Project Report on Marketing Information System

Project Report on Marketing Information System

MARKET The term market refers to group of consumers who are interested in the product, have the resources to purchase it and it is permitted by law to purchase the product. The market definition begins with the total population and progressively narrows downwards.

1. Potential market: Those people in total population who have interest in acquiring in the product. 2. Available market: Those in potential market who have enough money to buy the product. 3. Qualified available market: Those in available market who are legally permitted to buy the product. 4. Target market: The segment of qualified available market to whom the firm has decided to serve. 5. Penetrated market: Those people in target market who actually purchase the product. The size of market is not necessarily fixed. For eg: the size of available market for a product can be increased or decreased by decreasing the product’s price.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

MARKETING Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying , anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably. The marketing process can be modelled into a sequence of steps: 1. Situation analysis: A thorough analysis of the situation in which the firm finds it serves as the base for identifying opportunities to satisfy unfulfilled customer needs. In addition to this, firm must understand its capabilities and the environment in which it is working. 2. Marketing strategy: Once the best opportunity to identify customer needs is identified, a strategic plan for pursuing the opportunity can be developed. Market research will provide specific information that will permit the firm to select the target market segment and optimally position the offering within that segment. 3. Marketing Mix decisions: detailed tactical decisions are made for controllable parameters of marketing mix. The action items include:    

product development, pricing decisions, distribution contracts , promotional campaign development

4. Implementation and control : Given few market environments are static, the results of marketing effort should be monitored closely . as the market changes, marketing mix can be adjusted accordingly. Often small changes in customer wants can be addressed by changing the advertising message.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

INFORMATION The information serves a vital role in Marketing Information System. It serves the following purposes:

1. Gain a competitive edge 2. Reduce financial risks 3. Determine consumer attitudes 4. Monitor the environment 5. Coordinate strategy 6. Measure performance 7. Improve advertising credibility 8. Gain support for decisions 9. Verify intuition 10. Improve effectiveness

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM A system that analyzes and assesses marketing information, gathered continuously from sources inside and outside an organization and helps the decision makers to improve their marketing planning, implementation, and control.

There are many different factors collected and analyzed by MKIS, such as:

o Production, distribution and delivery costs o Profit vs. costs (ROI) o Effectiveness of advertising/special offers/discounts o Target market penetration o Market share o Competitive information o Financial indicators o Demographic data o Other additional factors

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

ACTIVITIES OF MARKETING INFROMATION SYSTEM (MKIS) The various activities of MKIS are:

1. Strategic planning-It is concerned with deciding on the objectives, resources and policies of the organisation. This level of decision making is predicting the future of the organisation and its environment.

2. Management control-Such decisions are concerned with how efficiently and effectively resources are utilised and how well operational units are performing. 3. Transaction processing-This includes sales orders, quotations for product sales etc.

4. Operational control-Determining which units or individuals in the organisation will carry out the task, establishing criteria of completion and resource utilisation, evaluating outputs.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

FUNCTIONS OF MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM The various functions of Marketing Information System are: 1. The marketing identification function: The determination of potential buyers and their characteristics is vital in order to satisfy their needs and desires. This enables the marketer to know :  where the buyers are located  when do they buy  how frequently do they buy  in what quantity do they buy 2. The purchase motivation function: An assessment of various social, economic and psychological forces which influence the purchase behavior of the market is made. 3. The product adjustment function: This function includes all such activities which are necessary to match the product/services offerings with the market. 4. The physical distribution function: The actual movement of goods from the points of production to the points of consumption is considered in this function. 5. The communication function: This function includes decisions on advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity, packaging issues etc. 6. The transaction function: It includes all such activities which are needed to facilitate the transfer of title of ownership of goods/services between the parties in a transaction. 7. The post transaction function: In this function, feedback about the performance of the product/service is obtained from the customer, so that customer satisfaction can be ensured.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

WORKING MECHANISM OF MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM Like any other Information System, Marketing Information System gathers data from internal and external sources of market, then processes it and generates meaningful output for marketing managers to assist them in various decision making process. Marketing information system can be viewed as a combination of two subsystems:



Input Subsystem Output Subsystems

Input Subsystem: The input subsystems gather data from both environment and firm’s operations and enter them into the databases.

Output Subsystem: The output subsystems process the data available on the databases to produce desired information for marketing managers. Input

Processing

Output

COMPONENT OF MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

SOURCE OF DATA FOR INPUT In Marketing Information System, We gather data from Marketing Environment.

What is Marketing Environment? Marketing Environment consists of certain factors that influence the marketing related decisions in the company or concerned firm.

Major Factors are:    

Political-Legal Factors Technological Factors Economic Factors Social Factors

Factors in Layman Terms:       

Current Economy Latest Laws and Policies enforced Current Technology in use Customer Reviews Competitors Distributors Suppliers

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

PROCESSING OF DATA In order to process the data gathered from Marketing Environment, the data goes through various subsystems into the Marketing Information System so that meaningful and useful information can be developed for various marketing managers.

Subsystems:  Internal Reporting System   

Marketing Research System Marketing Intelligence System Marketing Models

INTERNAL REPORTING SYSTEM: Collection of information within the company. Data Sources: Reports on sales call, expenses, orders, order status, account (customer) status, and sales forecast etc.

MARKETING INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM: It is the Collection and Analysis of publically available information within the marketing environment. Data Source: Employees, suppliers, customers, competitors and distributors

MARKETING RESEARCH SYSTEM: It is the process of Gathering, Analyzing, Designing and Reporting of Data about the situation. Data Source: Market Survey, Questionnaires, Personal interviews, Existing Study, etc.

MARKETING MODELS: These are the statistical or mathematical tools for interpreting information in MKIS. Tools:      

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Time Series Linear Programming Regression and Correlation ANOVA Discounted Cash Flow Spreadsheet’s What if Models

Project Report on Marketing Information System

LATEST DEVELOPMENT According to Latest Development in Marketing Information System since year 2005 and onwards, few more subsystems are added into Marketing Information System

Explanation Subsystem Marketing Information System

Subsystem use Analysis and external control

Description Identifying problems, changes and opportunities in the external marketing environment

Marketing Research System

Analysis

Collecting information that is relevant to a specific marketing problem facing by the company

Marketing Decision Support System

Analysis and Decision Making

Consists of all available data pertinent to marketing combined with extensive statistical and modelling capabilities and aptly

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Project Report on Marketing Information System designed user interface for making improved marketing decisions. Marketing Planning System

Analysis and Planning

Managing the whole marketing planning process from analysing marketing opportunities to planning marketing tactics.

Marketing Control System

Internal Control

Monitoring of personnel, marketing activities and effectiveness and performance against plans.

Marketing Report System

Internal Control

Reporting on sales calls, expenses, orders, order status, management reports etc.

Marketing and Sales Productivity and Support System

Data Gathering and Implementation

Managing distributors and accounts, tracking leads, coordinating sales activities, updating customer information etc.

DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION Information must be distributed to the Right Managers at the Right Time.

STRUCTURED INFORMATION: Distribute Routine Information for Decision Making in day – to- day operations. Example: Transactional Data, Daily Sales Data, Customer Data etc.

UNSTRUCTURED INFORMATION: Distributes Non-Routine Information for Special Situation. Example: Sudden Change in Company’s Policy

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

USE OF MKIS AT MANAGERIAL LEVELS Strategic Level

• Designing new sales products & services. • Monitoring competitors.

Management level

Operational Level

• Market analysis • Sales performance analysis • Sales staff analysis. • Taking customer feedback • Tracking operational facts and data

At Operational Level:  It tracks down operational data like sales, customer, production related data.  Customer Feedback is also taken to estimate how much customer is satisfied with a specific product of the company.

At Middle Management Level:  Sales Staff Analysis is done to evaluate how much sales staff has contributed towards the profit or loss of a particular product.  Sales Performance Analysis is done to check whether sales has achieved the benchmark or not.  Market Analysis is done to understand the current market behaviour or scenario.

At Strategic or Administrative Level:  MkIS helps in monitoring the competitor’s movements.  It also helps in designing new sales product and services for the new opportunities.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE (SDLC) 1. System Identification 7. System Maintenance and Evaluation

2. Feasibility Study

6. System Testing

5. System Coding

3. System Analysis

4. System Design

SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION OBJECTIVES  Identify whether the request is feasible and valid  Do we need to improve or modify the existing system  Do we need to build altogether a new one

TYPES 1. Preliminary Investigation 2. Feasibility Study

PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION: Study existing Marketing Management System. How?  

Conduct surveys in the open market. Interviewing the customers.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System   

Questionnaires. Gather information. Analyze the information looking for inconsistencies, ambiguities or unresolved issues.

FEASIBILITY STUDY: Implementation Function A feasibility study looks at the viability of an idea that attempts to answer one main question: “Should we proceed with the proposed project idea? Is it a viable business venture?”

Need of Feasibility Study        

Identify how, where, and to whom you intend to sell a service or product. Give focus to the project and outline alternative. Identify reasons NOT to proceed. Enhance the probability of success. Provide quality information. Increase investment in the company. Provides documentation. Help in securing funding from lending institutions and other monetary sources.

Types Of Feasibility Study A feasibility study is conducted at three levels

   

Operational Feasibility: “Will it work?” Technical Feasibility: “Can it be built?” Economic Feasibility: “Will it make economic sense if it works and is built?” Marketing Feasibility: “Will it generate PROFITS?

SDLC in MKIS Operational Feasibility: Measure how people interact with the system. Questions that help to test operational feasibility: 1. What is the size and growth forecasts of market segment? 2. What are the industry sales and market trends the product is based on? 3. Are current business methods are acceptable to users? 4. What training will users be given?

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Project Report on Marketing Information System Technical Feasibility: Study of function performance and constraints. Questions that help to test the technical feasibility: 1. What are the target areas where the marketing is to be done? 2. What type of transportation and shipping facilities required for marketing? 3. What type of media is required for promoting the product?

Economic Feasibility: Profits at less expenditure. Questions that help to test the economic feasibility: 1. What is the required marketing budget? 2. What is expected rate of return on new product in the market? 3. Will the product be profitable when delivered to customer at target price? 4. Will consumers buy the new product

Marketing Feasibility Study AIM: 1. Make sure there is true market for the product. 2. Estimate the market share of the project. 3. Includes the evaluation, development and full implementation of marketing plans. 4. Identify, quantify and evaluate opportunities within a market. POINTS TO BE CONSIDERED ARE:  Description of Industry  Current market analysis  Competition  Anticipated future market potential  Potential buyers and sources of revenue  Sales projection 15 | P a g e

Project Report on Marketing Information System

SYSTEM ANALYSIS: KEY POINTS IN REPORT:  What is system analysis in marketing terms?  Role of system analysis in marketing.

 Person doing system analysis::THE SYSTEM ANALYSIST  Activities for system analysis.  System analysis report.  Software requirement specification.

AIM OF THE PRESENTATION WAS TO PRESENT A BRIEF IDEA TO EXPLAIN THE ROLE OF SYSTEM ANALYSIS IN MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

Brief description of presentation:

SYSTEM ANALYSIS IN MARKETING TERMS: The systems-analysis phase is the specification of what the system needs to do to meet the requirements of end users. Gather sufficient information about the performance of your marketing strategy using specific statistical data.

ROLE OF SYTEM ANALYSIS IN MARKETiNG: 

Systems Analysis Is an Interactive process through which management and the analyst work to refine and validate explicit models of those marketing processes which are of concern to the executive.



Market oriented Systems Analysis focuses on market Processes rather than existing reports and decisions.



The objective of such analysis is to Model, refine and validate or reject current management understanding of market interactions and to relate relevant measures of behavior and response to management action alternatives.

SYSTEM ANALYST •

The system analyst gives a system development project meaning and direction.

•

The analyst first task is to prepare a statements specifying the scope and objective of the problem in this only rough work is done an accurate study is done in the feasibility study.

Qualities of system analyst Training 17 | P a g e

Project Report on Marketing Information System Experience Common sense

SYSTEM ANALYSIS PHASE AND VARIOUS ACTIVITIES INVOLVED IN IT: The analysis phase answers the questions of who will use the system, what the system will do, and where and when it will be used. During this phase, the project team investigates any current system(s), identifies improvement opportunities, and develops a concept for the new system. This phase has three steps:

1)

ANALYSIS STRATEGY:

An analysis strategy is developed to guide the project team’s efforts. Such a strategy usually includes an analysis of the current system.

2)

REQUIREMENT GATHERING:

3)

SYSTEM PROPOSAL:

The next step is requirements gathering (e.g., through interviews or questionnaires). The analysis of this information—in conjunction with input from the project sponsor and many other people—leads to the development of a concept for a new system. The system concept is then used as a basis to develop a set of business analysis models that describes how the business will operate if the new system were developed.

The analyses, system concept, and models are combined into a document called the system proposal, which is presented to the project sponsor and other key decision makers that decide whether the project should continue to move forward

ANALYSIS REPORT : Analysis report is prepared. It is done for review and approval of the project from the higher management.

ANALYSIS REPORT

•

PART 1: It should explain how the current system works.

•

PART 2: It explains the problems in the existing system.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System •

PART 3: It describes the requirements for the new system and make recommendations for the future.

REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION Analysis of data describing the system to determine how well it is performing, what requirements must be met, and strategies for fulfilling them. It has three interrelated parts. 1. Analysis of factual data 2. Identification of essential requirements 3. Selection of requirements fulfilment strategies.

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION: A software requirements specification is a document which is used as a communication medium between the customer and the supplier. When the software requirement specification is completed and is accepted by all parties, the end of the requirements engineering phase has been reached. This is not to say, that after the acceptance phase, any of the requirements cannot be changed, but the changes must be tightly controlled. The software requirement specification should be edited by both the customer and the supplier, as initially neither has both the knowledge of what is required (the supplier) and what is feasible (the customer).

NEED OF SRS A software requirements specification has a number of purposes and contexts in which it is used. This can range from a company publishing a software requirement specification to companies for competitive tendering, or a company writing their own software requirement specification in response to a user requirement document. In the first case, the author of the document has to write the document in such a way that it is general enough as to allow a number of different suppliers to propose solutions, but at the same time containing any constraints which must be applied. In the second instance, the software requirement specification is used to capture the users requirements and if any, highlight any inconsistencies and conflicting requirements and define system and acceptance testing activities.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

Output: SRS

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

STRUCTURED ANALYSIS TOOLS Structured analysis tools are development method for the analysis of existing manual or automated systems, leading to the development of specifications for a new or modified system. Structured analysis allow the analyst to learn about a system or process in a manageable and logical way while providing a basis for ensuring that details don’t get overlooked

Various Structured Analysis Tools Are:    

Data Dictionary Data Flow Diagram Structured English Decision Table Decision Tree

DATA FLOW DIAGRAM Data Flow Diagram is a graphical representation of the logical flow of data . It helps in expressing the system’s requirements in a simple and understandable form. It is also known as Bubble Chart.

DFD Serves The Two Purposes: To provide an indication of how data are transformed as they move through system To depict the functions (sub functions)that transforms the data flow.

Data Flow Diagram Give Answers To Four Questions What Process Make Up A System? What Data Are Used In Each Process? What Data Are Stored? What Data Enter And Leave The System?

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

CONTEXT LEVEL DIAGRAM OF MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM •

The purpose of this is to conceptualize the general sources and sinks of data.

•

It contain only one process(process 0) that depict the function of the entire system in relationship to external entities.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

CONTEXT LEVEL DIAGRAM IS FURTHER DETAILED INTO VARIOUS LEVELS

In fig. customer make some requirement for the product And then marketing information process comes

Here marketing information process consists of three processes: Marketing identification process(1.0):-

maintaining updated information file about

buyers and their characteristics and make out some strategies

Product adjustment process(2.0):-

make some adjustment according to the changing

criteria on psychologies factors, economical and demands and make out some plan for planning process

Planning process(3.0):

it is further detailed into communication process, distribution and

sales process and customer’s service process having data from organizations plan.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System Finally product is delivered to customer and feedback is taken to check whether customers are satisfied or not.

In 1st level DFD, planning process is not clear so it reqires more details so in 2 level DFD planning is further detailed into three more processes: nd

  

Communication Process Distribution And Sales Process Planning Process

Communication planning process(3.1):

It is communication between buyers and the

sellers on advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, publicity etc.

Distribution and sales process(3.2):

The actual movement of goods from points of

production to points of consumptions. It involves decisions on integration of transportation, warehousing and merchandising economics.

Customer’s service plan(3.3):-

Decisions regarding about satisfaction of customers by

giving benefits like home delivery and some discount. Feedback is taken from customers after delivering the product because marketing is not the case of just increasing sales volume but to satisfy the customers’s requirements

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

DATA DICTIONARY A data dictionary is a structured repository of data about data. It is a set of precise and accurate definitions of all DFD’s data elements and data structures

ADVANTAGES OF DATA DICTIONARY:●

The most obvious is documentation; it is a valuable reference in any organization

Improving analyst/user communication by establishing consistent definition of various elements, terms and procedures ●

●

During implementation , it serves as a common base for programmers who are working on system

Data dictionaries are an integral component of structured analysis. Since DFD themselves do not fully describe the subject of the investigation. The data dictionary provides additional information about the system.

DATA DICTIONARY ON PROCESS 0 PROCESS: Marketing information process DESCRIPTION: This process consists of sequence of all process like Marketing identification Process, product Auditing Process and planning process etc.

INCOMING DATA FLOW: Customer’s Requirements OUTGOING DATA FLOW: Product Delivery LOGICAL SUMMARY:

It describes the marketing information process. This process uses customers’ requirements and produces the product.

Purpose: The purpose of this process is to check for the feasibility of product according to the various changes and then plans are made out for producing product. The processing logic is summarized.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

DATA DICTIONARY ON DATA STORE DATA STORE:

Product Order’s File

DESCRIPTION: Includes all the details of all the orders of customers. INBOUND FLOW: Marketing Information Process OUTBOUND FLOW: Marketing Information Process

VOLUME: 1000 ACCESS: Sequentially processed This product order file data store explains that process of production can’t be started until all the details about the product is not given. So this process checks whether we have sufficient raw materials or other things or not so we can start our project or not To complete the definition of this data flow, the appropriated data structures are listed which includes product-id,product –code,product-unit. The data store describes data flow to and from the data stores as well as volume – an indication of how busy this process so 1000(daily)

DATA DICTIONARY ON DATA FLOW DATA FLOW NAME:

Product Delivery

DESCRIPTION: Details regarding the delivery of product and carries the details to customer FROM PROCESS: TO PROCESS:

Marketing Information Process Customer

DATA STRUCTURES: a) Product Size b) Volume c) Price

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Project Report on Marketing Information System Here data flow product delivery do the task of delivering the product to the customers according to the specifications. Products are planned out from marketing information process and going to customer. It includes the data structure of elements(product size,volume and price)

DESIGN OF MKIS INTRODUCTION The purpose of the design phase is to plan a solution of the problem specified by the requirement document. This phase is the first step in moving from problem domain to the solution domain. The design of a system is perhaps the most critical factor affecting the quality of the software, and has a major impact on the later phases, particularly testing and maintenance. The output of this phase is the design document. This document is similar to a blue print or plan for the solution, and is used later during implementation, testing and maintenance.

TYPES OF DESIGN 1. Logical Design A logical design partitions the system into conceptual components and specifies their behavior. It is important that as much information about the problem domain be reflected, and that minimal attention be paid to considerations having to do with performance, platform, or technology choices, unless these things are constants and known ahead of time, or are key choices that affect the functional capabilities. The reason is that this postponement allows choices of platform and technology to be deferred and left for implementation experts. The important goal of the logical design phase is to synergize the knowledge of application experts and implementation experts to produce a logical model of the system which could be implemented and would work, but perhaps not optimally.

If the system has transactional behavior, transaction partitioning should be addressed in a logical sense (what are the transactions), but not the implementation (e.g. whether DBMS locking is to be used, or implemented with an optimistic policy or checkout). This does not mean that no thought should be given to such issues; in fact, judgment about the likely technical challenges of the alternative logical designs is crucial to coming up with a design that can be built within the project’s budget. Pinning down specific implementations is probably premature, however, since at this point a prototype has not even been built, and regardless the focus should be on making sure all the application’s functionality is addressed. 27 | P a g e

Project Report on Marketing Information System

2. Detailed Design The detailed design phase modifies the logical design and produces a final detailed design, which includes technology choices, specifies a system architecture, meets all system goals for performance, and still has all of the application functionality and behavior specified in the logical design. If a database is a component of the system, the schema that results from the detailed design may be radically different in key places from the one developed in the logical design phase, although an effort should be made to use identical terminology and not change things that do not need to be changed. The detailed design process should document all design decisions that require schema changes, or in general any changes to the logical design, and the reasons for the change. The project manager’s challenge will be to again disseminate understanding of the new design, which is replacing a logical design that had achieved credibility and consensus. This is the reason why all changes need to be well documented, so there is a clear migration, and the changes do not seem radical or arbitrary. If a features list approach is used, it is easy to separate the project into builds, and make the detailed design and implementation phases of each build iterative. The systems’s features can be analyzed for dependencies and resource requirements, and assigned to project builds based on these dependencies, critical path, and priority. The minimum set of features for a testable bootstrap system can then be determined. For each build, additional features are added, and all tests are rerun, resulting in a working system after each build with increasing functionality and reliability. During each build, a detailed design of each feature can be performed, identifying the packages and classes affected, and with roughcut and then detailed updates to the specifications being produced, possibly in an iterative manner, and finally actual implementation in code. I have seen this technique work extremely successfully on many compiler and other projects with which I have been involved, and it is directly applicable to all kinds of systems.

System Design consist of three activities USER INTERFACE DESIGN

SCREEN, FORM, REPORTS, AND DIALOG DESIGN

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DATA DESIGN

DATA ELEMENT STRUCTURE DESIGN

PROCESS DESIGN

PROGRAM AND STRUCTURE DESIGN

Project Report on Marketing Information System

1. User Interface Design

• • (a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

Focuses on designing the interaction between end user and marketing information system. Produces detailed specification for marketing information system so that it becomes easy for the user to interact with the system such as : Display screens Interactive user/computer dialogues Audio responses Forms Documents and reports.

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2. Data Design It focuses on the design of the logical structure of databases and file to be used by a marketing information system. Data design frequently produces a data dictionary, which catalogs detailed description of: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

The attributes . The relationships. The specific data elements Database,files,records are maintained of consumer, salesman. The integrity rules.

3. Process Design  Activities involved in determining the workflows and implementations requirements for a particular process  Different process files will be designed to hold the coding for different processes  Process design, whether designing a new process or modernizing an existing process, require knowledge of the process equipments.

Design Methods A design methodology is a systematic approach to creating a design by application of set of techniques and guidelines. Most methodologies focus on system design.  Problem Partitioning:-Based on the principle of ‘Divide And Conquer'. the whole problem is divided into small manageable parts to be solved separately.  Structured Design:-produce a structure where the modules have minimum dependence on each other and high level of cohesion.  Top Down design:-A system may be termed as a hierarchy of sub systems, the highest level sub system corresponding to the total system.

Design verification Like every other phase, the design phase ends with verification of the design. If the design is not specified in some executable language, the verification has to be done by evaluating the design documents. One way of doing this is thorough reviews. Typically, at least two design reviews are held-one for the system design and one for the detailed and one for the detailed design.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

Coding For MKIS ,we have implemented two very small projects:-

Online Advertisement System First We discuss how our Online Advertisement System works.

As we see above , First we created a advertisement data form into which we fill new advertisement details . Then this Data Form is connected to our Blogging account and all the advertisement details will be posted there. The Blogging account is further connected to the Google SMS Channel. We have a created a SMS Channel for our advertisements. Once we have got the mobile numbers of all the customers we can put them into our SMS channel list and the advertisement will be sent to all of them through SMS. A customer can also subscribe to our Channel or unsubscribe it.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

In the New Advertisement Data Form , we will fill the title of the new advertisement and the details of the data form. The clicking Post button the form will we connected to the Bogging Account and the whole advertisement data will be posted there. Customer can go for the following options. 1.Customer can Enable/Disable the Adevertisements by sending the following messege to 9870807070. On Off 2.Customer Can Search any channel by sending the following messege to 9870807070. Search 3.For subscription use. Subscribe And send it to 9870807070.

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Customer Record System In Customer Record System , we can add new Customer data and also display all the customers data.

The above picture shows the flow of activities in the customer record system. For the customer there are two choices :->1. Add New Customer 2.Display All data. And according to the choice the appropriate action will be tak

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

As you see in the data form , to add new customer we fill the Customer Number, Name ,Mobile Number and Address of the customer. After that all the details are added to the database.

We the customer select the second choice the all customer data will be shown on the Form given above.

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Project Report on Marketing Information System

TESTING: Does the software behave as specified? Why we do Testing?  An error free information system gives marketing managers accurate, timely and relevant information.  An error free information system is a basis for decision making in specific responsibility areas of marketing management.  After system development, generally firms conduct system testing, to verify and validate the system.  To assess whether the system meets the technical and commercial objectives at various levels in order to ascertain the system acceptability.  To make sure that the system developed is according to the specifications.  Identifies defects, flaws, or errors in the system that must be fixed.

V-Model of Testing in MKIS 

System testing is too important to leave to the end of the project, so the V-Model of testing in Marketing Information System incorporates testing into the entire system development cycle.



It illustrates that,  Testing can and should start at the very beginning of the System development.  How each subsequent phase should verify and validate work done in the previous phase

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Types of Tests The V-Model of testing in marketing information System identifies four testing phases, each with a certain type of test associated with it.

Unit testing Integration testing

Validation testing

System testing 36 | P a g e

Project Report on Marketing Information System

Unit Testing 

Also known as Module Testing or Component Testing.



Individual modules and components are tested, ensuring that they function properly.

 Done by the developers and not by end-users. Errors which are uncovered:

Incorrect comparison.



Incorrect or nonexistent loop termination.



Incorrect arithmetic operations.

Entry Criteria: ♦ System Requirements are at least 80% complete and have been approved to-date. ♦ Technical Design has been finalized and approved. ♦ Code development for the module is complete.

Exit Criteria: ♦ No major or critical defects prevents any modules from moving to Integration Testing. ♦ Project Manager Approval has been received

Integration Testing





Tests all the components and modules that are integrated to form a sub-system.



Tests the interaction with between the modules. When a defect is discovered, only those tests with a connection to the defect must be rerun.

 Two basic strategies: 37 | P a g e

Project Report on Marketing Information System  Top-down Integration.  Bottom up Integration.

Entry Criteria:  ♦ Unit testing has been completed and signed off.

Exit Criteria:  ♦ All sub-systems meet the desired functionality and performance requirements.  ♦ Outstanding defects have been identified, documented, and presented to the business sponsor.

System Testing 

Testing the system as a whole.



Evaluates the system's compliance with its specified requirements.



Checks for unexpected interaction between the units and modules.



When a defect is discovered, previously executed system tests must be rerun after the repair is made.



Requires many test runs, because it entails feature by feature validation of behavior using a wide range of both normal and erroneous test inputs and data. System Testing

Load facto r

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Recover y testing

Security testing

Stress testing

Performance testing

Project Report on Marketing Information System

Entry Criteria: ♦ Integration Testing for each sub-system has been completed and approved.

Exit Criteria: ♦ Application meets all documented functional requirements. ♦ No known critical defects prevent moving to the User acceptance Testing. ♦ All appropriate parties have approved the completed tests.

User Acceptance Testing 

Final stage in the testing process before system is accepted for operational use.

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Reveal requirement problems where system facilities do not really meet the users needs or system performance.

Alpha Testing: 

Done if the system is made for a single customer.

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Testing the system with data supplied by the client.

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Continues until the system developer and the client agrees that the delivered system is acceptable.

Beta Testing: 

When a system is to be marketed as a software product.

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It involves delivering a system to potential customers.

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They report problems to the system developers.

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After the feedback, the system is modified and either released for further beta testing or for general sale.

Entry Criteria:

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Project Report on Marketing Information System ♦ Business requirements have been met. ♦ Security requirements have been documented and necessary user access obtained.

Exit Criteria: ♦ UAT has been completed and approved by the user community. ♦ Change Control Management is managing requested modifications and enhancements. ♦ Business sponsor agrees that known defects do not impact a production release.

Production Verification Testing  Final opportunity to determine if the system is ready for release.  Purpose is for a period of time simulates real business activity.  As a sort of full dress rehearsal, it should identify anomalies or unexpected changes to existing processes.  Mock production runs will verify that the existing business process flows, interfaces, and batch processes continue to run correctly.

Entry Criteria: ♦ Known defects have been documented. ♦ Migration package documentation has been completed, reviewed, and approved by the production systems manager.

Exit Criteria: ♦ Installation testing has been performed and documented and the results have been signed off. ♦ Mock testing has been documented, reviewed, and approved by managers. ♦ All tests show that the application will not adversely affect the production environment. System testing is a critical element in the software development.  Saves time and money by identifying problems early.  Improve customer satisfaction by delivering a more defect-free product. 40 | P a g e

Project Report on Marketing Information System

SYSTEM MAINTENANCE Once a system is fully implemented and being operated by end users, the maintenance function begins. System maintenance is the monitoring, evaluating and modifying of operational information system to make desirable or necessary improvements. Regardless of how well designed, constructed and tested a system or application may be, there may be any need in order to conducting System Maintenance

REASONS TO CONDUCT SYSTEM MAINTENANCE  Changing needs of dynamic and competitive market.  Negative feedback provided by the evaluation process.  Maintaining the marketing information system at the highest level of effectiveness and efficiency.  Removing existing errors in the information system. .

FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVES OF SYSTEM MAINTENANCE 1. To make predictable changes to existing programs to correct errors that were made during system design or implementation. 2. To preserve those aspects of the program that were correct and to avoid the possibility that “fixes” to programs cause other aspects of those programs to behave differently. 3. To avoid as much as possible degradation of system performance. Poor system maintenance can gradually erode system throughput and response time.

SYSTEM MAINTENANCE TASKS •

Validating the Problem

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Benchmark Program

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Study and debug the program

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Test the program

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Validating the Problem •

The first task of the system analyst or the programmer is to validate the problem. Working with the users, the team should attempt to validate the problem by reproducing it.

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There could be following possible effects of bug:

1. One possible output is an unsubstantiated bug(means we r not sure dat it is a bug). 2. In some cases the analyst confirms the error but recognizes it as a simple misuse or mistaken use of the program.

Benchmark Program This task can be performed by either system analyst and/or programmer. Users should also participate to ensure that the test is conducted as closely as possible under some circumstances that simulate a normal working environment.

Study and debug the program •

The programmer response to “bug-fix” requirements that establish the exception for fixing the problem. The programmer “debugs” (edits) a copy of the problem program.

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Changes are not made in the production program. The result is corrected version of the program.(deleivery of software’s new version)

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The purpose of program studies is to gain insight into how program works and doesn’t works. Program studies can also lead to better estimates of the time and resources that will be required to fix the error.

Test the program A candidate release of the program must be tested before it can be placed into operation as the next new version of the production program. The following tests are essential : 1. Unit testing ensure that the stand-alone program fixes the bug without undesirable side effect to the program. 42 | P a g e

Project Report on Marketing Information System 2. System testing ensures that entire application, of which the modified program was a part , still works. 3. Regression testing extrapolates the impact of the changes on program .

CASE STUDY: Market Information System boosts incomes of Ukraine’s small & medium sized growers

ABSTRACT:

The Market Information System (MIS) created by the Agricultural Marketing Project (AMP) jointly with its Ukrainian subcontractor APK-Inform helped boost sales and profits of small and medium sized growers, and attracted significant investments. It resulted in about $20 in additional benefits to farmers for each $ spent and became self-sufficient in 3 years from its launch. Based on the market information received through the numerous contacts with market players as well as official statistics, AMP analysts have created a flow of analytical information, making horticultural market of the country more transparent and predictable. It, in turn, has led to the increased amount of investments into the industry, helped create additional production, trade and processing opportunities, create new jobs and increase incomes of rural population.

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Problem statement:

When the AMP team started working in Ukraine in 2003, it determined that further development of the horticultural sector of Ukraine’s agribusiness sector, which was based on many small and medium sized growers provided nearly 35% of all revenues to rural inhabitants, was hampered by the lack of market infrastructure. Growers did not know where and how to sell fruits & vegetables and consumers paid relatively high prices for these products due to a large number of very small intermediaries and completely chaotic marketing and complete lack of market transparency. The AMP team only had 3 years to resolve this problem and the quickest way to do it, according to AMP professionals’ was to develop a system, which would allow all market players to receive easy and fast access, to information about market prices in various regions of Ukraine; buyers and sellers of key products and their offers & bids, market news, market reports and market forecasts. Lack of widely recognized standards for the fruits & vegetables was another significant challenge as the fruits & vegetables have a great variability of sizes, colors, shapes, varieties, etc. Yes another problem we faced was a large number of different types of fruits & vegetables, which we had to monitor, as this sector of agribusiness has a significant number of products, all of which are very important. As we proceeded with our idea, we discovered several other problems on our way. To understand the markets our analysts had to consider the interests of many market participants, including different types of growers, processors, wholesale traders, input and equipment suppliers, retail chains, etc. On the other hand we realized that if we succeed in helping this industry become more efficient, we would be able to help create many new job and improve incomes of people involved in these industries as well as living standards of rural population overall. From the very first steps of creating our own MIS, we thought about its sustainability. This was a great tool by itself as it guided us in our decisions, helping choose only options that would generate a real interest of our clients. If we created something people were ready to pay money for, it meant that this was a really useful thing for them.

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Creating MIS step by step The AMP started creating the MIS from several brainstorming sessions, where they discussed what’s really essential to know about the markets to be successful based on the opinion of various market players. Pooling it all together, they have discovered that most market players had many things in common. Since they had 8 offices and they planned to create a web-portal, they needed a modern on-line database that would allow many people to access it at the same time. Thus, the system chose Oracle to create the database and our subcontractors’ programmers did all of the work based on our vision of what this system should be able to do. The database allowed us to track the markets and also monitor overall Project’s activities. It is also true that we have been improving the database ever since we created it. They trained the Project Staff to use it and explained why it is important to keep all of the contacts in this common database. The first few months the system spent in meetings with clients, searching for industry contacts and entering them into the database. Since we had all the database statistics online, it was easy to see the progress of contacts collection and determine who of the employees needed additional help with this process. In the meanwhile they polled many clients to determine their problems and this information helped us develop efficient ways to resolve them. First of all, complete lack of information about market prices and trends motivated them to start market monitoring. They started monitoring retail markets in most regions of Ukraine by sending the enumerators there or collecting price information from the markets’ administrations over the phone. During the numerous meetings with farmers we explained them the intentions and convinced them to purchase cell phones. They explained that otherwise they would not be able to improve sales of their produce because buyers will have no way of reaching them. After the wave of the seminars most farmers did buy mobile phones as they were becoming really inexpensive. At that point they started collecting weekly farm-gate prices for the key products from farmers included in the database via the phone. To motivate farmers provide this information we gave them free of charge advertising in our publications and web-site as we placed products they wanted to sell in the offers & bids section. Farmers were happy to provide the information and, in most cases, they determined offer price when talking to the MI specialists, who also provided consultation and advise. All of the valuable comments provided by farmers were included in special internal section of the database. At this point in time we have received many phone calls from potential buyers (processors, traders and supermarket chains) who wanted to find suppliers of fruits & vegetables. They shared their market information with us and we, in exchange, provided them with the free advertisement as well and provided contacts of farmers who had products of their interest for sale. Farmers who previously had very few opportunities to sell suddenly started getting several phone calls per day, were able to look evaluate various options, had a possibility to 45 | P a g e

Project Report on Marketing Information System call and consult with us and thus, have been able to sell their produce quickly and the highest price offered. After many years of receiving no attention from the government or anybody else, farmers really appreciated the support they were getting from us. There were many things they did simultaneously at this point: they created a webportal, started publishing weekly magazine and sending it to all market players who expressed their interest and we continued to build and improve the database and train the clients. Once the farmers got their first weekly magazines, we came around and explained how to use them. Usually we did 5-6 hour trainings for 20-40 farmers were they were able to try all of the options available. Most active farmers who came to such seminars later on transferred the knowledge they gained to their colleagues. When our MI specialists talked to a client, they entered information directly into the on-line database linked directly to a web-portal. Many clients received phone calls from potential buyers or suppliers few minutes after their conversations with the MI specialists, as offers & bids appeared on-line on the web-portal as they spoke. From the very beginning of the project we kept telling farmers to grow what’s in the demand instead of trying to sell what they have grown. We did a lot of work explaining all market participants the importance of contract growing for further industry development. We also invited buyers (processors, traders, supermarkets) to all of our seminars and let them tell farmers what kind of product do they need, when, how much, how should it be packaged and delivered, etc. We also published numerous articles on these issues in our magazines. Our production and price forecast for all key fruits & vegetables published every spring and updated two or three times per year has helped many farmers who read it make very profitable planting decisions. To make sure farmers are able to grow what’s demanded by the markets, we have held many field days and demonstrated modern production, post-harvest handling, storage and packing technologies. We published this information in various manuals, in our publications and on the web site. Thus, our MIS was more than just market information system; it became a system for collection, processing and distribution of technological, legal, market and other useful information for farmers.

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How AMP’s MIS is used in practice There are many ways to use the MIS to farmers and other market participants’ advantage. Here are some examples to demonstrate how much farmers and others gained from this: A farmer, who was very pessimistic about MIS and did not want to get any offers placed in the system, came to one of our regional offices to complain about lack of interest for his cabbage. He had around 100 tons in stock and the wholesaler who told him he would buy it from him has disappeared. The staff recommended placing an offer in our system, which he reluctantly did. They also gave him one of our latest magazines with a list of buyers interested in cabbage and he started calling this list from our office. 20 minutes later he had identified two buyers interested in purchasing most of his cabbage and just when he was about the leave the office he received a phone call from another potential buyer who found his offer on the Internet. As a result the farmer has sold all of his cabbage during 2-3 weeks for $10,000. One of the top processing companies was searching for a large amount of good quality carrots but in the area where it usually procured carrots a serious shortage of this vegetable was observed. Managers have found our web portal through the Internet and discovered around 30 farmers offering carrots during this week. They were not sure this was true and called the analyst on the phone. When they confirmed this information and told them that in the western part of Ukraine there was a significant over-production of carrots, they started calling the farmers. In one week they have reportedly included contracts to supply enough carrots to satisfy their processing plans. Farmers were very happy with the price and processors were very happy to be able to fulfill their contracts. One of the farmers decided to expend planting area under onions motivated by high prices for this crop in the past season. When he was about to buy the seeds, he read our production and price forecast, which suggested a high probability of very low prices for onions. He consulted with the system and changed his mind. The system also suggested that prices for eggplants, cucumbers and early cabbage may be higher and told him that it would be better to focus on early onions if he wanted to plant any. He made the planting decisions based on our recommendations and got very high prices for the products he planted (including early onions) while these who did plant late onions had serious difficulties selling it. Since onion prices were really low due to over-production, we have started searching for way to effectively help our growers. Ukraine has never exported onions but we found out that during this very year there was a significant shortage of this production in Poland, Holland and several other EU countries. The system published several articles providing 47 | P a g e

Project Report on Marketing Information System information about this opportunity to all market players along with export requirements. The system received several phone calls from wholesalers who got interested and four weeks later several farmers reported improving demand for the onions. It turned out that wholesalers have started shipping onions to Poland and other countries, which supported prices and helped farmers avoid losses. Three months later the number of counties buying onions from Ukraine has increased to around 15 and Ukraine became one of the largest exporters of onions on the region.

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Impact     

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Presently we estimate that our system has resulted in about $20 in additional benefits to farmers for each $ spent. Expect it to be fully self-sufficient and profitable to all market participants in the future. The web-portal presently attracts around 30,000 unique visitors every month and a significant share of Ukraine’s fruits & vegetables gets sold through our portal. The MIS helped lower the transaction costs to farmers. Transaction costs for farmers were reduced by 100-200 times. Farmers were also provided with a weekly magazine, which included key market news, market prices (wholesale and retail) in all major regions of Ukraine, offers & bids, produce production, PHH, packing, storage and marketing recommendations and many other useful features. Helped farmers to develop a stronger negotiating position when talking to buyers. Price information from various regions within the country helped them improve their marketing decisions and sell products to regions where highest margins were observed. Price and production forecasts provided each spring and updated 2 times per year helped farmers plan production of crops that were in strong demand on the market and thus, for higher prices and greater revenues. The number of fruit & vegetable processors increased from 15 in 2003 to about 125 in 2006. The number of full-service wholesale companies has increased from virtually zero to around 30 and many mid-size companies were created. Growers’ incomes at least doubled, consumers received lower prices for higher quality fresh produce. Also, thousands of on-farm and off-farm seasonal and permanent jobs were created. Ukraine, which prior to AMP’s interventions imported fruits & vegetables from Poland and other neighbouring countries, in 2006 became a net exporter of many of these products. Thus, the succeeded in the mission that even if farmers do not have access to the Internet, it is enough for them to have access to a phone to have the benefits of modern market technologies work for them.

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Conclusion To conclude the whole project, we can say that Marketing Information System is necessary element in the present scenario in order to develop any new product in the market. The Whole System ensures that a product should not be just made to be sold in the market but to be known for its brand name, quality, reliability, affordability along with the attainment of customer satisfaction. The Marketing Information System also ensures that a product should start from a scratch of analysing the feasibility of the product till its continuous maintenance process.

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