Executive Summary
This paper focuses on the Mooroolbark Real estate Agency which is mainly involved with the operation involving the sales and acquisition of real estate property for clients and interested customers in acquiring houses and various property asset and buildings. The operations o the business is facilitated by an information system out in place to improvise and simplify interaction and communication between the different entities involved in the whole processes of the day to day setup of the agency.
The need for the carrying out of the system analysis and requirements determination is inspect whether the system put in place is working effectively and to its optimal level or if there is need for the implementation of a novel system with swift and processing capability with improvised execution business progressions.
Introduction
The introduction of an information technology system in various platforms of business entities in the world usually signifies a vital change in the phase of a business environment. The involvement of the existing information system on the Mooroolbark Real estate Agency necessitates communication and interaction. Improvised information systems should consider in case for need of future expansion and upgrade to enable interaction between different systems (ALBERS, M. J., & MAZUR, B. 2003).
Description of the Organization
The Mooroolbark Real Estate Agency is an organization specialized in the real estate business responsible with the brokering of houses, buildings and other various real estate properties. The Mooroolbark Real Estate Organization operates from a solitary workplace in an eastern exurbia of Melbourne. The organization has a proprietor executive, Mr. Ian Watkins.
The company has working personnel of 10 individuals each of which are assigned their responsibilities in the daily firm operations. They include namely: Barbara, Colin and Andrew who all are given the task of handling the property rentals. The other folks involved in this information system are involved the various departments responsible for carrying out the business activities.
Evan and Dianne are tasked with carrying out real estate property transactions and sales whereas; Andrew is also responsible for forming all forms of advertising and promotion services for the firm. Harriet, Graham, and Felicity are accountable for the day-to-day administration of the agency, comprising overall administration and finance sections of the enterprise. Barbara, who is another employee in the firm, is the rental manager.
Identification & Description of Functional Areas Supporting the Organization.
The Real Estate Agency is has various functional areas put in place to ensure the smooth running of the daily business activities. The foremost important parts of the organization are the property owners and the tenants who utilize the services of the company. The firm clients are the sole essential reason for the existence of the business since they form the main pillar for propelling the enterprise. The other areas tasked with supporting the firm include finance department which deals with the sales, accountings and rental staff dealings (ALBERS, M. J., & MAZUR, B. 2003). The rental manager forms a key section in the administration responsible for performing the managerial activities like planning, organizing, directing and controlling the various personnel.
The other sections that aid in supporting the organization are the maintenance company which acts as a strong pillar in ensuring the proper upkeep of the properties owned by the company. Their role entails painting, minor and major construction and all the needed repairs required for the conservation of the owned real estate properties. There is the advertising section of the company. This part firm is tasked with promoting the real estate properties on the company website to prospecting and interested customers and clients who want to purchase houses or lease them (LAPLANTE, P. A. 2004). The organization also has receptionists which form vital section of workplace since they are tasked with performing filing of reports and generation of information for the company.
The organization has an amount of communications with the Housing Tenancy Tribunal which also forms an essential part of the firm’s functional areas in the case of any arising disagreements amid the leaseholder, in other words referred to as the tenant, and the organization. In the scenario of a resident defaults on making the payment of rent, the property owner is alerted and if the evasion is not corrected, the proprietor can give consent for an command to be instigated contrary to the occupant at the Tribunal section.
Lastly, what is a company without a system? The Agency has a property rental system which necessitates the interaction between different entities involved with the operations of the company for the successful execution of the organization set goals of timeliness in top notch service delivery to its clients (WASSON, C. S. 2006).
Description of the Business Procedures Used to Support the Functional Areas
The firm has various business processes between the numerous department sections and functional areas of the organization. One of the main processes carried out to ensure business prosperity is advertising and property promotion to aid in attracting interested clients.
The preferences for various real estate properties are marketed appropriately on the company website withal the required and backed up information about the respective houses and buildings on sale or rentals. These processes involve checking property conditions and reporting back to the owners regarding the status of their property assets (KENDALL, K. E., & KENDALL, J. E. 1999).Other actions performed include taking photographs of the newly introduced property on the market and posting them on the company info website to timely inform interested customers about the existing and available property on the market.
Information System Description of Business Process
Information system processes comprising features and aspects that propel a business process, for example, in this case scenario, advertising and promoting methods involve conditions where data is put in into a data capture forms developed and designed for them by their Internet Service and Web hosting Providers. After the data is input, a Transmit button is pressed and the data goes directly to the Web site (MACIASZEK, L. 2005)..
Graphical Modeling and Conceptual Data Modeling
This includes dataflow diagrams and Entity Relationship Diagrams to signify the different relations between different entities to display graphical representations (DOCKER, T. W. G., & TATE, G. 2010).
A Context diagram (DFD)
The Entity Relationship Diagrams
An instance of the entity relationship diagrammatic representation is shown below:
Problems relating to process models (DFDs) and conceptual data models (ERDs).
The various problems involved in the firm related over the graphical representation of the data modules and entities of the system. The sole problem affecting the firm as depicted form the contextual diagrams display the need for an improvised and well integrated system with other entities and section of the company both locally and remotely(DOCKER, T. W. G., & TATE, G. 2010).
Attributes of all Entities in the ERD.
The various entities involved include:
- The finance department – this section deals with accounting and overall economic and financial overviews. Has data attributes of names, identification and verification, dates of transactions, amounts of transactions amid others.
- The Manager – deals with controlling the business operations, controlling, directing and controlling. . Has attributes of names, identification and age, male or female amid others.
- The Sales and Rental staff – are meant to aid in sales and renting services for the firm. Has attributes of names, identification and age, male or female amid others.
- The receptionists – are responsible with filing reports and generating necessary information. Has attributes of names, identification and age, male or female, experience amid others.
- Maintenance team- Are held responsible with the necessity to offer servicing on repairs and general house improvisations. Has attributes of names, identification and age, experience, male or female amid others.
- Tenancy Tribunal – They deal with settling of disputes and various disagreements and policy settlement among different contractual entities. Has attributes of names, dates, identification and age, male or female amid others.
- Tenant/Property owner – They are accountable for purchasing and acquiring of property either sale or rental. Has attributes of names, identification and age, male or female amid others
- Marketing Staff – They are responsible with advertising and promotion services. Has attributes of names, identification and age, male or female amid others (SHIVA, S. G. 2000).
Recommendation
The system currently being used by the agency is top notch since it is an online based system which facilitates interaction between the different end users of the system on the web based platform (KOCK, N. F. 2007). Though, a more improvised and interactive system can be implemented to promote better interactivity and exchange of information via online file transfer protocols and mobile based applications for better integration of their hosting systems remote and locally.
References
- ALBERS, M. J., & MAZUR, B. (2003). Content & complexity information design in technical communication. Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=99845.
- KENDALL, K. E., & KENDALL, J. E. (1999). Systems analysis and design. Upper Saddle River, N.J., Prentice Hall.
- KEMPTHORNE, O. (1952). The design and analysis of experiments. New York, Wiley.
- LAPLANTE, P. A. (2004). Real-time systems design and analysis. Hoboken, N.J., Wiley. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=108674.
- WASSON, C. S. (2006). System analysis, design, and development concepts, principles, and practices. Hoboken, N.J., Wiley-Interscience. http://www.knovel.com/knovel2/Toc.jsp?BookID=1419.
- MACIASZEK, L. (2005). Requirements analysis and system design. Harlow, England, Pearson/Addison Wesley.
- DOCKER, T. W. G., & TATE, G. (2010). Executable data flow diagrams. Palmerston North, N.Z., Massey University, Computer Science Dept.
- KOCK, N. F. (2007). Systems analysis & design fundamentals a business process redesign approach. Thousand Oaks, Calif, Sage Publications. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=467185.
- SHIVA, S. G. (2000). Computer design and architecture. New York, Marcel Dekker.
- OSBORNE, L. N., & NAKAMURA, M. (2000). Systems analysis for librarians and information professionals. Englewood, Colo, Libraries Unlimited. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=38714.
