CERTIFICATE EVALUATING AND PROCURING SOFTWARE PACKAGES

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1 INFORMATION SYSTEMS EXAMINATION BOARD BUSINESS SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT CERTIFICATE IN EVALUATING AND PROCURING SOFTWARE PACKAGES SAMPLE EXAM PAPER TIME ALLOWED: ONE HOUR You are allowed fifteen (15) minutes reading time before the examination starts. You are not allowed to write anything during that reading time. This is an open-book examination. This means that you can refer to written material in addition to the examination paper itself. Attempt ALL questions. All questions are based on the same scenario. There are 50 marks in total for this paper. The mark awarded for each separate question will be shown with the question text. As this is a sample paper, both the paper and the marking scheme may be freely copied for your private use.

2 Scenario Overnight Parcels is a specialist parcel handling company based in the Midland region. It has 23 depots around the country, each strategically placed to serve a geographical region. This allows Overnight to support next-day deliveries throughout the country. Each depot has vans allocated to it. These vans are used to make parcel collections in the local geographical region. Depots employ between 40 and 120 drivers. Extra vans may be rented and temporary drivers employed during the busy Xmas period. The company also has 40 large trucks that it uses to make movements between the depots. These movements take place at night and are driven by a specialist workforce. Both the trucks and their drivers are based at the Midlands headquarters. The recording, tracking and invoicing of parcels is currently supported by a bespoke computer system developed by a specialist software house and implemented seven years ago. This software runs on a mainframe system at the Midlands headquarters. Each local office has between two and five dumb terminals linked to the mainframe. Local printers are provided collection notes and management reports. The software is owned by Overnight who has a support contract with the software house that developed it. People who want to use the Overnight service to move a parcel phone their local depot and request a collection. They are asked to give the collection point, the number of parcels involved and their account number. This account number is a mandatory requirement no Overnight collection/delivery is permitted without an account number. Once these details have been agreed and entered into the computer system, a three-part Collection Note is printed with a unique identifier Collection Note number, together with the collection details provided by the customer. Within each region there are a number (typically ) routes. These are specific routes taken by the vans each day to perform both collections and deliveries. At the end of the working day, a traffic clerk allocates the Collection Notes printed that day to the appropriate route, ready for collection on the following working day. The planning of routes and the allocation of Collection Notes to those routes is not computerised. When the parcel is collected, the driver adds the destination details to the three-part Collection Note. A copy of this Collection Note is left with the customer. A second copy is attached to the parcel and the driver files the third copy in a folder in the van. At the local depot, a clerk examines the destination of each parcel. Deliveries within the local area are physically stored in the area allocated to that route. Deliveries outside the immediate geographical area are allocated to an appropriate truck service, which will collect the parcels at night and move them to the relevant local depot. Each physical movement of the parcel is entered into the recorded on the company s computer system. This includes inter-depot truck movements.

3 Deliveries are made at the same time as collections. So a driver undertaking a route will have both collections and deliveries to make. The delivery is acknowledged by removing the Collection Note on the parcel and signing it. These signed Collection Notes are returned to the local depot and retained in case of any subsequent queries. The time and date of delivery is recorded on the computer system. Overnight, a batch program on the Headquarters computer system identifies all the deliveries made that day and calculates the cost of each delivery. This is done a pence per mile basis, so that the system has to calculate the distance between the collection and the delivery address. This is done from a database of postcodes held on the system. Once the fee has been calculated, discounts may be applied depending on the terms of agreement with the account holder. Deliveries during that day are then consolidated onto one invoice and this is sent to the account holder. The invoice gives the total cost of the deliveries made that day, any discounts applied and the final value due. Each invoice is accompanied by a detailed sheet showing, for each delivery, the Collection Note number, the collection date, the collection address, the delivery date, the delivery address and the cost of the delivery before and after discount. The firm has expanded considerably in the last few years and the computer system and its supporting hardware is not delivering the required performance or service. There are also concerns over the maintenance cost of the hardware and the cost of making changes to the software. Each change seems to be very expensive and there is a feeling that the software house is overcharging and not giving value for money. Management consultants have recently undertaken a review of the company s information systems provision and have recommended the following. The mainframe system should be replaced by a PC based client-server solution, delivering more functionality in local offices Efforts should be made to automate data collection, replacing the physical entry of delivery and collection details with automatic data capture devices That planning of deliveries and routes should be brought into the scope of the system A software package solution should be sought because it provides a failsafe solution avoiding the problems encountered with the development and maintenance of the bespoke system One of the software packages under consideration is the LOGITRANS software from E-logistics Solutions. They have produced a part design

4 specification at your request so you can help evaluate the functionality of their package. It is reproduced below. E-logistics Solutions Part design specification for LOGITRANS Account Company Driver Depot Vehicle Invoice Movement COMPANY This describes the organisation moving the goods (for example, Overnight Parcels). DEPOT These are the individual depots belonging to the organisation. Overnight Parcels currently has 23 depots. DRIVER These are the drivers who move the parcels ACCOUNT These are the Account holders or Customers who are billed for the movements INVOICE The Invoice documents and costs the movements

5 VEHICLE These are the vehicles used by the drivers to make the movements. MOVEMENT An individual movement is from one place to another. For example, a parcel moved from London to Glasgow. Question One a) Identify three apparent gaps between the functional requirements (identified in the narrative) and the LOGITRANS software design. b) Suggest what business compromise or further investigation would be required to understand and compensate for each identified gap Question Two Identify and briefly describe four appropriate non-functional requirements for the Overnight Parcels system. Question Three Briefly outline the main headings you would expect to see in the a) License agreement of the LOGITRANS software package (5 marks) b) The maintenance and support agreement for the LOGITRANS software package (5 marks) c) On a supplier questionnaire for the investigating suppliers stage of the selection process (4 marks)