ARD- A smart phone application

for sales agents

Project Team – Arsen Shatikyan shatikya@bgu.ac.il Udi Vaksman udi_v@hotmail.com

Avihay Danino neo@bezeqint.net

Academic Advisor - Prof. Ehud Gudes ehud@cs.bgu.ac.il

Technical Advisor – Bernard Fadlon bernard@ngsoft.com

Project Homepage – http://www.cs.bgu.ac.il/~shatikya/project

Background

Salesmen come to clients to propose products .

Salesman offers a list of products, and a client chooses a product from the list.

If some product is missing in the client’s stock, the salesman orders it.

Problem domain

Spending time for phone calls to obtain the order

Involving other people in the main office. Bringing a barcode reader and hardcopy of

catalogNon-optimal offers to client.The modern smartphones may be used as

computer clients, and operate with database for smart search and ordering of the products.

Current situation

Special equipment to scan the products’ barcodes.

The search in hardcopy of a product catalog may take a lot of time.

Salesman decides, which product the client needs.

Salesman orders products by making a phone callSometimes the ordered item does not match to

the client, because of the lack of some property or functionality.

The phone line may be busy.

Proposed Solution

Finding the products that satisfy a certain criteria.

Sorting the products in order of importance of the criteria for a certain customer.

Displaying the technical specification of a chosen product.

Barcode recognition module.Ordering products via network.

System architecture + Technologies

Client with J2ME based application

Application server running on JAVA

JDBC for connection to database

MySQL based database server

ApplicationServer

DatabaseServer

Smartphone

Request

QueryQueryResult

List

Reply list, sorted by user priority

User

Application server functions:· Manages users accounts· Communicates with database· Sorts the query result list according to

the user priority· Sends the product datasheet to the

client

Main Functional Requirements

LoginSearch a product by properties.Displaying the product data sheetOrdering productsGetting the report about customers ordersRegister a new customer

Main Non-Functional Requirements

Short time for search and ordering the products.

Navigation menus should be simple with maximal depth of 2 levels.

Queries screens and reports should be very accessible and simple.

The forms of queries will contain the most expectable default values.

Major Use-Cases Login by the user

Actor: User (salesman agent) through his mobile phone

Description: Login into the system

Pre-Conditions:

1. Connection to the internet is exist2. The application server and the database are online

Post-Conditions:

User logged in into the system.

Flow of events:

1. User enters to the application.2. User inserts his id and password.3. If the details are correct, the user logged in successfully. 3.1 The GUI Present the main page of the application.4. If the details are incorrect the user will be asked to try again. 4.1 The GUI Present the login page.

Major Use-Cases Make a product order

Actor: User (salesman agent) through his mobile phoneDescription: Make a product orderPre-Conditions:

1. User Logged in2. The product exists at the database3. The application server and the database are online

Post-Conditions:

The order was sent to the server and was approved

Flow of events:

1. User enters to the order page2. User enters the product bar-code3. User inserts the amount of the product to order4. User inserts the details of the customer5. The user sends the order to the application server6. If the amount exists in the stock a. The application server sends the order to the database b. The application server sends an approval to the user c. The GUI presents the order approval7. If the amount does not exist in the stock a. The application server sends an error message to the user b. The GUI presents the error message

Major Use-Cases Searching a product by properties

Actor: User (salesman agent) through his mobile phoneDescription: Searching a product by properties (advanced search)Pre-Conditions:

1. User Logged in2. Connection to the internet is exist3. The application server and the database are online

Post-Conditions:

A list of products is presented to the user

Flow of events:

0. User enters to the search page1. User chooses the properties for a product2. User gives priorities to the properties3. User sends the query to the application server4. The application server generates a query and sends the query to the database5. the DB sends a result to the application server6. The application server calculates the products ratings and makes the sort7.The application server sends the sorted list of products to the user8. The GUI presents the list to the user

Major Use-Cases Register a customer

Actor: User (salesman agent) through his mobile phone

Description: Registering a customer to the system

Pre-Conditions:

1. User Logged in2. Connection to the internet is exist3. The application server and the database are online

Post-Conditions:

A new customer is registered to the system

Flow of events:

1. User enters to the registration page2. User enters the details of the new customer 3. User sends the request to the application server4. The application server updates the DB with the new customer5. The application server sends an approval to the user6. The GUI presents an approval page to the user

Risks

The people that will use the system are not technology-oriented people. If the system will not be friendly and the users will feel that the “old days” were better, they will abandon the system and will not use it.

The system depends on a stable connection to application server, if this connection will be slow and unreliable the entire system will suffer from slow response.