BACKGROUND
American Countryware is a company that provides to it s UK customers a variety of US – sourced clothing by mail order.. The company has as its intended market relatively prosperous middle – class customers rather th an the traditional UK mail order market.. There are therefore no arrangements for credit or sales by agents and all payments are through credit or debit cards..
The Managing Director expresses the opinion that American Countryware must see itself as,, above al l,, providing a service.. That service is providing busy professionals to purchase well made,, practical and desirable clothing easily..
Catalogues of the latest ranges are sent to the customers on the mailing lists frequently,, the frequency depending partly on their recorded purchasing.. A customer who orders frequently will be sent a new version of the catalogue every 3 or 4 weeks..TThis follows the American Countryware principle that the catalogue is their shop window and the more the potential customer sees t he catalogue and is tempted to look through it then the greater likelihood of them making a purchase..
YOUR TASK
Study the description below of how customers’’ orders are processed and then::
1.. Draw logical data flow diagrams to describe how customer orders ar e satisfied..
(880%% of available marks))
2.. By examining the DFDs that you have drawn Identify any potential problems in the present procedures or areas in which the company’s present procedures appear to fall short of their intention to provide the highest po ssible leve l of service in delivering to their customers..
(220%% of available marks))
THE SATISFACTION OF CUSTOMER ORDERS
All customer orders are placed by telephone,, the customer telling us details of the order and providing details of the credit card agai nst which the cost of the order is to be charged..
Once the customer has provided this information we charge the cost of the order against the credit card,, sending the charge – request by computer terminal to the credit card company..
From the credit card co mpany we receive either a charge acceptance or a charge refusal reply..
If the charge has been refused then we tell the customer that their order cannot be accepted and no further action is taken in response to that order..
If the charge has been accepted by the credit card company then give the customer an order reference number and tell them that their order is now to be processed..TThat concludes our interaction with the customer by telephone..DDetails of the order,, together with the order reference number a re entered onto the computer system,, where they are stored in the Current Orders File..
The processing of orders is done as follows::
At the start of each working day we search for completed orders (oorders for which all items have been delivered)).. We examin e all records in the Current Orders File.. Any orders marked as ‘ccompleted’’ are copied to the Completed Orders File and then deleted from the Current Orders File..
After this has been done all the orders in the Current Orders File are processed.. For each ord er therein we first ascertain which parts ofthe order are not yet marked as ‘DDelivered’’ (iie which have not yet been sent to the customer)).. We check the Stock File to see if they are available,, and if they are we post them to the customer,, marking that part of the order as now ‘ddelivered’’.. Those parts of the order that are not available we mark as ‘aawaiting stock’’.. When we send ordered items to a customer we send with them a Delivery Note,, a copy of which is stored in the Deliveries File..
If all the ordered items have now been delivered then the record in the Current Orders File is marked as ‘CCompleted’’..
Whenever the warehouse sends details of a supplier’s delivery we update the Stock File,, recording the new stock level of each delivered item.. This means tha t any items marked as ‘aawaiting stock’’ will be delivered,, by the process described above,, as soon as stock is available..
END OF QUESTION