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Assignment

JR Boating

Jack Reilly runs a small boat hire business on the banks of the River Shannon. His business offering is held in high regard, as evidenced by much repeat business and word of mouth referrals from very satisfied customers. However, due to the seasonal nature of the business he has been reluctant to expand or to make any significant investments in the business.

The announcement of the Bord Failte Hidden Heartlands promotion, which includes promotion of activities along the River Shannon, has encouraged Jac to re-consider his business strategy.

Jack has now secured finances for a business expansion. He has recognised the need for, and secured the finances for an IT system, that will provide Web access to manage and support the expanded boating services and client base.

JR Boating will now offer a range of water craft for hire: cruisers, canal barges, sailing boats and canoes. It will also provide an optional service of an experienced skipper accompanying a group on board a hired boat for one day.

The IT system will be used initially by four main groups: customers, front desk staff, skipper and management. The requirements of each of these groups are:

  • In order to make a booking, customers must first be registered on the system. Prior to login, customers can use a search facility which displays details, including rental price and availability dates, of the boats available for hire. Customers can book a boat only for any number of days. Prior to finalising the books, they have the option to reserve the service of skipper on board for one day only. IF they are hiring the boat for more than one day, they must choose the day they require the skipper. A 10% booking fee is required to confirm the boat and 100% fee to confirm the skipper.
  • The system must provide front desk staff with the facility to process boat hire and optional service request that are made via phone, mail or face to face. System must also provide facility for the front desk staff to process boat hire guests check-in and check-out.
  • The system must provide the skipper with the facility to upload his/her profile and record the days available for skippering. He must be able to view the days, boat, pickup and destination docking harbour points for which he has been booked. He must be able to update the system when he has completed to job.
  • The system must provide management with the facility to administer employee details, create and maintain boat and equipment inventory, create and maintain pricing structures. The system must generate monthly and yearly financial reports.

The system must ensure that customers, front desk staff and skippers only have access ot system functions that are applicable to them. Management must have access to all system functions.

Users of the system must be confident in using it after one weeks of training. The user interface must be intuitive to navigate, provide unambiguous results messages and have a consistent layout throughout.

As this system is replacing a paper based system, there no requirement for it to be compatible with a legacy system.