Manual Systems in the Digital Age: Efficiency, Challenges, and Best Practices

Manual systems have proven beyond doubt to be ineffective considering the size of paperwork, difficulties in information access, tiresomeness, cost and bulkiness of papers. With the demerits in mind organizations, including educational institutions are adopting automatic and computerized systems. The automated systems ensure quick, accurate and effective service delivery. The state university decided to use the program solution for the university management of book order. This system aims at centralizing university book borrowing by the students. The system captures the borrowing and purchase transactions and keeps the records. It is also supposed to give summaries for operations.

System design

The university requires a management information system to manage the books borrowing and purchase. The program is intended to accept student registration number and full student name. After receiving the entered values undergo validation. Validation gets done against the student details existing in the database. The student is then allowed to specify books details. Books details include the book title, author, and the price as indicated on the selected book. The picked books records are also validated against the books records database. The student can then pick up the selected books at the bookstore or request for the book delivery. The delivery requires charges depending on the destination. The system then computes the total price including the delivery charges. The system asks the user to enter credit card number and then validates it. The tasks performed by the system include:

i. Enable the student to enter their name and registration number.

ii. Accept the course name and the number of units in their current period of study.

iii. Accept books details

iv. Accept delivery option and apply charges

v. Compute the total for the selected books and delivery

vi. Accept credit card account number

Program pseudocodes

Begin

            Enter name, registration_number, study_year, course into student_details

            Get name_DB, registration_number_DB, study_year_DB, course_DB

by registration_number from database into student_details_DB       

While student_details_DB not equal student_details do

            Print “Details are not correct, please, enter again”

                        Enter name, registration_number, study_year, course into student_details

                        Get name_DB, registration_number_DB, study_year_DB, course_DB

by registration_number from database into student_details_DB       

            End While  

            Enter number_of_classes

            number_of_books = number_of_classes

            For count=1 to number_of_books with step=1

                        Enter book_title, book_author, book_price into book_details

                        Get book_title_DB, book_author_DB, book_price_DB

by book_title and book_author from database into book_details_DB

                         While book_details_DB not equal book_details do

                                    Print ”Book details are not correct, please, enter again”

Enter book_title, book_author, book_price into book_details

                                    Get book_title_DB, book_author_DB, book_price_DB

by book_title and book_author from database into book_details_DB

                        End While

                        total_books_price = total_books_price + book_price

            End For

            Print total_books_price

            Print ”Select shipping_option: delivery or pick-up”

            Enter shipping_option

            If shipping_option = delivery then

                        Select delivery_option: hostel,

study rooms,

other parts within the main campus,

other campus delivery.

                        Apply delivery_cost based on delivery_option

            End If

            If shipping_option = pick-up then

                        total_price = total_books_price

                        Print ”Pick up your books at the bookstore“

            Else                 

                        total_price = total_books_price + delivery_cost

                        Apply shipping_day                               

                        Print shipping_day         

            End If   

            Print student_details, book_details,total_price

            Print total_price

card_number_size = 16

For index = 0 to card_number_size - 1 with step = 1

                        Enter number_digit

                        user_card_number [index] = number_digit

End For

Get number of all credit cards records from database into all_cards_number

Get records of all credit cards numbers from database

into all_cards[all_cards_number][card_number_size]

user_card_exist=FALSE

For I = 0 to all_cards_number - 1 with step = 1

                        number_equals = TRUE

                        For J=0 to card_number_size - 1 with step = 1

If all_cards [I] [J] NOT EQUALS user_card_number [J] then

                                                number_equals=FALSE

                                    End If

                        End For

                        If number_equals=TRUE then

                                    user_card_exist=TRUE

                        End If

End For

If user_card_exist=TRUE then

                        Print ”Credit card number is valid“

Else

                        Print ”Credit card number is INVALID!“

End If

End

Flowchart

Conclusion

The above system will achieve the required objective. From the designs, the system will get the students information and validate the data against the data in the databases. It is only after verifying the name, and the registration number will the system proceed to allow the student place book orders. For the system effectiveness, it checks whether the name provided is correct and if it belongs to the student whose registration number is provided and whether the student provides the right year of study and study program. When all details get confirmed, the student is allowed to enter the book’s details. After full entry of the book’s details, the system checks whether the details are correct as per the existing records in the books records database. The validation aims at ensuring that entered details exist and are correct. Upon entry of books records, the student selects shipping option: delivery or pick-up. If a student chooses the pick-up, the book’s price without any additional charges would be displayed along the reminder to pick up books at the bookstore. The delivery includes hostel, study rooms, other parts within the main campus, other campus delivery. Each delivery method has its price preset in the system. The system then computes the totals depending on the book’s price and the delivery charges. For payment, the system validates credit card account number, which user entered for purchase.