MIS Assignment: System Development Life Cycle:

MIS Based Supply Chain Management

For PepsiCo Inc.

An Over View Of PepsiCo Inc.:

The history of PepsiCo Inc. be trace back in late 1980’s when an American Pharmacist Caleb Bradham created a Cola Soft drink by combining natural ingredients, the drink became so popular that they decided to expand it and laid down foundation of Pepsi-Cola company in 1898 with sales of $500 million and 19,000 employees, the company introduces different drinks.

Later in 1965 Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay Inc. the new Company named PepsiCo Inc. in North Carolina, U.S.A, and doing business successfully till today, with annual revenue more than $65 Billion, and 297,000 employees, at current the company is doing business in nearly 200 countries around the globe. PepsiCo is a global food and beverage leader with a diverse product portfolio that includes 22 brands including Soft Drinks, Chips, and Foods etc that each generates more than $1 billion each in annual retail sales. Take a closer look at the brands and products that make up the PepsiCo portfolio.

The Major business operations on international level are based on franchising system, by issuing license for specific product worldwide.

PepsiCo Inc. In Pakistan:

In Pakistan the PepsiCo Inc. is doing business on franchising basis the head quarter of Franchisee is situated at Islamabad controlling operations all

over Pakistan, the company performs manufacturing processes in 5 plants situated at Quetta, Karachi and Hyderabad, with annual growth rate of last 5 years 25%.

For the purpose of completion of our project we have visited PepsiCo Plant at Hyderabad.

Organization Visited:

Name: PepsiCo Inc. Factory C-7, Mirpurkhas Road, S.I.T.E Hyderabad.

Date: 14-Febuarary-2013

Timing: 10 am to 12 pm

Processes Guided By: Resident Director “Mr. Isamail Zara”.

Hire To Fire Process:

The hire and fire process is responsibility of H.R Department before it was Administration Department, the process starts when any department feels a need of employee, The departmental head have to fill an Employee Regulation Form which is forwarded to Managing Director, After approval from M.D the following Hire And Fire Process starts.

Hiring Process:

Firing Process:

Order To Pay:

Order to Pay is a business process by which companies places order and receive material they needed, logically designed Order to Pay process can reduce ordering cost up to 50%, and it also allows organization to order goods or to pay effectively and efficiently.

At PepsiCo Hyderabad, Order is made on daily basis, Order to pay process starts with order made by Purchase Department, Being a franchisee PepsiCo. Hyderabad cannot place Order to whatever they want, Order can only be placed to authorize suppliers licensed by PepsiCo. USA, Inventory includes Caps, Crowns, Packaging Material, Glass Bottles, Plastic Bottles, Canes, Co2 gas and Water from Local Water Supply System, Primary Ingredient i.e. Concentrate Syrup is received from parental company north America.

System Development Life Cycle

Like every other system in order to develop a new system effectively and efficiently we need to follow specific set of steps universally accepted known as system Development Life Cycle. After our visit to PepsiCo We decided to develop an information system which will concentrate on their supply chain system only.

Why Supply Chain Management?

Supply chain management SCM is the integration and management of complete supply chain from supplier to store, from store to Manufacturing Department, From Manufacturing Department to Store, and again from store to agent, wholesaler and ultimate Consumer. The supply chain concept has become a concern due to global competition and increasing customer demand for value. Thus, the information must be available in real time across the supply chain and this cannot be achieved without an integrated software system for supply chain management. Supply chain members have to collaborate, sharing information for improving customer’s satisfaction. Web technologies enable enterprises to become more effective, to trade with suppliers and customers over the Internet in real time. For this, businesses have to integrate their information systems and applications with those of their suppliers and customers.

The System Development Life Cycle comprises of following steps:

1. Planning Phase2. Analysis phase3. Design Phase4. Implementation Phase5. Use or Operation Phase

Planning Phase

1. Recognize Problem:

During our visit at PepsiCo we come to know that PepsiCo was not equipped with any special system to cater for their supply chain management specially, the information system they were following was generally focusing on whole organization like finance problems, HR Problems, employee attendance, wage problems, salary system, financial reporting etc. but most of work was being performed manually focusing

more on paper work and less use of information system, which will be putting excessive cost of paper work, flow of inventory was not properly maintained, and losses occurred during manufacturing process was almost manually controlled which was seems like unable to record all the loses. Following are the some of the basic problems which we observed during our visit:

The PepsiCo order, receives, processes and dispatches thousands of units of inventory on daily basis and the flow of inventory was almost manually controlled.

Inventory reporting was made manually. Orders to suppliers and from customers were received manually

which was time consuming and incurring cost. No proper check and balance for losses made during manufacturing

process. PepsiCo Hyderabad was not equipped with web base system in order

to made transactions online. Returns of unapproved inventory were manually controlled.

2- Defining Problems:

After recognizing the problem carefully and making logical analysis we come to know about basic problems of PepsiCo Supply Chain system which are:

Lack of Information System based Inventory Flow:

The flow of inventory was not properly controlled by information system which was creating problem; management was unaware of losses during the manufacturing process and units consumed by the employees themselves, such consumptions made by employees cannot taken in account for Losses during manufacturing process, the track record of inventory will be disturbed. The quality approved units were kept manually recorded which can mislead management while deciding about which units are ready for manufacturing processes. There was no auto alert system installed which can send report to management when inventory level hit to the minimum level of inventory.

Management was unable to differentiate between slow moving inventory and fast moving inventory, forecasting demand was again creating problems.

Manually Order System:

The order made to suppliers was manually made which was time consuming and bearing extra cost, and also order received from customers was again manually, there was no web interrogation with ordering system of the PepsiCo Hyderabad, orders were record on papers, reporting them to information system for further reporting purpose was difficult.

3- Set System Objectives:

Following system objectives are set for developing new information system,

MIS based Vehicle flow Time is very much important to perform manufacturing process effectively and delivering product in time, the inflow of vehicles i.e. vehicles bringing raw material must be controlled by Information system, there must be complete recording of when the truck or vehicle enters the organization and when they leave the organization, so that the management can have check and balance of time required to take off the material and load it to the store, this will help management to set proper time limit of transferring material from vehicle to store so that there would be no extra time wastage.Similarly the check and balance of trucks/vehicles leaving the premises of organizations in order to deliver the goods to customer must be recorded in computerized way and the time they returned back to organization, so that management can make track records of timeliness of their delivery system it will help them to develop time limits for delivering products

MIS Based Inventory Flow System:Inventory flow within organization must be controlled through information system so that management can ware when inventory was received and transferred to store, when quality testing was completed and for which inventory, when inventory was sent to Manufacturing Department, and when finished goods were sent to finished goods stores, it will help management how much time consumed on transferring of inventory from departments to store and vice versa after excluding time taken to complete process and quality checking time. Furthermore management must keep track of inventory available for processing, inventory processed and finished goods inventory through information system, for this purpose management will be provided

with inventory dashboards, an auto alert system will be set to remind management about minimum level of inventory available with them.Data from a logistical information system allows an organization to identify inventory levels, inventory turnover rates while identifying usable warehouse or distribution space.

Online Order System:The customers must be provided with facility to make online orders to save time and excessive cost incurred while placing orders.

MIS Based purchase system:Purchases of raw materials must be controlled and recorded by information system, management decisions will be based on estimated forecasted demand reports presented by Information system and minimum level of inventory available.

Management Support System:The role of an information system will be to collect raw data for transaction processing. Through specialized reporting and inquiries, the system produces management reports to assist management to make decisions which impact operations. When data is compiled in a supply chain system, it is used to determine strategies which impact inventory cost, distribution costs and product cycles. The management information system becomes a support system which uses transaction exception reports and feedback from other divisions in the organization to make sound decisions concerning all areas of the logistical function.

Creates Added-Value for Customers:The effect of a supply chain management system will be in two ways. First, supply chain management system provides customers with updated information on the status of an item or product cataloged within the system for sale, movement to a distribution point (inventory procedure). The system provides instant status on item.Second, it provides customer’s ability to order PepsiCo directly through web based integration of Supply Chain System.

Conclusion: Reduce wastage of time incurred during material flow. More secure and reliable data. Increases sale and non-economic returns Reduces excessive paper and ordering cost Customer satisfaction

Demand forecast and planning based on more reliable data Online payment system increase receivable collections Timeliness in delivery of products Intimacy with creditors/suppliers High inventory turnover

4- Establish System Constraint:

The advancement of technologies in producing Information System (IS) is good but at the same time produces some constraint. The basic system constraints are consist of

i) System Development Constraintsii) After Development of System Constraints

System Development Constraints:

Following are some of the basic system development Constraints which are needed to consider in order to develop system.

Project Scope:

The project scope is the definition of what the project is supposed to accomplish with the specified features and functions in a project. Project scope is the goal that needs to be fulfilled in order to complete a project. Without proper project scope, the development team can go out of the track and produce the final deliverable that is not intended by their clients. This will result in loss of time, resource to the company whom develops the application. On the other hand, the cost will increase since they have to recode the developed system to suit the client’s needs.

Time Period:

Time is a period measurement that is used in project scheduling to estimate the project duration. The time here can be either in days, weeks, months or years depending on the complexity and size of the project. The project duration should be carefully planned and enough time should be provided for each stages. Without allocating proper time

amount the system produced may not be at an optimum quality. This is because the development team might need to rush to finish the project within the time frame which results in poorly designed and coded system which is prone to error and bugs.

The time period constraint is determined by the MIS Steering committee with the support of system analyst, the suitable time period constraint for this project is determined as following:

Planning Phase 01 month

Analyzing Phase 01 month

Design phase 1.5 month

Implementation phase 2.5 months

Use or operate phase 5 months

Total time constraint set for project: 10 months

Budget:

Budget (Cost) provides a forecast of revenues and expenditures in the project. By evaluating budget, the profit and loss can also be estimated. This will help to decide whether to undertake the project or not. The budget estimation is a difficult task since it involves analyzing skills and numerical values. Without proper budget plan, the development can exceed or over spend which will lead into higher production cost and lower profit margin. With an effective project management, one can balances those mentioned constraints easily. Project management helps to plan each and every progress of a project carefully from start to end. There are tools and techniques that help us to plan and analyze the project before the actual project starts.

The budgeting of system after having careful analysis of system turnover, forecasted returns, and projected cash inflows and out flows with consent of System Analysis the following budgeting plane is announced:

PhaseEstimated Budget

Planning Phase Rs 100,000Analysis Phase Rs 200,000Design Phase Rs 100,000Implementation Phase Rs 250,000

Use/Operation Phase Rs 300,000Total Budget Rs 950,000

After Development of System Constraints:

After development constraints can best be defined on 2 points:

- User Information Satisfaction- Organizational Impact

User Information Satisfaction:

Satisfaction of user information is very much important, user information satisfaction is best parameter to measure assessment of Information System Implementation, it is defined as “Degree to which users rely on usefulness of Information System”, the users will only be satisfied when Information System meets user’s expectations, if it is not it will not satisfied users.

The New Information System will satisfy users from following point of views:

- Cost Saving- Revenue Generating- More System Utilization- Personal Satisfaction

Organizational Impacts:

The organizational impact of SCM Information System is very wide, as it will completely takeover the current system which is almost manual system leaving employs with more time to concentrate on their performance, it increases employees understanding with modern Supply Chain Management, increases Organizations ability to respond change, inventory wastages will be reduced, employees will be wasting less time on making inventory flow within and outside the Organization.

5-Conduct of Feasibility Study:

A feasibility study determines if the proposed solution is feasible and achievable from a financial, technical, and organizational standpoint. Typically, an organization will define several alternative solutions that it can

pursue to solve a given problem. A feasibility study is used to determine if the proposed solution is achievable, given the organization’s resources and constraints.Feasibility study is performed on following points:

1. Technical Objectives2. Economic Return3. Non Economic Return4. Legal and Ethical 5. Operational6. Schedule

Technical Feasibility:

Technical feasibility considers the technical requirements of projects, the technical feasibility depends upon system analyst expertise and knowledge to estimate wither technically this system will be feasible to operate or not? Technical feasibility of this Information System will be tested from following points.

·        Is the project feasible within the limits of current technology?·        Does the technology exist at all?·        Is it available within given resource constraints?·        Is it a practical proposition?·        Manpower- programmers, testers & debuggers·        Software and hardware·        Are the current technical resources sufficient for the new system?·        Can they be upgraded to provide to provide the level of technology

necessary for the new system?·        Do we possess the necessary technical expertise, and is the schedule

reasonable?·        Can the technology be easily applied to current problems?·        Does the technology have the capacity to handle the solution?

Economic Return:

The new Information System will make organization more cost effective, it reduces excessive paper work cost, sales volumes will ultimately increase, with keeping track records of inventory flow management can

keep records of rejected supplies from quality Department and Returns made, also losses incurred during manufacturing process, these cost can best be adjusted under new Information System.

The time records of uploading and downloading of vehicles will help management to allocate appropriate time for processes so that there would be minimum time wastage, employees will feel less fatigue and in more productive way they will consume time, it will also reduces labor cost.

Furthermore economic return feasibility will base on following points:

·        Is the system cost effective?·        Do benefits outweigh costs?·        The cost of doing full system study·        The cost of business employee time·        Estimated cost of hardware·        Estimated cost of software/software development·        Is the project possible, given the resource constraints?·        What are the savings that will result from the system?·        Cost of employees' time for study·        Cost of packaged software/software development

Non-Economic Return:

Good will of organization will increase. Information system will provide competitive advantage. Share price and customer satisfaction will increase. It will help in make accurate sales forecasting and demand forecasting on the basis of previous demand track. Employees will be trained and more competitive, and will be able to see situations more clearly than now. It increases supplier/customer intimacy, organization will be able to make quick response to queries made by management and customers and suppliers and also to the changing market trends, customers/suppliers/creditors will feel more valued as organization will be in position to frequently respond them and facilitating them in technological way, Good will increase ultimately.

Legal and Ethical:

The legal and ethical impacts of this system is on broad scale, all users must be made familiar with legal constraints of Information system, management must made strict policies in order to maintain ethical and legal standard of new Information System, Legally new information

system will be securing the data base from un-authorized access from following points:

Secured Password:

The new information system will be securing database by use of passwords provided only to authorize users and these passwords will be centrally controlled by Top Management and users will not be allowed to change password without permission or reporting to higher authority the main reasons are:

- Prohibiting un-authorized access to Data base.- Eliminating chances of misuse of system- Making sure only authorized persons can make access to data in order

to change or reschedule the data.

Privacy:

Information System make it possible to maintain privacy, confidential data like demand forecast reports, supplier records, customer data, track records of credit sales and payables, sales information etc.

Operational Feasibility:

Operational feasibility is dependent on human resources available for the project and involves projecting whether the system will be used if it is developed and implemented.

Operational feasibility is a measure of how well a proposed system solves the problems, and takes advantage of the opportunities identified during scope definition and how it satisfies the requirements identified in the requirements analysis phase of system development.Operational feasibility reviews the willingness of the organization to support the proposed system. This is probably the most difficult of the feasibilities to gauge. In order to determine this feasibility, it is important to understand the management commitment to the proposed project. If the request was initiated by management, it is likely that there is management support and the system will be accepted and used. However, it is also important that the employee base will be accepting of the change. The essential questions that help in testing the operational feasibility of a system include the following:

·        Does current mode of operation provide adequate throughput and response time?

·        Does current mode provide end users and managers with timely, pertinent, accurate and useful formatted information?

·        Does current mode of operation provide cost-effective information services to the business?

·        Could there be a reduction in cost and or an increase in benefits?

·        Does current mode of operation offer effective controls to protect against fraud and to guarantee accuracy and security of data and information?

·        Does current mode of operation make maximum use of available resources, including people, time, and flow of forms?

·        Does current mode of operation provide reliable services?

·        Are the services flexible and expandable?

·        Are the current work practices and procedures adequate to support the new system?

·        Social acceptability

·        Government regulations

·        Does management support the project?

·        Are the users not happy with current business practices?

·        Will it reduce the time (operation) considerably?

Schedule:

Schedule feasibility is to assess the duration of the project determined by analyst, whether it is too long to be complete before it is useful. System analysts have to estimate how long the system will take to develop, and whether all potential timeframes and the completion date schedules can be met, as well as whether meeting these date will sufficient for dealing with the needs of the organization.

We may have the technology, but that doesn't mean we have the skills required to properly apply that technology. Even though all information systems professionals can learn new technologies, the learning curve will specifically impact the schedule feasibility. Also, one needs to determine whether the deadlines are mandatory or desirable. Unless the deadline is absolute mandatory, it is preferable to deliver a properly functioning

information system two months late than to deliver an error-prone, useless information system on time. Missed schedules are bad, but inadequate systems are worse.

6-Control Mechanism :

The System Development Life Cycle will be controlled by arranging meetings conducted every fortnight, the overall process is represented by Gantt Chart below:

Gantt Chart Representing SDLC Phases

Analysis Phase

The Analysis Phase consists of following steps:

1- Announce The System:

After completion of planning phase and arranging various meetings the MIS Steering Committee announces the system study in which

committee announces about the detailed outline of project, the committee we announces the system study based on following points:

- The main purpose of this information system is to replace old partially manual system for supply chain management with complete new information system based SCM.

- The estimated budget for this project is about 950,000 PKR.The project will take about 09 months to complete the system and implement the system in operational form.

- The objectives of new systems are:

MIS based Vehicle flow

MIS Based Inventory Flow System

Online Order System

MIS Based purchase system

Management Support System

Creates Added-Value for Customers

User’s Feedback:Not all the employee will be ready and adaptable to change, the announcement of new Information system can create disturbance in working environment as psychologically most of employees in any organizations are against the change culture, The MIS Steering committee will be collecting feedback from employees who will be in direct contact with Information System, to know there ideas about new system and resolving any issue they are having with new system.

2- Organize The Project Team:

After announcing the new Information System, the MIS Steering Committee will organize the project team, the project team organized for developing Information based Supply Chain Management will consist of following team members:

1- Project Manager – project manager of team will control the projects performed by system development team. He will follow the execution of the software project, control time and budget. He will organize

himself and will be having excellent organizational skills. He is responsible for the software team’s activity, and project accounting.

2- System Analyst – system analyst will deal with customers and specify the direction to the software project. This person will analyze the requirements, work out the project strategy, write documentation and lead the project to the successful completion.  He will be responsible for technical, managerial and creative tasks.

3- Software Architect – Software Architect will develop the design of the software product taking into account project’s requirements. This person will be skillful software developer. Design Architect will be responsible to work out software architecture for any complex system.

4- Designer – designer will be a creative person who is responsible for product look-and-feel taking into account project’s requirements. He should be a ‘hybrid’ designer who doesn’t strain at Photoshop and can write CSS-code. He should be familiar with visual design as well as with web standards, should be a professional in usability, universal design, accessibility, etc.

5- Software Developer – software designer in a team will develop the product. Software Developer should be an expert in various spheres of software development (mobile application development, web application development) and should study all the time to improve his knowledge and competence.

6- Software Tester – will test the software during the course of software development. He should be familiar with various techniques and methods of software testing (black box testing, smoke testing, etc) and should very patient.

3- Conduct System Study (Define Information Needs):

The new Information System will take over the entire Supply Chain Management of Organization; the system study will be based on following points:

- Authorization:

Only Authorized persons will be allowed to access to database and view reports, the system will be secured by providing passwords, each users will be having separate password and passwords will be allowing access at only working hours defined by central management, the users will not be allowed to interact with the system after working hours.

- Online Ordering Systems:

The order to the suppliers will be made online through website. The customers will also be given access to web page to make online orders and credit request.

- Controlled Vehicle Movement:

The vehicles coming inside the premises i.e. supplies receiving, and vehicles sent i.e. goods delivered will be maintained through Information system, the leaving and arriving timings of vehicles will be maintained in database, in order to determine timeliness of service.

- Inventory flow:

The inventory flow will be controlled by information system, the amount, timing and type of inventory received will be maintained by the system, the inventory which qualifies quality control testing will be awarded PepsiCo number i.e. PC# in order to keep separate records of materials ready to be processed, the material processed and transferred to store will be kept in separate records, orders will be accepted on the basis of inventory available.

- Track Records Of Losses During Process:

Daily numbers of losses incurred during process and consumed by employees are best to keep separate, it will help us to determine plant performance to process material into finished goods accurately, also losses incurred during must not be kept along with units consumed by employees, these two costs are best to keep separate in order to maintain exact calculation of operational expenses.

4- Define System Performance Criteria:

The new information system will be maintaining entire Supply Chain Management of PepsiCo Hyderabad through Information System, the reporting to managers will be based on modern reporting techniques i.e. Dashboard system, bar diagrams, charts, pie charts, 3d charts etc.

The managers will be in position to view inventory positions using Dashboards, the dashboards will be updating management about complete

inventory cycle, how much inventory is available in store, how much inventory is Q.C approved, how much inventory has been processed, how many orders are received, how many orders are delivered, what is position of sales, comparing last week sale with this week or last month sale with this month.

The manager’s will also be able to compare demands of different working periods, wither on weekly basis, monthly basis, half yearly basis or seasonal basis, the dashboard system will allow management to study demand and supply pattern of individual suppliers and customers in order to make effective demand and sale forecast.

The orders received online will directly be reported to concerned manager to respond quickly.

Furthest more, the Supply Chain Performance Criteria will be based on following points:

1- Customer Services:

The new supply chain management will be evaluated on the basis of services provided to customers, wither Database is efficient enough to store customers database or not? The new information system will be able to evaluate customer’s accounts from administration account or not? Customers accounts can be secured by password or not? Wither customer will have to wait for processing of their requests? These all questions will be answered while evaluating performance criteria of new supply chain management.

2- Quality:

The second main important criteria to evaluate system performance is quality of work and services, the quality of work must not be detoriated by implementation of Information System, we need to find out answers to some of the basic questions while evaluating performance criteria of quality, wither the new system would be able to meet expectations and set objectives or not? What would be impact of new system on quality of processes? I.e. reduce process time or not, Increase system efficiency or not? Wither it would be able to track

losses or not? These questions must be answered while evaluating performance criteria.

3- Agility:

The 3rd important criteria for evaluating system performance is its Agility, management must decide how much agility new information system will be adding to supply Chain Management processes, it will increase the inventory flow processes or not? What would be its impact on total time required to complete inventory cycle, and delivery of goods to customers? The new information system must be agile enough to reduce time wastage as it is being experienced in current system, by tracking time record of vehicles entering the premises of organization we could be able to determine excessive time wastage over each supply chain process, from inventory receiving to testing and approving, transferring to manufacturing department and measuring losses, speed of order delivery to customers and over all processes speed.

4- Supply Chain Cost:

Another important criteria of evaluating performance is supply chain cost, cost always matters for performance and operations of any organization, cost always plays important role in determining the profitability and successes of any project, the Information system must be economically reducing cost of Supply chain processes.It must not impose extra burden as cost of operation of Information system, we need to take care of following points in term of cost evaluation and performance evaluation, what would be overall impact of new Information system over operating expenses, wither it would be increasing the cost or decreasing the cost? The cost of supply chain management can be evaluating by accessing wither the information system would be able to operate under defined premises or not, how many professional and human resource will be required to operate the system? Cost of software and hardware, database and database management cost? We must determine wither organization will be in position to make economic processes or not?

The Design Phase

Detailed System Design:

Identify Alternative System Configurations:

Depending on tolerance for 404 timeouts and response time during peak usage times, we can choose web server hardware to minimize disk latency (caching) while ensuring that we have enough CPU and RAM for the OS.

While determining system configuration we have to consider:

- Web server configuration - Data Base System Configuration- Client machine hard ware and software requirement

- Hard Ware requirement:

Web server configuration:

Developing a web server for is very much expensive and time consuming task also requires additional Staff to look after to web server maintenance, so we decided to go for web hosting services, in Pakistan many organizations are providing web hosting services so it would not be difficult to go for a web hosting service, neither it will impose additional cost our PepsiCo Hyderabad.

Data Base System Configuration:

The ideal system configurations for Data Base are following:

Small data base:

Processor: 1 processor of 3 G Hz minimum recommended

Ram: 2 GB RAM minimum recommended

Hard disk: 240 GB minimum Recommended

Medium Size Database:

Processor 2 processor of 3 G Hz minimum recommended

RAM: 4 GB RAM minimum Recommended

Hard disk: 500 GB hard disk minimum recommended

Large Size Database:

Processor: 3 Processor of 3 G Hz minimum recommended

Ram: 6 GB RAM minimum Recommended

Hard Disk: 800 GB Hard disk minimum recommended

- Client Machine Hardware Requirement: The recommended Hardware requirement for client machine is as under:

Processor: I processor with minimum 2.5 GHz recommendedRAM: 1 GB Ram minimum recommendedHard Disk: 120 GB Hard disk Minimum Recommended

Software Requirement:

for Data base:Operating System: Windows Operating System, UNIX, LinuxInternet Browser: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox Data base: IBM® DB2 Version 9.1, IBM DB2 for z/OS®

Version 9.1, IBM DB2 Version 9.5, Oracle 10g, Oracle 11g

For Client/User: Operating System: Windows Operating System, UNIX Operating SystemInternet Browser: Internet explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox

3- Evaluating Alternative System Configuration:

Evaluation of alternative system will be made on following points:

- Web Hosting service Evaluation:

Choosing the right and best web host is the ideal decision with just a simple query but finding the right web hosting company for your site is quite difficult. Some basic and important features someone should check before signing up for any hosting package.

Affordable Prices Unlimited Bandwidth Unlimited Disk Space Unlimited Domains could be hosted 24 Hours Uptime Data Backups More Secure & Reliable 24 Hours support (Through Ticket or Live Chat)

Following are the top 5 web hosting websites in Pakistan:

1- Hostgator:

Hostgator is US based Web Hosting Company. Hostgator offers affordable prices with quality of service with all plans shared, dedicated, reseller or VPS. Hostagor is held and based in Houston, Texas. The company was founded in 2002 by the current chairman Brent Oxley

02. Just host:

Justhot is another trusted and reliable Web Hosting Company offering lots of features and support to their customers. Signing up with Justhost you can get a free domain, host unlimited domains in one account, customer tailored support, 99.9% uptime, affordable web hosting, integration, simplicity, free script library as well as Money Back Guarantee.

03. Hostmonster :

Hostmonster got third position in Web Hosting Companies ranking. Hostmonster is another hosting solution to thousands of business and personal websites since 1996. with internet hosting package helps businesses and individuals get high-powered service at a fraction of the price.

04. iPage :

iPage team has been hosting business, personal, social and non-profit websites for more than 10 years. Ipage know web hosting and the typical hosting customer, which means they know there is NO typical hosting customer. They are ideal solution for customer to build any website, offering unlimited bandwidth and lots of more features.

05. Bluehost:

Bluehost is one of the leading and classic web hosting hosting company since 1996 providing quality web hosting solutions to businesses and individuals. Bluehost goal is to provide outstanding services for the best possible price. To achieve these goals they are constantly innovating and upgrading services at no additional cost to our customers.

Bluehost secures your business websites as well as personal. A trusted and comfortable Hosting Provider with no hidden charges as well as Money back guarantee.

Hard ware Requirement Evaluation:

Hard ware requirement evaluation will be made on the basis of use; i.e. wither it will be used as database server or client/user server.

Hardware requirement evaluation:

For data base server:

Hard ware requirement for database server is very straight forward and it will be depending upon analyst recommendation, following are the few requirements selected:

1- Small size Data base:

Small size data base will no doubt be economic to obtain, and will require less IT Staff personnel to operate and maintain, but this type of database will lead managers to problems of especially data storage, large amount of data cannot be stored, as well as it would be difficult to retrieve large piece of data, i.e. slow speed of data retrieval.

2- Medium Size Data base

Medium size Database can prove to be Ideal for medium organizations as it will not impose excessive operational costs as compared to large Data base systems, neither find difficult to retrieve and store large piece of information like Small Database.

3- Large Size Data Base:

Large Size database are difficult to operate, it requires an additional IT staff to look after for Database, further more it increases operational cost.

Client/User’s Machine Hardware Requirement Evaluation:

Evaluation of user’s system hardware configuration is easy it requires no more expensive hardware with high configurations, a standard configuration set up is recommended, following brands are available in market:

- HP- IBM- LENOVO- ACER

- APPLE- DELL- OPTIPLEX

And so on.

Software Requirement Evaluation:

Software requirement evaluation will be made on recommendation of System Analyst:

User’s Software Evaluation: user’s system needs are straight forward, Evaluations are based on standard requirement of Personal computer.

Popular Operating systems are Microsoft’s Windows, UNIX, LINUX and so on.

Microsoft’s Windows are easy to use, and operate, acquiring cost is low and also no extra maintenance required. UNIX and LINUX operating Software are costlier and requires maintenance.

Browser’s are easy to obtain and available free of cost at internet, no additional maintenance required, Browser’s are Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari Etc.

Database Software Evaluation: database software evaluation will be made on recommendation of System evaluation, many database software are available including, IBM , SQL, ORACLE, MS ACCESS and so on.

These Software requires additional Software and memory requirement, also additional personnel are require to operate and maintain Database.

4- Select Best Configuration:

Selection of configuration will be made purely on recommendations of MIS Steering Committee, following system configuration is selected by MIS Steering Committee:

- Web Server Hosting Configuration:

The web server hosting selected by MIS Steering Committee is Just host web hosting service, Justhot is trusted and reliable Web Hosting Company offering lots of features and support to their customers. Signing

up with Justhost you can get a free domain, host unlimited domains in one account, customer tailored support, 99.9% uptime, affordable web hosting, integration, simplicity, free script library as well as Money Back Guarantee.

- Database System Configuration:

Hardware Configuration: Hardware configuration selected for Database System is as follows,

Processor 2 processor of 3 G Hz minimum recommended

RAM: 4 GB RAM minimum Recommended

Hard disk: 500 GB hard disk minimum recommended

Software Configuration: Software Configuration selected to operate Database Management is :

Operating System: UNIX Operating System,

Internet Browser: Mozilla Firefox

Data base: Oracle 11g

- User’s System Configuration: Selecting user’s system configuration is simple and easy task but careful assessment of Configuration and Operating System must be compatible to Database.

Hardware Configuration: Hardware Configuration needed for User’s Configuration are as follow:

Processor: I processor with minimum 2.5 GHz RAM: 1 GB Ram minimum Hard Disk: 120 GB Hard disk

Software Requirement: Software Requirements selected for User’s system configuration are as follow:

Operating System: Window’s 7Internet Browser: Mozilla Firefox