Group Members: Saif Ahmed, Claudia Ledesma & Sarah Rush Reader’s Outpost

System Request  Project Sponsor: Michael Moore, President  Organization: Reader’s Outpost  Phone: 

Business Model & Background  Family owned bookstore since 1988  About $400,000 in annual sales  Currently employees 3 full-time and 3 part-time employees  Very well know in the local writer’s community  Debt ratio has been maintained at a very low figure (20%) for the last 3 years  Bookstore specialty is carrying rare finds  Monthly book club meetings are conducted in the store  All transactions are conducted on a manual cash register

Business Need  Sales totals, inventory, and other pertinent information is being recorded manually in a sales ledger  Growth being threatened due to current outdated system  Need for a new computer system that will record transactions and capture all data digitally  Need for a system that will allow for reporting and trend charting  Instant access to past data  Increase growth by 25% for the next 3 years  Opening of more stores within 4 years

Business Requirement  Capture the data on book inventory, prices, author, sales transaction and employees  Search books by authors, book id, genre, quantity being sold, price  Ability to run reports and plot trend charts  Track employee productivity based on books sold  Instant access to profit margins on books and net sales  Ability to track refunds electronically

Business Value (Tangible)  Increase sales by 30% from $400,000 this year to $520,000 next year  50% reduction in overtime hours due to less paperwork  Cut down on time spent on month-end inventory by 70%  60% reduction in office supplies cost due to less manual paperwork

Business Value (Intangible)  Increase in employee efficiency, thereby increasing customer service  Employees will have more time to talk to customers, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty  Automated system will allow us to concentrate on marketing campaigns, which will bring more potential revenue in the future  More sales will lead to more employee bonuses, thereby increasing employee morale and decreasing turnover  Employees will have more time to work store appearance and condition

Special Issues or Constraints  Training issues need to be discussed early on in the development stage since all employees are used to doing things manually  The system should be user friendly, as this would prevent the need to hire tech savvy workers, thereby keeping labor costs down  Special consideration should be taken to allow the system to be able to handle online transactions in the future, since we do plan to expand and sell books online as well.

Questions?