property.
The properties are not owned by the company but they manage the holiday bookings for the owners who can offer accommodation for rent through the company. When an owner first joins the company the owner’s details are recorded (name address, telephone number etc) followed by the details of all the accommodation they wish to rent out. Some owners have several properties but each property has one owner which the company deals with. The details of the properties are also recorded on the system. These include the address, a map reference, number of bedrooms, whether the property has central heating and whether pets are allowed or not. The property is then allocated to a category and a caretaker is allocated to it. The caretaker is responsible for cleaning and checking the property (as the owner often lives a long way away). The caretaker’s contact details are stored on the system and it is possible for a caretaker to look after several properties. New caretakers may be on the system before they have any properties allocated to them. For each property the name of the current caretaker is stored, but records are not kept of who was the caretaker in the past.
Many customers book properties online. The customer browses through the list of properties and selects the one they require. The system checks to ensure the property is available for the required dates. Customers often return to the company year after year, sometimes to the same property and sometimes to a different one. When they first book a property a record of their details (name, address, telephone number) is stored. The date of the start of each holiday is recorded as well as the number of weeks, and the number in the party. The cost of the booking is calculated by multiplying the basic cost of the property (determined by its category) by a seasonal % premium as shown below.
Season / Period / % Premium1 / Jan 1st – March 1st / 2%
2 / March 2nd – April 30th / 3%
4 / May 1st – June 30th / 5%
5 / July 1st – July 31st / 8%
6 / August 1st – August 31st / 10%
7 / Sept 1st – Sept 30th / 6%
8 / Oct 1st – Dec 16th / 3%
9 / Dec 17th – Dec 31st / 10%