im going to give you a case study i want you to make the following things for a report 1- (Identification and analysis of candidate solutions 2 Recommended solution) 2- (Creation of DFDs)
 Case Study: A few years ago, Ronald Montgomery founded Cultural Learning Experiences (CLE),
Inc., a small firm in Chicago that organizes and plans educational trips for faculty and
students seeking a unique learning experience abroad.
At first, the company focused mainly on organizing these educational experiences
in France and Switzerland, but as the interest continued to grow, Ronald increased the
scope of operations to include many other countries, including Spain, New Zealand,
Germany, and others.
Ronald has the help of Isabella Aubel (office manager) and two other employees
that help with the day-to-day office tasks. At the present time, the work processes are
entirely manual for this organization. With the recent growth in the business, it has
become quite challenging for the current workforce to manage all of this manually.
Everything is rather disorganized, with many mistakes being made with the recording of
important information regarding students and their scheduled classes and locations, for
example. Such errors are adding to the existing inefficiencies, thereby creating a work.
An environment that is stressful and hectic.
Even more importantly, customer needs are not being met and customer
satisfaction is at an all-time low. Therefore, necessary to implement a database solution at
the present time.
It is important to note that while Ronald intends to eventually automate all business
processes, including payroll and accounts payable, the more immediate concern is to
ensure that data storage efficiencies are improved.
The database solution should include a user-friendly interface that allows for entry,
modification, and deletion of data pertaining to students, teachers, and classes, for
example. Additionally, the database solution should be designed to ensure consistency of
data entry (formatting) and should include enhanced reporting capabilities. Such
functionalities should be considered in order to resolve the problems the company is
currently experiencing. The total amount available to fund this project is $65,000. It may be
possible to expand this budget, if necessary, but the company is hoping that the project
can be completed within the specified amount.
The company currently has only two computers, both with the Windows 7 operating
system and Microsoft Office Professional 2010 installed. The machine is currently being
used for electronic mail communications and simple word processing and spreadsheet
2
tasks. It will be necessary to purchase two additional machines for this office, as Ronald
would like all of his employees to have access to the new database management system.
Ronald is hoping that this database solution will be instrumental in improving customer
relations and employee morale, as both are critical to the continued success and growth of
his business. With an automated work process, Ronald knows that efficiencies within the
organization will be dramatically improved.
Cultural Learning Experiences, Inc. is essentially the middleman between faculty and
students & international opportunities to teach and learn. CLE organizes educational
trips/programs for college students (to take) and college professors (to teach/lead) in
the USA and across the world.
You have been hired to provide them a means to keep track of the classes offered in
destinations around the world, all of the students who sign up for a particular class, the
professors who are teaching specific courses, etc. You have several goals that you want
to accomplish with this database. First, you will need to keep track of all the students
–their student ID number, address, telephone number, e-mail address, etc. You will
need to keep track of faculty members and their contact information as well.
As students register for classes and pay their registration fees, the owners of CLE want
to be able to record this information directly in their database. An outside accounting firm
handles all of the billing processes. CLE simply provides this firm with a physical copy of a
report containing the information necessary for billing. (Your team is responsible for designing
this report.) All payments are made directly to CLE. Beyond the recording of whether or not the
registration fees have been paid, this system should be concerned with something other than
accounting practices.
The recording of all billing and payment details will be handled outside of the boundaries
of this system. CLE also outsources the marketing function and provides reports on a regular
basis to an outside marketing firm that seeks to inform potential faculty participants of the
educational trips that are available through CLE and to increase awareness in general. You
should design at least one report that would provide helpful information to this marketing firm.
(You may make assumptions here.)
CLE would like the database to be password protected. Beyond the creation of these reports,
Ronald wants you to focus on making data entry as easy and efficient as possible for her staff
while simultaneously ensuring the accuracy of the entries. An organized database, focusing on
data entry and reporting, is essential. (Your team will need to explore various options within
Access that will allow for this)