Description of the Business
Bird Hardwood Floors is owned by Steve Bird and his brother. Steve Bird started the business a few years ago. He primarily services the communities immediately surrounding Tulsa, Oklahoma. Though he lives in the northern outskirts, he travels to Tulsa, and works throughout the city. Steve has several corporate clients which require him to periodically travel outside of Tulsa. However, these clients are unique and do not comprise the primary focus of his business. He performs hardwood installations using a variety of materials, equipment, teams, and supplies. He often sub-contracts individuals to complete jobs for him. Other times he completes the work himself. He meets with clients to discuss their needs and the desire flooring material. Flooring materials can come prefinished and can also come as raw materials. Certain flooring materials take much longer to install and therefore would require more of Steve’s time. Currently, all of Steve’s work done when issuing quotes and helping customers is done on paper or from his head. Bird Hardwood Floors needed a solution which would help in the quote formation process. Additionally, he needed a single location to store client information as well as competitor’s prices.
Overview of the System
The System is composed of three primary functions: quote generator, contact manager, and a product comparison tool.
Quote Generator
Quote generation is the core of this system. Both of the auxiliary tools (contact management and product comparisons) tie into and help with its functionality. Steve is able to generate and compare several quotes at once. When he has decided on the material and cost he is comfortable with, he is then able to email this information to the client.
Contact Manager
The contact manager is designed to hold all of Steve’s contacts in one central location. Steve is able to add, remove, and delete contacts. He is also capable of searching for contacts using a user form. When searching for a contact, he can enter a name or a city.
Product Comparison
The product comparison tool is used to search online for comparable products. Steve requested that we search prices primarily from Lumber Liquidators. The system uses the agent provided by Dr. Allen to scrape the web site for all of their products. It then fills the spreadsheet with the category, subcategory, manufacturer, name, high price, low price, and a link to the product’s individual page. When searching through the list of products Steve can search on category, type, manufacturer, name, and/or high price. Once found, Steve can click on an element from the list of results to view more specific information.
Links:
http://files.gove.net/shares/files/11w/peckhamr/BirdFloors_1.xlsm
http://128.187.60.137:9000/shares/files/11w/peckhamr/FinalProject.pdf
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