DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR A MULTI SERVICE RENTAL COMPANY

By

Author

Presented To

Department of Computer Science

CHAPTER ONE 1.0 INTRODUCTION

Most rental service firms today still use manual information system because their information needs are of moderate size and managers of such firms have probably been enjoying the manual system as regards to their relatively and comfortable low level of transaction activities.

With the high level of social activities been experienced, It is only the rental firms with very large information or high capacity of rental service with rapid rate of renting per item that are likely to survive pressure, and therefore should link information system to business strategy. With this pressure, there is a need to improve corporate effectiveness through their own involvement in system planning to ensure that business strategy is developed in the context of the computerized environment.

Among the many rental service centers, majority adopted a great variety of manual information system for management activities most of which are single file system. This single file system does not offer opportunities for easy manipulation of data to provide managers an insight into transaction reports such as to rapid statistics for operation analysis, it does not provide instant access to information for controlling and directing the firm. At this point we can see that the world of rental service business lacks conclusion data in the relative effectiveness of manual information system versus computerized information system.

Different rental service centers at various level of activities with different critical level will agree that stress, confusion and errors increase with increase in volume of information as the transaction activities rises, and there is a great point where manual information system will not operate successfully.

In this respect, computerized rental service management information system has been developed to provide BRAHAM RENTALS with consistency, comprehensive and reasonable accurate information for planning directly and controlling the activities for which they are responsible and for making timely and effective decision.

1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

There are problems faced by the management of BRAHAM RENTALS , this problems can be attributed to the fact that they use manual information processing in their activities. These problems include:

1. Errors and inaccuracy since all computations are done manually.
2. Updating activities are time consuming very poor and lacks accuracy.
3. Lack of adequate information for decision making.
4. Inconsistency and redundancy are often encountered in the information processing system for the generation of management information.
5. Processing of information is usually time consuming and most times with undesired out

This project work is prompted by the problems of Braham Rentals to find a lasting solution to these problems.

1.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to design a computerized information system that will replace the manual procedures of carrying out operations in the existing management information system of BRAHAM RENTAL SERVICES.

The designed system will be able to:-

1. Make entries of all transactions made.
2. Make necessary equals of relevant information about all the transaction made between the firm and the client.
3. produce reports for managerial use to make good plans, Direct and control the activities in the firm as well as. Taking effective decision to suit any decision.

1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVE

The aims and objectives of this project is to design a computerized rental services management information system for BRAHAM RENTAL SERVICES that will aid in the following:

• To reduce the average response time to management enquiry concerning transaction status.
• To produce timely accurate and up to date report for management purpose.
• To aid the administration and management to eliminate avoidable inefficiency.
• Finally to explore all capacities of computer in the area of speed, efficiency and security of data.

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this covers the normal operational procedures of data processing and information about all rental transactions made on BRAHAM RENTAL SERVICES. The project scope extends from the point of customers booking of items to the point these items are leased.

1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This work is limited to the application of computerized information management system in BRAHAM RENTAL SERVICES. However during the course of this project work, there are factors militated against my carrying out of this work. they include:-

1. Lack of time
2. High cost of production
3. Lack of adequate research materials.

1.6 ASSUMPTION

Some assumptions made while carrying out this work was that the data I collected from BRAHAM RENTAL SERVICES and some rental services centers was accurate and valid due to their maximum co-operation and interest with regards to the study concerned.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Some technical term have been used on this work and the whole system will be meaningless if the terms are not the explicitly explained.

Data: These are facts and figures which are examined to produce information

File: this is a collection or group of related records.

Flowchart: this is a system analysis tool that provide a graphical presentation of a sequence to represent the operation.

Information: this refers to data that have been processed in such a way as to be useful to the recipient.

Transaction: this refers to business carried out between people, usually buying and selling of goods and services

Record: this is a written account of something that is kept, so that it can be looked at and used in future. It is also a set of related fields in a given system.

Report: information reaches to managers from the M.L.A by a virility of analysis statistics statement etc. which ear generally be referred to as reports.

Rentals: This is the act of making a payment; usually an amount fixed by contact made by a person or agency at specified intervals, in return for the right to occupy or use the property that person or agency

Services: this refers to a business whose work involves doing something for customers and not producing or buying and selling of goods.

System: A system is a network of the interrelated part of procedures that the joined together to efficiently accomplish a goal