Sales Manager

(All work to be submitted by thursday 4.30pm of the hand in week) If you require an extension to this deadline, you must submit a completed Extension Request Form to your lecturer at least 24 hours before the deadline. The extension request will be discussed with your Tutor, and only granted if appropriate. Assessment Criteria Covered

Your work in this assignment provides evidence for Unit 11 criteria P4, which are shown for your reference at the end of the assignment. Completion Guidance for Students
1. Read this assignment carefully and make sure that you understand the work you should hand in and what is required of you. If you are uncertain, ASK! 2. You are required to work by yourself, producing original work. You should not share your work with other learners. Similarly, you should not accept and use any work done by others. You will sign off the submitted assignment as your own work. 3. If you are instructed to function in a group at any stage of any assignment, you must still submit your own work on each task for assessment. 4. If you are not certain what to include in a particular task, ASK! The grading criteria at the end of this assignment should help to guide you. In addition, the unit content (in the Course Handbook) details all the pass criteria for this unit.

5. Do not present any material taken directly from your research (Internet or textbooks) as your own work. You must identify any sources used. 6. Some tasks may require Observation Records/Witness Statements. These must be completed by a member of staff and attached to your submitted work. 7. In presenting your final work, you should not include draft work or reference materials such as handouts, notes, and leaflets, unless the tasks specifically ask you to do so. However, you should retain all such material, as it may be useful (or in fact necessary) for future tasks. 8. Presentation of your work:

Check that you have completed all tasks
Label work with appropriate task/sub-task number
Present tasks in the correct order
Label each page with your name and a page number
Email work to specified email address (see lecturer)
Ensure all files are correctly named (Unit Assignment Number and Name)

Background

This unit is about the processes involved when designing a new or revising an existing system in an organisation. It emphasises the importance of designing systems that meet the actual needs of the client and /or user. Systems analysis provides structured processes that help make sure that the final system is fit for purpose.

Guidance

You are required to read the following scenario and complete the associated tasks and present them in a suitable format. You should investigate the relevant topics through your own research — but make sure that you clearly identify the source of any material that you have taken from books, journals or the Internet. If you present such material as your own work, you are guilty of plagiarism.

Scenario
Micronics is a computer games company that designs and produces multi -platform computer games. It sells directly into the retail, Argos industry (GAME, WH Smith) and on-line retailers such as Amazon and GameStop.co.uk. There is a team of three sales people who report into one sales manager. The sales team have the geographical remit of the UK. This sales team is assisted by three sales administration assistants, also managed by the Sales Manager, who log the sales team’s orders and send them to production. The sales administrators do not get involved with selling new products – only with providing administrative support to the Sales team.

The sales administration team is quite formally structured, with each Sales Administrator responsible for inputting a particular sales persons orders. The Managing Director of Micronics feels that there are some issues with the service that the Sales Administrators offer to the Salesmen and wants to improve it. He did employ an external consultant to look at this, but due to budget restrictions, has recently had to withdraw. You have been asked to take over the investigation and complete the analysis and design. You have limited experience with this and therefore have to investigate and document the main principles of early systems analysis. You have been given some notes and transcripts of interviews (please see end of this assignment brief).

Tasks

Scenario
You have recently submitted an investigation into the most suitable life-cycle process models in order to carry out a structured analysis for Micronics Limited. Micronics are now on board with your proposal and would like you to proceed to the next stage in systems analysis. Task 1With reference to the Micronics Limited case study, discuss the appropriate techniques which can be used to gather the information required to produce a requirements specification. Task 1 will provide evidence for P4. Task 2Using the evidence provided in P4, together with the Lifecycle model you have suggested to be most applicable to Micronics in P3, produce a requirements specification in terms of a prioritised list of requirements for Micronics Limited. Task 2 will provide evidence for P5. Task 3In order for Micronics to commit to your requirements specification, they need to be aware of alternative solutions. Suggest an alternative solution based on a different lifecycle model, also giving reasons why the one that is outlined in your document is more suitable. Task 3 will provide evidence for M2. Task 4Undertake a cost-benefit analysis on your solution. Task 4 will provide evidence for D1. Grading tips

For this task, check before you hand in your work that you have met the criteria in the grading grid. This task involves in-depth reading of the case study of Micronics Limited which will be evidenced throughout these tasks. For P5 use the suggested structure of a typical requirements specification. What to hand in:

P4: A report in MS Word which outlines the techniques involved in gathering evidence. P5: A report in MS Word entitled Requirements Specification for Micronics Limited. M2 A report in MS Word entitled Alternative Solutions.

D1: A video presentation, lasting no longer than 5 minutes uploaded to the IT Section on Planet E-Stream.

Grading Criteria
P4 Carry out a structured analysis of a specified business process. P5 Produce a requirements specification for a business process. M2 Suggest alternative solutions.
D1 Analyse costs and benefits.

Case Study

MICRONICS – SERIOUSLY FUN SOFTWARE

Investigation material relating to Sales- Administration Development Project. This material is a combination of the following:
Summary of 40 customer satisfaction surveys.
Notes from previous consultant
Interview questions and responses from two of the sales team. Interview questions and responses from two of the Sales Administration Team. Record of meeting with Sales Manager
Record of meeting with Managing Director
Pink slip

Notes from consultant
At first look, the results are concerning. When speaking to the actual customers I heard that their main complaint was that once they had placed an order with the Sales Person – they heard nothing more until the items arrived at the stores.

One customer said “ When we contacted the Salesman he said that he had handed over the order to Sales Administration. When contacting sales administration – they were often waiting for a meeting with the Salesman to get the details on our order. This left us unsure as to when delivery would be. This has a knock-on effect for our own planning and sales forecasting for that particular game in our stores.”

I spent a day with the Sales Administration Team. In my observation I noticed that the Sales Administrators worked very much in isolation from each other. Sales Administrator A and B were busy for about 95% of this time, but many queries are lost when at times they were not available to answer the phone and no records of missed calls were made. All of the Sales Administrators did not answer other department member’s phones because they did not deal with the particular sales person/customers who would be ringing.

Sales Administrator C was busy for 55% of his time. He said “I am fed up twiddling my thumbs waiting for Salesman C to get some orders in. I’m worried that if he is sacked for poor performance my job will go too.”

I was a bit concerned that some of the assistants are not filling in any detailed records of the order taken. They simply filled in pink slips to send to production. When asked what the co-ordination between them and production was they said “Production can tell us what is in stock – and timescales for production, but they deal with shipping and we have no visibility of when the product is shipped. This means that when we get a customer query we simply are able to tell them that their order has been processed and that they will receive a delivery note from shipping in due course. If they ask us for an estimated delivery date we can eventually find it out – but we have to physically run between production and shipping to find out the information that we need.”

“Another stressful part of our job is when the Sales Manager asks for a financial report at the end of every month. This is so that he can calculate what commission to give the Salesmen. Very often there are three of us asking Finance for the information at the same time and sometimes we are late with this information to the Sales Manager. As you can imagine, this doesn’t go down well with the Salesmen”.

I have explored the cost of an automated order processing and billing management system. I have a quote from NetSuite for around £ 5000. On top of that there is maybe another £ 3000 for other costs and perhaps two days of training needed.

Key quotes from interviews with Sales Administrators

Sales Administrator A
Q: Can you explain what you do?
I work from 9.00 am to 5.00pm; just like the others and when the phone rings I check that it is one of the following a) my salesperson b) my salespersons customers. Q: Can you see anything that needs improving?

I have no visibility of the other Sales Administrator’s orders or customer details. That means that if the order comes in to the wrong number I either have to transfer them or if the other administrator is busy, give them their direct line and suggest they call back later.

Sales Administrator B
Q: Can you explain what you do?
Same as everyone else really, I am responsible for logging the orders that my Salesperson sends to me. I then send the orders to production. We keep a copy of the orders filed under customer names in our filing cabinet. I answer the phone to customers who have queries but I am limited in what I can tell them.

Q: Can you see anything that needs improving?
Yes – I should be paid more than the others because my phone is way more busy. I work from a load of paper and am always falling out with production re timings and shipping dates. We all need to see what everyone else is doing.

Key quotes from meeting with Sales Manager M
The process is simple – when the Salesman takes the order he rings it through to the Sales Administrator. They log the order on the pink slips and send it through to production. I know there have been customer complaints about delivery times but that isn’t the fault of my Salesmen. Sales Administration are a tardy bunch . They first have to check if the order is valid, and send it through to production. They are never on the ball with shipping dates and it can take them ages to do month-end financials. Salesmen are paid on shipments of games delivered to the customer, so late information can let the side down. I have also checked the filing cabinet and well – it is a mess!! If I ever need to go through it to find information about orders it can be very difficult to find the right form. I know that one of the Sales Administrators is not busy but if the relevant sales man picks up some more orders that could change very quickly..

Notes from meeting with Managing Director
Key drivers: director intends expanding sales team and market share. He is aware of the importance of good customer care and wants the function to be more formal and able to be centralised. The director is very keen that the service does not become impersonal, he wants the Sales Administrator to be the key point of contact after the order is received – but knows that there are issues with the amount of information available to them at present.