MIS Assignment No.3 Business Apllication

The Problem Domain :  Customer Support

The Problem :    To handle and manage the customer support system of a firm.

Software  Analyzed:

1.  ExoPhpDesk
2.  OSTicket
3.  Hesk
4.  PhpOnline
5.  Open Web Messenger


Selected Software -: OS Ticket

I chose OS Ticket because business problem required the software to be easy to install and customer friendly and OS Ticket clearly satisfies this clause as it does not require the customer to login to the portal. The customer can check the status of the ticket raised by him/her through a unique combination of His/her email -id and ticket no.,which is mailed to the customer upon creation of the ticket. Communication is an aspect which is the most important thing in a customer support system and OS Ticket provides us multiple means of communication at various levels thus keeping the customer up to date about the issue. OS Ticket has a proper follow up system and ticket can be re-assigned to staffs of other departments in real time.OS Ticket offers advanced flexibility without compromising simplicity which makes it distinct  from other customer support softwares.


Customization:

Various Departments were added:

1.     Billing
2.     Mhrm
3.     Support
4.     Mktg    
5.     Manuf
6.     Fin
7.     Back Up

New managers as well as staff members were added to direct the mail to the concerned person or department.


Link to the Application:     http://abhitoshdaw.x10.mx/ostic/scp/tickets.php?a=open

Submitted by:

ABHITOSH DAW

12BM60078

Requirements for Zoho App for Koyel Dutta (12BM60080)

                                                            Zoho Application

Client: Easy Tours

Client Description: Easy Tours is a very popular travel agency in India, with some of the most enjoyable tour package tours across the country. One of the biggest reasons for their success and popularity is the variation in their tour packages that cater to all.

Client Requirement: Make an application to bring their entire business online, so as to increase their reach and valuation.

The application needs to be very user friendly; the user should not need to go through a complex and boring user manual to understand the features.

Being a travel site it needs to be aesthetically attractive.

Features to be included:

ü  There should be a basic home page containing a description of Easy Tour and what the application is offering.

ü  The user should be able to view only the home page, registration page and login page – which effectively mean that a user should not be able to go directly to the Tour search or booking details page without logging in.

ü  The Home page should have provisions to navigate to the Register Page (for new users) and LogIn page (for existing user).

ü  There should be provisioning for registration and only then Log-In should be allowed.

ü  After log in the user should be redirected to the Tour Search page where he can select package type, ideal vacation, destination and plan.

In this context data provided: Easy Tour Offerings

1.       Package Type can be

·         Deluxe – which is the more expensive and luxurious option.

·         Economy – the more pocket friendly choice.

Both packages will have the same cities or destinations on their routes. The difference is in terms of the suites booked in hotels and the travel mode – flight, train or bus.

Both of these choices are hugely popular and care needs to be taken to see the users do not consider the economy to be a cheap option – hence both need to be displayed and promoted at the same level.

2.       Preferred Vacations can be

·         Hillside vacation

·         Beachside vacation

·         Heritage trip

3.       Under each vacation choice the user has choices for two separate destinations.

Hillside vacation has

·         Himachal

·         Haridwar and Rishikesh

       Beachside vacation has

·         Goa

·         Andaman and Nicobar Islands

       Heritage trip has

·         Rajasthan

·         Rajasthan-Agra-Delhi

4.       There are different tour packages offered for the different vacations and destinations chosen.

·         Hillside vacations have two separate options

1.        3 days and 4 nights

2.        1 week adventure trip

·         Beachside vacation have two separate options

1.       3 days and 4 nights

2.       Honeymoon package for 1 week

·         Heritage trip has 4 different choices depending on whether the package is deluxe or economy.

1.       10 nights and 11 days for Rajasthan only

2.       17 nights and 18 days for Rajasthan only

3.       12 nights and 13 days for Rajasthan-Agra-Delhi

4.       19 nights and 20 days for Rajasthan-Agra-Delhi

5.       6 nights and 7 days for Rajasthan

6.       9 nights and 10 days for Rajasthan and Rajasthan-Agra-Delhi

7.       14 nights and 15 days for Rajasthan-Agra-Delhi

ü  The user should be able to see the cost before making the payment and then book the trip accordingly.

ü  The user details against whom the booking is being made should be taken, to maintain the Easy Tour internal database and to also communicate with the customer.

ü  The user necessarily needs to input the check-in and check-out dates.

ü  Payment choices available are only card payment – either Debit card or Credit card.

The flow of the application should be as follows:

Additional Features Required:

ü  The Log-in page should have the sufficient features to check for userid and password validity.

ü  A user should be able to login only if registered.

ü  A user should not be able to register twice using the sane email id.

ü  Validations should be carried out regarding the contact numbers provided, email ids provided, zip codes provided, password entered and password matching.

ü  The user should be able to select the number of adults, package type, preferred vacation type etc. only once.

ü  Once a destination is selected the user should be able to change it and accordingly the packages available for that destination should be made visible.

ü  The user should get a valuation of the total package as soon as he/she selects it and only then should he move forward to the booking page.

ü  The booking page should also display the package booked as well as the cost to be incurred.

ü  There should be provision for the customer to book the tour package as a surprise and hence the details of the customer booking should be given on the booking page itself, i.e. the mail for booking should not be sent to the logged in user necessarily, but the details input in the booking page.

ü  There should be validations for checking that the check-in date and check-out date do not collide and the check-out date comes after the check-in date.

Modules in which the work is divided:

• Creating Registration and Log-In module so as to maintain details of users who are using the application more frequently.
•  The Tour Search module which helps to determine the most popular and best-selling packages.
• The booking module which gives the user a detailed report regarding the package selected.
• The payment module that will allow the user to pay using cards online and also send a mail to the customer regarding the details of the booking made.

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Discussion on Systems Architecture

Scene :- Two friends Shuchi and Pratik meeting each other in CCD @ 6:00 p.m. in the evening.

Pratik : Hey Shuchi, you are late again !

Shuchi : Sorry yaar, was clarifying few doubts from the professor. Why didn’t you attend the lecture today ?

Pratik : I was preparing for a presentation in the HR summit tomorrow. Did I miss something important ?

Shuchi : The answer to that is Yes and No. Yes because it was a pretty simple, relaxed and interactive session; No because you can easily get a hang of it. The lecture was a on Systems Architecture, something we all have read during our engineering days but none of us remember much. 

Pratik : Systems Architecture .. ? yes I can recall only few things , single tier , 2 tier … am I right ?

Shuchi : Yes . I’l run you through it . It won’t take much time. But for that you need to order a coffee for me . 

Pratik : Haha .Sure , that I would have done anyways. You carry on.

Shuchi : In Information Systems, we basically deal with what is to be processed , i.e., data and how to process the same; i.e., through application.

Pratik : So where is the tier architecture relevant here?

Shuchi : Have I said that I have completed?  You are always so impatient. The single tier is a centralised model – the data and the applications are on the same server. 

Pratik : So you mean to say that there is no need to separate data from application ? 

Shuchi : Exactly. You can take example of mainframe systems where presentation, business logic and data access are interwined in one monolithic mainframe. We all know software packages like MS Access, MS Excel,  just to name a few. They all have the same in common that they access files directly. This means that the file you want to work with must be accessible from a local or shared drive. This is the simplest of all the architectures but also the least secure. Since users have direct access to the files, they could accidentally move, modify or even worse delete the file by accident or on purpose.There is also usually an issue when multiple users access the same file at the same time: In many cases only one can edit the file while others only have read-only access.So 1-tier architecture is simple and cheap, but usually unsecured and data can easily be lost if you are not careful.

Pratik : So can you site advantages of this model ? Here is your coffee by the way.

Shuchi : Yes, as I already said, the pros that you can take back from this single tier model is,  there is no client-site management and data consistency is easily achievable. But as I already told you, it has multiple drawbacks  – since the structure is single tier, presentation , business logic and data-model are interwined which might result in very slow update and poor code reuse and maintenance. For your reference, I’l show you this rough diagram overview : 

Pratik : What about the two tier one ?

Shuchi : In two tier architecture, data is stored in the server, application stored on individual machines which are connected through LAN. The client computer usually can’t see the database directly and can only access the data by starting the client. This means that the data on the server is much more secure. The advantage is that, it has convenient graphic user interface, but at the same time, the disadvantage is that it slows down the application.

Pratik: I think that implies the client-server solution also allows multiple users to access the database at the same time as long as they are accessing data in different parts of the database. One other huge benefit might be that the server is processing data that allows the client to work on the presentation and business logic only. This mean that the client and the server is sharing the workload and by scaling the server to be more powerful than the client, you are usually able to load many clients to the server allowing more users to work on the system at the same time.

Shuchi : You are not as dumb as you look , Pratik … hehe !

Pratik : Ok , now I am getting a hang of it , let me now guess the 3 tier model. The application is partitioned adding one extra layer is it ?  

Shuchi : Right! This involves one more layer called the business logic tier, service tier or middle tier (layer). In the client-server solution the client was handling the business logic that makes the client “thick”. A thick client means that it requires heavy traffic with the server, thus making it difficult to use over slower network connections like Internet and Wireless.By introducing the middle layer, the client is only handling presentation logic. This means that only little communication is needed between the client and the middle tier making the client “thin” or “thinner”. An example of a thin client is an Internet browser that allows you to see and provide information fast and almost with no delay.As more users access the system a three-tier solution is more scalable than the other solutions because you can add as many middle tiers (running on each own server) as needed to ensure good performance (N-tier or multiple-tier).Security is also the best in the three-tier architecture because the middle layer protects the database tier.There is one major drawback to the N-tier architecture and that is that the additional tiers increase the complexity and cost of the installation.

Pratik : Phew , that was quite a nice session. By the way,  your coffee has turned cold madame. Shall we order another one ?

Shuchi : Yaa , as they say , a lot can happen over coffee !!