MRDigiBoard
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OutlineSe
ction
1
• Gain competitive edge
• Provide excellent customer service
• Promote profitable business activities
• Provide affordable living
• Provide sophisticated living
• Ensure quality management
• Efficient maintenance & repair
Secti
on 2
Secti
on 3
• Improve the flow of information
• Reduce work order processing time
• Increase maintenance employee accountability
• Store critical business data
• Accurate reporting
• Improve tenant relations
• Manage & repair apartments effectively
• Improve record keeping
• Easy GUI to navigate with
• Use reports to make effective business decisions
• Enhanced communication between employees with bilingual comments
Objectives SummaryO
rgan
izatio
n
• Gain competitive edge
• Provide excellent customer service
• Promote profitable business activities
• Provide affordable living
• Provide sophisticated living
• Ensure quality management
• Efficient maintenance & repair
Syst
em
Use
r
• Improve the flow of information
• Reduce work order processing time
• Increase maintenance employee accountability
• Store critical business data
• Accurate reporting
• Improve tenant relations
• Manage & repair apartments effectively
• Improve record keeping
• Easy GUI to navigate with
• Use reports to make effective business decisions
• Enhanced communication between employees with bilingual comments
Financial Impact
Problem - Information on ‘make ready’ board is often outdated and unreliable.
Result - Work order performed more than once or not at all.
Impact - Supply waste - $30 a month Loss of one tenant - $450 a month
Current System - Impact
Problem - Lack of central data storage Result - Walking back to office to clarify work Impact - Average profit loss of 3% annually
25 minutes added to time or an extra $25 a week
Current System - Impact
Whiteboard is manual = Increase work order processing time Impact:
10 minutes added to processing time or $10 a week
25 minutes added to processing time or $25 a week
Current System - Impact
Lack of accountability = Unable to evaluate employee on work performance Impact:
Slowest work order time = 4 weeks or $200
Proposed System - Options
Automate work orders to system specifications
Web-based database with user friendly front-end
Database hosting and maintenance offloaded to hosting company ($19.95 per month)
Software
•Apache 2.x (Free Limited Support)•PHP 5.x (Free Limited Support)•SQL Server 2005 (Free Limited Support)•Visual Basic 2008 (Free Limited Support)•Google Code (Free Limited Support)
Hardware
•Cisco Catalyst Series Router ($350.00)
Feasibility Analysis
Technical• The proposed system will utilize readily available, off-the-shelf
software such as Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition.
Economic• The proposed system can be implemented with minimal
additional overhead and costs
Operational• New system will be intuitive and user-friendly, fficiency, by
helping staff members who do not speak English.
Cost of Ownership
Hardware and Software Summary Cost
M.R. Digiboard Development and Testing $33,100.00
UH Student Discount (-$33,100.00)Database Maintenance
$19.95/mo x 12 months x 4 years $ 957.00
Software Purchases $ 739.00Hardware Purchase
Cisco Catalyst Series Router $ 350.00Server Hosting
$19.95/mo x 12 months x 4 years $ 957.00User and IT Staff Training $ 900.00Total Cost of Ownership (4 years, student discount) $4,700.00
WEIRDOS Design Process
Development Tools
Developed using industry standard software Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 – Programming and
debugging user interface Microsoft SQL Server 2005 – Programming and
debugging database Adobe Creative Suite 4 – Create and edit graphics for
user interface and project documents … and more.
Project Timeline
Jan 2009WEIRDOS form
partnership withCase Nube
Apr 2009Project proposal
officially presented
Feb 2009‘M.R. Digiboard’ is
born
Feb-Apr 2009In-depth analysis of
business process begins
Early Nov. 2009GUI finalized, final
testing begins
Mid Nov. 2009M.R. Digiboard presented and
officially released
Aug-Sep 2009Database planning and
architecture begins
October 2009Database structure finalized, frontend
work started
Initially 15 tables• Now 53 tables• 6 tables assigned to each team member
Difficulties/Errors• Unmatched data• Data Dictionary matched with primary table
Naming Conventions• Attributes• Lower Case
Table• Upper case for entities• Underscore to separate words
Implementation Process
Entity Relationship Diagram
COMPLAINT
PK complaint_ID
FK unit_ID
FK compliant_type_ID
COMPLIANT_TENANT
PK complaint_tenant_ID
FK tenant_ID
FK complaint_ID
UNIT
PK unit_ID
FK building_ID
FK floorplan_ID
FK color_ID
FK flooring_ID
Lists all entities, attributes and relationships
Abstract and conceptual representation of database
Generated with Access, Visio and ConceptDraw Pro
Early ERD – September 2009
• 14 Total Entities (Tables)
• Multiple many-to-many relationships
• Unnormalized Form (UNF)
Final ERD – October 2009
• Entities increased to 50• Many-to-many
relationships broken down
• Normalized to 3NF
ASSIGNMENT
PK assignment_ID
FK employee_ID
ERD: Employee
Problem Unnecessary information
Solution Remove entity
EMPLOYEE
PK employee_ID
EMERGENCY_CONTACT_EMPLOYEE
PK emergency_contact_employee_ID
FK emergency_contact_ID
FK employee_ID
ERD: Emergency Contact
Problem Missing Associative Tables
Solution Add Table that handles the M:N relationship
EMERGENCY_CONTACT
PK emergency_contact_ID
FK relationship_ID
EMERGENCY_CONTACT_TENANT
PK emergency_contact_tenant_ID
FK emergency_contact_ID
FK tenant_ID
TENANT
PK tenant_ID
EMPLOYEE
PK employee_ID
ERD: Property
EMPLOYEE
PK employee_ID
FK property_ID
PROPERTY
PK property_ID
employee_IDFK
Issue – Sending foreign key to both entities
Solution – Remove foreign key from one side of entity
PROBLEM
PK problem_ID
FK problem_type_ID
ERD: Problem Table
PROBLEM_TYPE_LOOKUP
PK problem_type_ID
PROLEM_LIST_LOOKUP
PK problem_list_ID
Issue – Incorrect relationshipsSolution – Adjust constraints
Completed Solution
Fully Digital ‘Whiteboard’Work order forms with ample space for comments Work order reports that indicate statusAssignment report for each userMake-ready reports for each userPet information on work order report
User Interface Benefits
Simple, intuitive designEffortless navigation with minimal user training required.
Dual-Scale FunctionalityQuick and simple reports for employees, in-depth edit and lookup forms for managers.
Flexible DesignDeveloped with future expansion in mind.
Maintenance and Backups
Effortless BackupsDaily, server-wide backups performed by hosting provider automatically – easy.
Off-Site Backup StorageBackups shipped offsite weekly
Instant RedundancyRAID-1 disk mirroring to safeguard against individual hard disk failures.
Lessons Learned
Think critically early on – An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Work smart, not hard – Consolidate knowledge and save time.
The small mistakes can cost just as much time as the big ones.
Questions?