Decumentation

An Integrated Service Pricing Engine
For Package Delivery
By

MUSTAPHA SALIM
Student ID: 0188 0000 8392
Project ID: T111/T015

BSc. (Hons) in Business Computing and Information Technology

University of Wales

SEPTEMBER, 2011

I. Declaration
Project Declaration Form
University of Wales
The declaration form is to be completed and attached within the project dissertation. The
student should read and sign the declaration.
Student Particulars
Name:
MUSTAPHA SALIM
Student ID: 018800008392
Project Title: An Integrated Service Pricing Engine For Package Delivery
Major:
Date:

Computer Science
SEPTEMBER 2011

Business Computing and Information Technology

Student Declaration

I declare that
1.
I understand what plagiarism is;
2.
The consequences of plagiarism have been explained to me by my
institution; and
3.
The project is all my own work and I have acknowledged any use of
others’ published or unpublished works.
4.
The project was completed over two semesters fromTERM 1 2011 to
TERM 2 2011.
5.
I had done backup of my coding and dissertation.
Student Signature: _________

Date: _______________

AN INTEGRATED SERVICE PRCING ENGINE FOR PACKAGE DELIVERY

Page 1

II.

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere Gratitude to God who give me the time, straight and
opportunity to complete this project. I would also like to give credit to my humble lecturer
Dr.Teo for his enormous patient, remarkable and constructive guidelines giving to me for
understanding and achieving my focus throughout the entire process of developing this
project.
Also my heart goes straight to my family especially my Brother Taufiq Mustapha for the
support and encouragement given to me.

I wish to also avail myself of this opportunity, express a sense of gratitude to my beloved
parents for their manual and financial support, strength, and help and for allowing me to
seize this opportune to study abroad. I would not conclude without giving credit to my
friend Abba Lawal who tremendously helps me in completing this project


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III.

Abstract

Online parcels delivery System plays a vital role in simplifying the business structure of
parcels delivery. There is no doubt that the recent improvements in information technology
has influence and restructure the way delivery system is done.One of the major
achievements of the nowadays package delivery system is that, customer can use the pricing
calculator of a website to calculate the price to be paid on each parcel before taking the
parcel to the delivery company.
This report explains the complete process of literature review, analysis, design and
implementation of an integrated service pricing engine for package delivery system of a
medium sized parcel delivery company. Using ASP.Net front end with a SQL backend, the
system provides Customers with an efficient and reliable business portal for calculating
parcel prices online.
With a fully referenced review of the available literature on the topic, object-oriented
analysis and design elaborated using the Unified Modelling Language, the report focus on
documenting the stages of the system development. At the end of the development process,
the aim of the project, which is to develop an integrated online pricing engine for parcel
delivery, was achieved following the evaluation of the business, as well as the system’s
objectives in the final chapter of the report.


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IV.

I.

Table of Contents

Declaration .............................................................................................................. 1

II. Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ 2
III. Abstract .................................................................................................................... 3
IV. Table of Contents ................................................................................................... 4
1. CHAPTER (1) INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 9
1.1.

Background ..................................................................................................................... 9

1.2.

Aim ................................................................................................................................. 10

1.3.

Objectives ...................................................................................................................... 10

1.4.

Idea Exploration ........................................................................................................... 11

1.5.

Fact Finding Technique ............................................................................................... 12

1.6.

Research Design ............................................................................................................ 12

1.7.

Research Method .......................................................................................................... 14

1.8.

Project Time Plan ......................................................................................................... 16

2. CHAPTER (2) LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................. 17
2.1.

E-commerce in the modern environment ................................................................... 17

2.1.1.

Types of e-commerce ................................................................................................ 17

2.1.2.

Business to Consumer (B2C) ..................................................................................... 18

2.2. Concept of Online Delivery System............................................................................. 19
2.2.1.

Delivery....................................................................................................................... 19

2.2.2.

Definition of parcels delivery ..................................................................................... 19

2.2.3.

Categories of Package Delivery Services ................................................................... 20

2.2.4.

Process of Package Delivery ...................................................................................... 21

2.2.5.

Benefits of online package delivery system ............................................................... 22

2.2.6.

Risk of package delivery ............................................................................................ 23

2.3. Pricing Engine ............................................................................................................... 24
2.3.1.

Definition of pricing engine ....................................................................................... 24

2.3.2.

Key components that determine the price of package to delivered. ........................ 25

2.3.3.

Features of pricing engine .......................................................................................... 27

2.4. Case Study ..................................................................................................................... 29
2.4.1.

Case Study 1: Feb Express ......................................................................................... 29

2.4.2.

Case Study 2: Singapore ............................................................................................. 31


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2.4.3.

Comparison of Case Studies....................................................................................... 33

2.4.4.

Review of Case study .................................................................................................. 33

3. CHAPTER (3) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND ANALYSIS ............................... 34
3.2. System Requirement And Analysis ............................................................................. 34
3.2.1.

Analysis Research Planning ....................................................................................... 34

3.2.2.

Requirement Collection Plan...................................................................................... 35

3.2.3.

Analysis’ Sample Design and Data Collection............................................................. 36

3.2.4.

Summary of fact finding............................................................................................. 36

3.2.5.

Conclusion of the Data Analysis ................................................................................ 49

3.3. Use Case Diagram ......................................................................................................... 49
3.3.1.

Use Case Description ................................................................................................. 50

3.3.2.

Detail User Registration Function .............................................................................. 53

3.3.3.

Detail Parcels Registration Function .......................................................................... 54

3.3.4.

Overview Detail Use Case of Users ........................................................................... 55

3.3.5.

Overview of the Detail Use case For Administrator .................................................. 56

3.4. System Requirements specification ............................................................................. 57
3.4.1.

Functional requirement............................................................................................... 57

3.4.2.

Non-functional requirements ...................................................................................... 58

3.5. Conclusion of the analysis phase ................................................................................. 60
4. CHAPTER (4) SYSTEM DESIGN ........................................................................ 61
4.2. Architectural Design. .................................................................................................... 61
4.3. Sequence Diagram ........................................................................................................ 62
4.3.1.

Login Sequence Diagram ........................................................................................... 62

4.3.2.

User registration Sequence ....................................................................................... 63

4.3.3.

Parcel Registration and Calculation Sequence ......................................................... 64

4.3.4.

Administrator Sequence ............................................................................................ 65

4.4. Activity Diagram ........................................................................................................... 66
4.5. Module Design ............................................................................................................... 67
4.6. Database Modelling ...................................................................................................... 69
4.6.1.

Class Diagram Description ......................................................................................... 70

4.7. Normalisation ................................................................................................................ 70
4.7.1.

Unnormalized Form (UNF)......................................................................................... 71

4.7.2.

First Normal Form (1NF). ........................................................................................... 71

4.7.3.

Second Normal Form (2NF). ...................................................................................... 71

4.7.4.

Third Normal form (3NF). .......................................................................................... 71


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4.8. Database Mapping ........................................................................................................ 72
4.9. Screen Design ................................................................................................................ 72
4.9.1.

Home Page Screen Design ......................................................................................... 73

4.9.2.

User Login page Screen Design.................................................................................. 74

4.10. Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 75
5. Chapter 5: IMPLEMENTATION AND TESTING ................................................... 76
5.1.

System Implementation ................................................................................................ 76

5.1.1.

Hardware and Software Requirements ....................................................................... 76

5.1.2.

Database Integration .................................................................................................. 77

5.1.3.

Creating tables in the database.................................................................................. 77

5.2.

System Testing .............................................................................................................. 78

5.2.1.

Black Box Testing ........................................................................................................ 79

5.2.2.

Testing Plan ................................................................................................................ 79

6. CHAPTER (6) EVALUATION AND CONCLUTION ............................................... 83
6.1.

Evaluation...................................................................................................................... 83

6.1.1.

Evaluation the System against the System Analysis................................................... 83

6.1.2.

Evaluating the System against the System Design ..................................................... 83

6.1.3.

Evaluating the System against the Development and Implementation ................... 84

6.2.

Weaknesses of the System ............................................................................................ 84

6.3.

Future enhancement ..................................................................................................... 85

6.4.

CONCULUTION .......................................................................................................... 86

References .................................................................................................................. 87
Appendixes A: Sequence Diagram............................................................................ 90
Appendix B: Interface Design .................................................................................... 91
Appendix C: Sample Questionnaire .......................................................................... 92
Appendix D: System Testing ..................................................................................... 95
Appendix E: Turnitin Report .................................................................................... 103
Appendix F: Presentation Slides ............................................................................. 104


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TABLE OF FIGURES
FIGURE 1: PROJECT TIMELINE ............................................................................................................................ 16
FIGURE 2: PROCESS OF PACKAGE DELIVERY ...................................................................................................... 22
FIGURE 3: COMPONENTS OF PARCELS PRICING COMPONENTS OF PARCELS PRICING ..................................... 25
FIGURE 4: PRICING ENGINE CYCLE ..................................................................................................................... 28
FIGURE 5: FED EXPRESS WEB PAGE ................................................................................................................... 30
FIGURE 6: SINGAPORE POST WEBSITE HOME PAGE .......................................................................................... 31
FIGURE 7: SING POST PRICING CALCULATION WEB PAGE ................................................................................. 32
FIGURE 8: RESPONDENT QUESTIONNAIRE RESULT ........................................................................................... 36
FIGURE 9: GENDER RESPONDENTS IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE ............................................................................ 37
FIGURE 10: AGE RANGE OF THE RESPONDERS .................................................................................................. 38
FIGURE 11: AGE RANGE OF THE RESPONDENTS ................................................................................................ 39
FIGURE 12: DIFFERENT AGE RANGE OF THE PARTICIPANT ................................................................................ 40
FIGURE 13: IS ONLINE PACKAGE DELIVERY SYSTEM IMPORTANT ..................................................................... 41
FIGURE 14: RESPONDENT VIEWS ON THE CURRENT ONLINE PACKAGE DELIVERY SYSTEM .............................. 42
FIGURE 15: IMPORTANCE OF PRICING ENGINE IN AN ONLINE DELIVERY SYSTEM ............................................ 43
FIGURE 16: IMPORTANCE OF TRACKING IN AN ONLINE PACKAGE DELIVERY SYSTEM ..................................... 45
FIGURE 17: WHAT FEATURE DO YOU THINK IS IMPORTANT IN AN ONLINE DELIVERY SYSTEM........................ 47
FIGURE 18: RESPONSE ON EFFICIENCY OF ONLINE DELIVERY SYSTEMS ........................................................... 48
FIGURE 19: USE CASE OF THE INITIAL STAGE OF THE SYSTEM ......................................................................... 49
FIGURE 20: DETAIL USER REGISTRATION FUNCTION ......................................................................................... 53
FIGURE 21: DETAIL PARCELS REGISTRATION FUNCTION ................................................................................... 54
FIGURE 22: OVERVIEW DETAIL USE CASE OF USERS .......................................................................................... 55
FIGURE 23: OVERVIEW OF DETAIL USE CASE FOR ADMINISTRATOR ................................................................. 56
FIGURE 24: SYSTEM ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ................................................................................................... 61
FIGURE 25: USER LOGIN SEQUENCE DIAGRAM ................................................................................................. 62
FIGURE 26: CUSTOMER REGISTRATION SEQUENCE DIAGRAM.......................................................................... 63
FIGURE 27: REGISTRATION SEQUENCE DIAGRAM ............................................................................................. 64
FIGURE 28: ADMIN ADD AND REMOVE CUSTOMER SEQUENCE DIAGRAM ...................................................... 65
FIGURE 29: ACTIVITY DIAGRAM ......................................................................................................................... 66
FIGURE 30: MODULE DESIGN............................................................................................................................. 67
FIGURE 31: OVERALL SYSTEM CLASS DIAGRAM ................................................................................................ 69
FIGURE 32: INTERFACE DESIGN SYSTEM HOME PAGE ....................................................................................... 73
FIGURE 33: SYSTEM LOGIN PAGE....................................................................................................................... 74
FIGURE 34: DATABASE CONNECTION ................................................................................................................ 77
FIGURE 35: SAMPLE TESTING OF LOGIN 1 ................................................................................................. 79
FIGURE 36: SAMPLE TESTING OF LOGIN 2 ................................................................................................. 80


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TABLE OF TABLES
TABLE 1: GENDER RESPONDENT’S QUESTIONNAIRE ...................................................................................... 37
TABLE 2 DIFFERENT AGE RANGE OF THE PARTICIPANT .................................................................................. 38
TABLE 3:OCCUPATIONS OF THE RESPONDENTS ............................................................................................. 39
TABLE 4: HAVE YOU EVER USE ANY KIND OF ONLINE DELIVERY SYSTEM ....................................................... 40
TABLE 5: RESPONSE VIEWS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ONLINE PACKAGE DELIVERY SYSTEM ....................... 41
TABLE 6: RESPONDENT VIEWS ON THE CURRENT ONLINE PACKAGE DELIVERY SYSTEM ............................... 42
TABLE 7: RESPONDENT VIEWS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PRICING ENGINE IN AN ONLINE DELIVERY SYSTEM ................ 43
TABLE 8: RESPONDENT VIEWS ON THE HOW DO YOU FIND THE PROCESS OF ONLINE PACKAGE DELIVERY SYSTEM...... 44

TABLE 9: IMPORTANCE OF TRACKING IN AN ONLINE PACKAGE DELIVERY SYSTEM ....................................... 45
TABLE 10: RESPONDENT VIEWS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF DIMENSION OF PACKAGE IN PRICING ENGINE .. 46
TABLE 11: RESPONDENT VIEWS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF DIMENSION FIELD IN A PRICING ENGINE .......... 46
TABLE 12: RESPONSE ON EFFICIENCY OF ONLINE DELIVERY SYSTEMS ........................................................... 48
TABLE 13: ACTORS IDENTIFICATION ............................................................................................................... 52


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1. CHAPTER (1) INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background
Delivery is a process of transporting goods; most goods are delivered through a transport
network Cargo (physical delivery) are mainly delivered through roads, railways and airline
network on air. (Wikipedia, 2011)This means there is a need to take on account on how to
develop a system that will satisfy all the customer’s needs regarding their parcels delivery.
This website is going to be design in other to handle the registration and pricing scheme of
parcels delivery. A service pricing of packages to be delivered is a way in which a delivery
company determine how much to be paid on each and every package to be delivered based
on the pricing strategy of the company.A customer relationship management (CRM)will be
included in the system to store customer previous information and transaction
history.(Frank, 2004)Previous delivery information is important to customers because some
customers usually ordered delivery of their parcels to the same destination in different time,
so the customer does not have to enter the destination again.
Also the system will have an enquiry section that will give customers opportunity to send
enquiries regarding their parcels in order to check the status of their parcels delivery.The
system will be designed considering that people are becoming more aware about the
changes in technology and also they are paying more attention to the fast and easy process
of sending and receiving their parcels, Convenience and efficiency are what fast-paced
people want and expect nowadays from companies.


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1.2. Aim
The aim of the project is to develop a system that performs online delivery clearance for
goods to be delivered; this would be accomplished based on two-dimensions. The first part
is expected to orchestrate the process of automating the customer registration by nature of
the parcel for quality and policy adherence.
On the other part, the system would be able to automatically generate the total price of
transporting the parcels base on dimension, volume, weight and parcels’ destination address.
Similarly, the engine should incorporate both the functions to operate as a distinct system to
streamline the business processes.

1.3. Objectives
The following are the objectives.
 To conduct a feasibility study that will point out with the strength and weakness of
the proposed new system.
 To conduct a literature review, this will contain the detail explanation about the
company and also make good research on the other people research that is related to
the proposed system, this would be accomplished by the use of books, journals
articles and internet sources.
 Requirement gathering and analysis, this is to check the background of any related
system in other to understand the business requirement, this will be used to build a
logical model of the new system by using fact finding techniques like questioner,
interview and reading of manuals.
 To design a good and comprehensive system according to the requirement
specification gathered from the user (blue print) by converting the analysis into
suitable proposed new system by the use of design tools, such as Use case diagram,
Class diagram, Sequence diagram and entity relation diagram for the database.
 The development (coding) this will be prepared by converting the design into
workable system by the use of ASP.net for the front end and MY SQL SEVER for
the back end.


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 The testing will be carried out after development; this is to test all the check all the
validations of the system and also to authenticate the functional and non-functional
requirement of the system.
 Evaluation by evaluating the system this is to verify whether the system is build
according to the requirement gathered from the user and also meet its aims and
objectives.

1.4. Idea Exploration
To stay up-to-date with technology and competition, there is a need to develop a system that
will meet the need and expectations of the new generation of clients/customers. Service
pricing engine is an accurate and secured engine that calculates the amount to be paid for the
package delivery based on height, Weight, volume, and location of the sender as well as the
receiver of the parcel. The pricing engine will play an important part of parcels delivery as it
will ease calculation time taken in other to get the exact amount to be paid for the package
delivery. As many are people are willing to spend more to get their parcel delivered without
delay.The system is hence devised to be a fast and efficient method of calculating the price
to be paid on each package to be delivered and also to capture the information of the
customers and other useful data for fast and easy delivery registration and ensuring that their
parcel is delivered in time without delay. The system will allow the customers to feed in
their information, book order delivery, give feedbacks and store the customer’s
information’s and also create several levels of security authentication.
The System will strongly improve the readability, availability, easy retrieval, and searching
of related parcels information in a punctual manner.

SITES REVIEWED
SING POST
DHl
UPS
FED EXPRESS


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1.5. Fact Finding Technique
Below is the fact finding techniques which will be usedto attain information from some
certain peoplewho may include customers of different companies and also to look into
someprevious researches works which is related to our research to get more accurate and
reliable information that will helpin achieve the aims of the system.


Online Survey(Questionnaire)



Literature review
 Online Survey(Questionnaire)
In this part an online survey questionnaire will be distributed to various respondents
which may include customers and employees of different companiesinto their email
accounts, response of which will be used in data analysis, for effective requirement
analysis.
 Literature review
Literature review is significant and in-depth evolution of previous research carried out
by other researches. It is a digest or summary of a particular point of research. (Zinser,
2011) In this part of the research work, a review of various websites, journals and
articles will be conducted, this is with a view to find good part of those sites and adopt
them in our proposed new system, and discover the weaknesses of those sites so as to
improve them in our proposed new system.

1.6. Research Design
Initial Study
Understanding the background problems of systemto see if there is possibility of solving
them, a feasibility report will be produce which will include estimate of time, cost and
benefit.


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Requirement Analysis
The main purpose of this phase is to define the problems that need to be solved and also
understand the information realm for the system as well as requirement function behaviour
and interfacing, at the end system specification will be produced.

System requirement design
In this stage the design functions and operation are described in detail will include the
system architecture, business rules, process diagrams and other documentation. The output
of this stage will describe the new system as a collection of modules or subsystem.

System Testing
This is to execute the system in order to find and detect errorsand also test case and test
planwill be prepared in other todocument test result report.
Testing approach: Black box Testing
In this testing approach the testerhas to go through the function of the system and he needs
to know everything in the system such as how many functionsare in the new system, and
also how each and every function works and etc. So the tester must acknowledge it.
System Evaluation
The evaluation process will be accomplished through the following steps.
 Compare the test plan with actual test result
 Debug and correct any system errors discovered
 Evaluate the occurrence of error rate
 Ensure the quality and reliability of the system


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1.7. Research Method
The table below shows the project development tasks through which the objectives of the
propose system state above can be achieve. Each stage segment will cover task essential for
the development of the proposed system and a dexterous dissertation work.

Stages

Tasks
-

Project topic initiation

-

Stage1:Project Proposal

Identifying and define opportunity to improve
business operation

-

Identify significant assumption and constrain of the
system.

Stage 2: Literature Review

-

It is to critically evaluate what have chosen as a
project topic.

-

Summarise syntheses and analyse the knowledge
that already exist and what gasp occur related to our
research.

-

To reveal similarities and differences, consistencies
and inconsistencies in previous research.

-

This will be achieved with the help of journals
article and internet sources

Stage 3: System Analysis

-

Define and refine functional and data requirement
and document them in the requirement document.

-

Development of a detail data and process models
including system input output.

-

Developing the test and evolution requirement that
will be used to determine the acceptable system
performance.


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-

Converting the analysis into design

-

Stage 4:System Design

The architecture will be documented, as the system
design specification in system design document.

-

Maintenance and implementation manual.

-

Converting the design into workable solution

-

Input output specification

-

Stage 6: System Testing

Conversion and implementation plan.

-

Stage 5:System Development

Security risk assessment plan.

Data dictionary and operational instruction

-

Ensuring the functionality and interpretability of the
system.

-

Ensuring the system meets the organisation and end
user requirement.

User training
Data conversion

-

Change over plan.

-

Review system and finalize issue

-

Checks detect and correct system errors.

-

Stage 8: System Review

-

Stage 7: System Implementation

Compile all the document together to complete the
dissertation


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1.8. Project Time Plan

TIME PLAN

2011

Activity

Duration Feb march

1) Proposal

1 month

4) System Design

4weeks

5) Program Design

4 weeks

6) Development

1 month

7) Testing

3 weeks

8) Implementation

3 weeks

9) Completing Dissertation

Aug

5 Weeks

3) System Analysis

Jul

5 Weeks

2) Literature review

April May Jun

1 month

Figure 1: Project Timeline


Page 16

Sept

2. CHAPTER (2) LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. E-commerce in the modern environment
Though the idea of business model is potentially significant to all companies and business
sectors, automating the business process has been a major problem to many companies and
organizations. Based on the research on the current organizations and their economic and
strategic literatures and after reviewing few books and articles on business models, with no
any deep research in the topic, never the less several authors have provide some useful
information for evaluation of business models. Most of the educational research on business
strategies have being carried out in favour of E-business. As defined by Norton and Kaplan
(2004), E-business is a way to carry out business processes in a systematic way using
modern technology (Norton, 2004). Explanation of business model have thrive long time
ago. For example, TapscottTicoll, and Lowy (2000) on their research they emphasize on the
system, business-web or “b-web.” That is they purely concentrate on the suppliers,
merchants, business service providers, infrastructure providers, and customers. Also Rappa
(2003) define business model as the way of conducting business transaction in which a
company or organization can stand on itself, in this article Rappa define business model as a
way in which a company gains its income that its revenue and where it’s located in the value
sequence of the company (Rappa, 2003).
Based on the definition and explanation above it can ben understand that e-commerce is
not only way in which a company conduct its business but also it is also the way a company
can increase its income.

2.1.1. Types of e-commerce
-

Business to Business e- commerce (B2B)

-

Business to Consumer e- commerce (B2C)

-

Consumer to Business e- commerce (C2B)

-

Consumer to Consumer e- commerce (C2C)


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The project: An integrated service pricing engine for package delivery falls under the
sunshade of B2C type of ecommerce. As such we shall consider the B2C E-commerce in
detail.

2.1.2. Business to Consumer (B2C)
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce emphases on direct transactions of business
between the customer and business partners as defined by Dedhia(Dedhia, 2001), that is to
say is the set of business transaction between the website and an end user, consumers can be
able to buy or sell their goods at any time any anywhere provided they are connected to the
internet.

One of the key important aspects of e-commerce is convenience, that is, a

customer can buy or sell his goods anytime anywhere, 365 days of the year. Furthermore
beside all this advantage of e-commerce consumers still have fear over purchase in the
internet. Example of business-to-consumer includes include small and medium companies
that began life as Internet companies which carried out their business online as well as
established “Click-and-mortar” and catalogue mail order retailers that added Internet retail
stores to their existing businesses.

Customer Relationship Management
According to Robert Anderson (2001). CRM is a business strategy designed to help a
company or organization to understand the needs and look forward toward satisfying their
current and future customers (Anderson, 2000). As the marketplace competition among
companies is going on efficiently and most of smart organizations are taking serious action
on deriving customer service and satisfaction. According to EMS Corporations Efficiency in
the business process is the key components of the CRM strategy (EMC-Copuration., 2008).
CRM is being designed to enhance the whole company when managing the customer
relationship management, the ability to derived the value from CRM project being grouped
on the enterprise ability to influence and join together all these possible functions,
technology and secured data in a way that enhance department synergy as well as
comprehensive and dedicated advantage to customers. CRM as a whole is a strategy in
which a company follows so as to have a good and successful relationship with its
customers and business partners, according to Institute for direct marketing IDM the main


Page 18

aims of CRM is to find a way which will enable you to deliver your goods to customers less
cost and efficient way that satisfied your employees and customers at large (IDM., 2002)
As Ron Swifta veteran in CRM stated in article, each company must decide what CRM
strategy suites the company and to the future of its success in the marketplace.
Types of CRM
- Operational CRM
-

Analytical CRM

-

Collaborative CRM

According to Elsevier (2006) all of the above three Components of CRM Support each
other and work together developing a full and Successful CRM, which result in a better
customer experience needs the combination of all those components stated above (Elsevier.,
2006) And also a collaborative CRM gives room to a customer to contact the company.
2.2.
2.2.1.

Concept of Online Delivery System

Delivery

The word delivery can be defined as an act of transmitting or conveying packages deliver as
a shipment (TheFreeDictionary, 2011).From above definition it can understand that delivery
is an act of transfer of goods or interest from one person to another.
2.2.2. Definition of parcels delivery
Parcel delivery is the shipment of packages (parcels) or any high value mail as single
shipments, most of the shipment services are mainly provided by private package delivery.
Postal system services have also existed in competition within and in place of public postal
services(Wikipedia., 2011). Package delivery is system which comprise of different
shipment strategies like package shipment and express latter shipment, shipments have
being improve effectively over the years. Drastic changes have being transpired considering
the current technologies used in goods transportation, this was analysed based on in-depth
analysis of the

current marketplace

and

the range of service options that Delivery

company offer which include the new transportation and communications technology that
the current companies deploy. (Joy, 2011).

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2.2.3. Categories of Package Delivery Services
There are many package delivery companies that offer a variety of services to satisfy their
customer’s business needs. When looking to for a delivery company it is very important to
know what exactly is the type of service they are providing, as Different Companies offers
different services. According to (TransGlobalCompany, 2011) there are many Package
delivery companies that specialize both on international and local delivery. Customers
usually choose their delivery company based on the type of services as well as delivery
prices the company offers. In this context there may be better to choose a smaller company
for your local delivery which is mostly door to door delivery and a larger one for
international shipping. But sometime you may prefer to have single delivery company so as
to facilitate your record and build a strong working relationship. Ian Sheldon (2011) defines
five services as the major services offered by delivery companies (Sheldon, 2011).
 International Delivery : As the name implies the service somewhat gives it away, but
this is all about providing customers with such an opportunity to delivered their
good from one country to another no matter the requirement for transportation by air
or sea. The International Courier service can be served in different ways such
International Express (Next day) or Standard (5-7 days).
 Same Day Express Delivery: This type of service is usually used whenever a
customer wishes to send his package and want it to be delivered in the same day.
This service often come in different options such as Same Day Courier, Express
delivery and Bike delivery but actually they all provide same services delivering
your parcels as the same day you end it but in different way (Sheldon, 2011).
 Overnight Delivery Services: There are some certain instances whereby a customer
want his parcel to be delivered over a specified period of time Thus, a good and
reliable delivery service will get all parcels delivered within the given time frame,
this specialized services need an overnight delivery service often transported by
couriers during the dark hours and early morning this service can guarantee to get
your parcel to its destination before a designated time the following day (Sheldon,
2011).


Page 20

 Standard Delivery Service: This service is often seen when ordering products on the
internet, if your delivery hasn’t got a time restriction then standard service is often
the most cost efficient and suitable, however this type of service take 2-3 days longer
than regular service time.
 Customer’s package tracking service: According to Iren Sheldon Parcels tracking as
the name imply is one of the services that most delivery companies today offer. This
service allows individuals to track the progress of his parcel delivery. It helps
identify any problem that may occur during the delivery process. After selecting
tracking service option, the customer will be given a unique number to be used for
the tracking. The number will be use true out the delivery process which helps the
customer to track the real time process of his parcels(Sheldon, 2011).
2.2.4.

Process of Package Delivery

Transportation and packaging of parcels needs to be matched to its logistics system. All
packages that have a high priority may not mix uniformly with the ordinary Packages.
Arrangement of how to package parcels is one of the major areas of concern throughout the
process of the delivery, considering the possible vulnerabilities that may occur during the
process. There are some companies that open special department and employ specialist staff
where their duty is to give customers the strategy or the guideline on how to package their
parcels, they also provide package design and package testing services.
There are facilities that are set up in airports considering the operational flow process of the
airport. This elegance can be clearly perceived as the continues operation of all flights in
some airport, first sorting and second sorting, reload of packages, and finally to the
outbound flights(Jason., 2009).


Page 21

The chart below describes the process of package being picked up, sorted and delivered to
the end customer.
SENDER
COMPANY
COURIER

FLIGHT TO
CVT

FIRST
SORTIN
G
(primary
sort)

WHEN IT ARIVES
NEED TO UNLOADED
TO CVT

SENDER

RECIEVER

RECIEVER

FINAL
DESTINATION
COURIER

OUTBOUND
FLIGHT

SECOND
SORTING
(Secondary
sort)

RELOADED
AT
TERTIARY

Figure 2: Process of package
Delivery
This type of structural process has been examined and guaranteed as a competitive way of
delivery over the years, however this process has a capability were by the company can add
a step to the existing hub when there is need. Although in some years back the process is
very tedious considering the steps. Nevertheless, this process flow helps the companies to
carry on developing by opening more areas that can handle lager capacity of customers.
2.2.5. Benefits of online package delivery system

According to Karen C. Fernandez (2011)dedicated delivery times, specialization and
individualization of parcel delivery services are the key features that certify a delivery
company to be professional and beneficial to all customers. Delivery services have increase
and gained a lot of attractiveness, using a delivery company for a customer who wishes send
his package from one place to another will be a good option, whether you want to send your
parcels locally or globally (Fernandez, 2011). As Joy Matthews (2011) stated in his article
titled “Benefits of parcels delivery service” highlight the following as the benefits of online

Page 22

delivery. “Packages can be tracked at any point of time, finding out real time information
with regards to the package by SMS messages. Tax parcel identifiers have all the
information about the package. It stores at least three years’ worth of documents of
deliveries and also stores all data of past and current deliveries”.


Introduction of online delivery system helps in reducing traffic in Delivery
Companies, customer’s satisfaction is desired by everyone. The automated pricing
and calculation engine used in the web pages really helps in diminishing much
traffic in delivery companies attend all customer without delay. As cited from
(Comell, 2011).



Online Delivery system gives customers an opportunity to register their parcels and
make payments online at any point of the day. This is a very big advantage for
customers and the company at large, and also it provide absolute time framework
which gives the company the chance to expand its business.



With the use of online delivery system, the company data and information is more
secured and reliable, since the customer’s information is already been stored in the
database. Using online delivery system reduces the rate of data lose which helps to
increase the confidence of the companies as well as the customers(Comell, 2011).

2.2.6. Risk of package delivery
After all what already describe above as a benefit of online delivery, there are some risk that
are associated with the system. Below are the major risks that most likely occurred during
the process of delivery.


Packages may get damaged

There are some certain instances whereby parcels get damaged or spoiled during the
delivery process, delivering parcels in their original condition is not always possible but,
also delivering package by the customer himself is not solution to the problem. In a
situation like this a parcel delivery service helps greatly. Usually the company provides
their customers with the services that guarantee the safe of their parcels. In this present
environment Most of the service providers operate online, which makes it convenient for

Page 23

their customers. Also most of delivery companies offer insurance in each and every
package they send. This ensures that you recover any losses in case of an unfortunate
accident(CollectMyParcel, 2011) .


Package may be lost.

Each and every delivery company has their own measures in dealing with packages that
get lost before reaching the destination. In the first instance before customer send any
package he has to check and see what procedure the company have in place whenever a
parcel get lost. Usually the customer has to read all the terms and condition of the
delivery company before confirming his order. Must of the good parcel delivery
companies will have this information easily accessible from their websites.


Delivery to wrong address.

Delivery to wrong address usually occurred because of lack of correct address of the
receiver. One of the ways to overcome this risk is the sender has to double check and
confirm the receiver address before send the package most especially when the item is
very important, and you don't want it to be undelivered, lost or going to the wrong
destination. It take times to recover and it was really disappointing sometimes it takes
weeks or even month the worse scenario case is it cannot be recovered anymore.
2.3.

Pricing Engine

2.3.1. Definition of pricing engine
Pricing engine is an application for a real time calculation of reference prices of packages
based on certain criteria. Parcels pricing Engine is based on a client-server architecture
which allows the automatic pricing of parcels, using inputs from user. The system is
designed to support the concurrent operation of several users and to sustain real time
calculation of several parcels. Pricing Engine allows a minimal number of users to operate
efficiently, the system are control by several security checks which produce result based on
the input entered by the user.


Page 24

2.3.2. Key components that determine the price of package to delivered.
Understanding how pricing of parcels is calculated can to some extend very difficult for a
customer to understand. But the best way for a customer who wishes to be familiar with the
method is to get all the breakdown of the pricing list of the company. Though some
companies provide too much information for both regular and fulltime customer hence
trying get pricing list. Every customer who wants to understand the Pricing scheme needs to
settle dawn and carefully go through the whole process which may contain large amount of
information.
By the article contributes by Envista and Co (2010), they outline 8 key components that
determine the price of parcels (Envista, 2010)

Figure 3: Components of parcels pricing Components of parcels pricing



Published Rates(list)
-

Published is a rate: Published rates are non-discounted rates this is used in
a situation whereby the customer did not have established pricing with the
delivery company or if you he is a very small shipper.

-

Counter rates: this is used when a customer wanted to send a personal
package and did not have an established account number he would be
charged Counter Rates. Counter rates can be charged at the shipper’s retail
locations,

-

Negotiated Rates: This are rates that contains various discount types on
Service Levels such as base discounts, matrix (or weight/zone-based)


Page 25

discount. Negotiated rates are rates that are negotiated based on a number
of factors in the marketplace. (Envista, 2010).


Service Level: Identification of cost starts at the service level; Different companies
use different zone definitions. For example a special zone for UPS might not line up
exactly with FedEx. Therefore, you cannot say that your cost with UPS is the same
with FedEx for a particular shipment unless you price them out with both companies.



Weight/Zone Based Pricing: The third factor is Weights and Zones. All delivery
companies use a zone and weight based pricing formula to price their services. That
is to say they divide weight into one pound increments, typically from 1 to 150
pounds, and the country and the world, into a series of zones. A zone is like a large
zip code grouping. Your zone is driven by your origin and destination(Envista,
2010).



Accessorial: The next area in pricing is Accessorial, which as sometimes referred to
as Other Charges or Additional Shipping Fees. There are well over 80 Accessorial
today and these help determine the price. Some Accessorial can be negotiated and if
you have negotiated rates it’s important to see if you have any discounts on specific
Accessorial.



Service Charges: Service Charges are a small component of pricing. A Service
Charge typically won’t affect the cost of an individual delivery but will be added to
his bill if he has an account with one of the companies. Typical Service Charges
would be weekly pick-up fees and late fees if warranted.



Package Attributes: Package Attributes play an important part in pricing. An
attribute could be the size or shape of the parcel or the size and shape of the
packaging. All the companies use Dimensional Weight Pricing to price irregular or
very large packages. Each company has certain rules that govern irregular size
delivery or packages in non-corrugated packaging. If you are sending something like
this it’s very important to understand the accessorial and surcharge definitions, as
your cost could significantly increase and additional surcharges could apply.


Page 26



Surcharges: The last key factor in determining your price is Surcharges. The main
Surcharge today is the Fuel Surcharge. As the fuel prices across the world have
rollercoaster in the last few years all parcel carriers utilize a Fuel Surcharge.
However, bear in mind that the transportation charges and surcharges applied could
be different based on different list rate charges, different application of the charges,
or different contractual discounts. The most obvious thing would be to choose the
lowest transportation charge. But, if you did not factor these factors the price could
actually be higher(Envista, 2010).

2.3.3.

Features of pricing engine

 External structure of a pricing engine: is the physical interface where the user or
customer interacts with the engine, the engine contains set of fields/attributes that are
used for calculating price of parcels to be delivered. Different companies have
different structures of pricing engine and also some companies may have some
special features. A distinctive pricing engine contains number of fields that calculate
the price based on dimension, volume, origin and destination of the parcel
(eoracleapps, 2011)
 Internal structure of a pricing engine: Pricing engine is a flexible, expendable
module that gives room to setup a common source for setting up rules to derive
prices of a parcel based on the information enters by the user, after calculating then
produces result accordingly. Below diagram show the Internal Structure of Pricing
Engine


Page 27

Figure 4: Pricing Engine Cycle

As shown in above diagram the engines have two different types of processing activities
each time the process executes.
.


Selection engine component: this component evaluates thequalifier rules which the
user/customer has established, and based on those rules chooses thequalified pricing
actions’ that the calling application may need to apply thetransaction they were
processing when they called the pricing engine (eoracleapps, 2011).



The second activity is the calculation engine: The calculation engine will not start
processing until the Selection engine component has completed his first task of
selecting appropriate pricing action for the transaction. The main task of this engine
is

to

perform

all

necessary

calculations

needed

to

compute

delivery

prices(eoracleapps, 2011).


Page 28

2.4.

Case Study

2.4.1. Case Study 1: Feb Express
Situation
Fed express was established in late 1960’s by W. Smith a young business man, it
was maintained by 36 different branches within U.S. the company find it difficult
using pen and paper for registering the parcels to be delivery during that period of
time. In early 1987 the company enhances its services by installing over 200
customer automation devices one in each branch premises, thus enable the
customer’s weight their parcels and print the air bill for the parcels. This is done in
other to standardize the business process of the company. But after few years the
company feels that they need a new alternative which will reduce much traffic in
the company and satisfy customer’s needs (FedExpress, 2011).

Solution
In the year 2005, Fed Express outsources an IT development department to develop
and come out with a better Delivery System process for the company. Fed express
develop a new System based on online delivery system which enable every
respective customer to register his parcel and calculate the amount to paid for the
delivery by entering the details of the package e.g. Address of the Origin,
destination, weight, Dimension of the parcels and etc. As part of the program, the
company defines a way in which they advertise themselves in the website, this
approach reduces much traffic in company and also satisfy the customer’s needs
(FedExpress, 2011).
The new system also develop in more step by step manner then before, which satisfy
the almost all the customer’s needs. By using online approach, the old system is
already out-dated.


Page 29

Result
By taking the online approach, Fed Express gains the ability to improve its services.
The system also makes it possible for customers to track their parcels in order to see
the progress of their packages. In addition, the establishment of the new online
delivery system which include the delivery registration as well as the pricing engine
that contain the all necessary fields/attribute needed for the calculation, this enables
the customers to have a better way of calculating the price of their parcels to be
delivered using the pricing engine in the company’s website. Despite its good design
and its attractiveness, the whole website failed to provide Back button link not
available which cause navigation inefficient and inconvenience. (FedExpress, 2011).

Figure 5: Fed Express web page
(FedExpress, 2011)


Page 30

2.4.2. Case Study 2: Singapore
Situation
Singapore Post formally known as (Sing Post): Is a government owed delivery
Companywhich provides both local international postal services. The company also
provides logistics services in the local market and global delivery services. Sing Post offers
products and services including postal, agency and financial services through its post
offices. Today, Singapore has 62 postal offices, around 40 postal agencies. And also
maintain more than 800 licensed stamp vendors(SingPost, 2011).
The below webpage is the homepage of Singapore post office which contain list of services
the company offers. Online delivery system is becoming more popular because every day
more people becoming computer literates and they are more compatible with internet
services. The customer will first visit the Sing post website which will directly take him to
the company’s home page, once the customer have access the home page, there are different
links of services to choose from.

Figure 6: Singapore Post website Home Page
(SingPost, 2011)

http://www.singpost.com/


Page 31

The below webpage is the Sing post pricing engine page which contain some few links and
two fields. The two fields are Destination and weight which are use for the calculation of the
price of parcels. The page has different links that will link you to some functions of the
system such as find postal code which contain searching fields for a customer to search for a
specific postal code. Services is another link which will link you to see different services
provided by the company, so if visitors require any help may easily find out without having
difficulties questioning, another attractive feature is the tracking services a customer can
track and see the progress of his package from anywhere provided he is conned to the
internet.

Figure 7: Sing Post Pricing Calculation Web Page

(SingPost, 2011)

Result
Based on deep observations on the above website it was revealed that it lacks a certain
futures or I may say the website needs to be improved. Though the interface design is good,
including all the links are placed in such a way that users will not be confused when trying
to navigate through. But the pricing calculation area has only two fields, Destination and
Weight of the package, although the calculation needs to collect detail information of the
package. Despite its good design and its attractiveness, the whole website failed to provide
Back button link not available which cause navigation inefficient and inconvenience.
Therefore this implies that there is a room for improvement

Page 32

2.4.3. Comparison of Case Studies
In Case Study 1: Fed express, all the necessary fields that are needed for a good and
comprehensive engine are present in the system such as: the Origin, Destination,
Dimension, and Volume of a Parcel. This makes the System to be complete and as such, can
be used to calculate the price of any sort of parcel.
While in Case Study 2: Sing post, there are some not all these inputs are needed to calculate
the parcel price. In this case, only the weight and destination of the parcel is required.
Although the engines is working but because of the lack of necessary fields that will give
the detail information of parcel this makes the system to be inefficient.
In case study 1: The author intends to explore and review the whole systems. But
unfortunately some part of the system cannot be accessed and reviewed, unless by providing
fed express account number during the process of registration, but never the less some major
features have being reviewed and examine.
While in case study 2: The website does not have any restriction when trying to go through
the System, as such all the required pages has being reviewed.

In both case studies 1 and 2: In the two related websites, despite their good design and
attractiveness the websites failed to provide back button link.

2.4.4. Review of Case study
Critical review of two related web sites had conducted in this stage in order to acquire the
knowledge that will help to study and identify the strength and weaknesses of the System.
However, to have the entire necessary functional requirement that will help in developing a
good delivery system which wills overcome the problems faced by the current package
delivery system, a thorough analysis and justification of the requirements is needed.


Page 33

3.
3.2.

CHAPTER (3)SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND ANALYSIS
System Requirement And Analysis

As the literature review has being completed, Now the analysis stage, the main objective of
this chapter will be the description of new system requirements, determine where and how
to find the requirements, thorough analysis of the findings will be done in other to come up
with feasible set of requirements useful for defining the accurate scope to commence the
design of the new system.
In this part, the developer analyses the trends of nowadays delivery System, as today
majority of people knows how to interact with different kind of online delivery system.
Through this process the analysis will be done in other to understand how much importance
online pricing engine contribute to the delivery system and what feature that most people
love to use and new feature that people would like to have in the entire delivery System.
This will be done in other to give better understanding what people want for a new delivery
system with a pricing engine.
3.2.1. Analysis Research Planning
As already stated in the first chapter online questionnaire survey will be used as a fact
finding technique. The survey will be prepared online, by the help of a website that facilitate
the user to make a survey and polling online, with the help of the tools that already
provided, it makes a lot easier to type in the question to be ask and to generate the report.
The set of questions given will be short and precise, as it is only to know what people think
about the most important feature in any delivery system website and what new thing that
they want to have in a new delivery system website.


Page 34

3.2.2. Requirement Collection Plan
During the process of requirement gathering in other to find accurate information,
questionnaire has been used as a way of gathering information from customers of different
companies, how the current system are being processed and to find the view of the
respondent, with the help of the questionnaire.
Questionnaire: Is a form containing set of questions that are used for gathering facts from
the large amount of peoples while maintaining some control over their response.
Features of Online Survey
 Information is gathered by asking people questions through the use of their emails or
web.
 Information is collected either by having the interviewer’s ask open ended question
where the interviewee can describes his view or opinion, or closed ended question which
the interviewer specify options to a question then the interviewee has the privilege to
select among the provided options.
 Information is collected from the subsets attributes of large population of people to
describe as sample (Babbie, 2009)
Where to collect data
Functional data: while completing of the initial stage, the functional data will be gathered
from the following people.
-

Customers of different companies

-

Employees of different companies

All the required information regarding the system will be gathered using the questionnaire,
which will sent online.
The Survey Question
The questions, which are intended to be giving to some customer and employees of
different companies, will only consist of 12 questions. Below is the sample online survey
form, which would be sent. Link to the survey form:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDZTZTBsQy1laDZYRU
dmaEg4U0NwVFE6MQ


Page 35

3.2.3. Analysis’ Sample Design and Data Collection
The sampling technique that will be used in this data collection is simple random sampling.
The target audiences of this survey are those people that interact with different kind of
delivery system website. The allocation of the sample survey questions will be around 40
people, as this considers enough to know the majority views of people regarding different
delivery system websites.
The data collection of this survey will be conducted in few days by sending the survey form
to the intended people through their email accounts. By using internet as a medium to
distribute the survey question, views of people can be collected from different countries
which make the sampling to be more random and fast.
3.2.4. Summary of fact finding
Below is the summary of what was uncovered during the fact finding using questionnaire.
Questionnaire data Analysis
Before analysing the respondent view’s, is vital to come with the summary of their
responses as
Follows

Figure 8: Respondent questionnaire result


Page 36

Respondent of the Fact Finding:
1. Question: Specify your gender

Male

25

63%

Female 15

38%

Figure 9:Gender respondents in the questionnaire

The question is being distributed based on percentage, 60% males and 40% are females.
Both genders play a vital role in helping me to find out their interest in the proposed system,
this can be seeing in the below table.

Table 1: Gender Respondent’s Questionnaire

Sex

Number
of Number
questionnaire sent participants

Male
Female

25
15

of Percentage

25
15


63%
38%

Page 37

Q2. Age Range of the Responses
8-25

9

26-35

21

36-45

4

46-55

5

56-Above

1

23%
53%
10%
13%
03%

Figure 10: Age Range of the Responders

The above graph shows the different age range of the participant. Where the details
description is as follows in a tabular form;
Table 2 Different Age Range of the Participant

Age Range

18-25

Number of 9
respondents
Percentage
23%

26-35

36-45

46-55

56 to above

21

4

5

1

53%

10%

13%

03%

By the above age range of the respondents we derived that all different age are participated,
even though is not equal participation but the gap is very low, this pointed out that people
are supporting the propose system.
This respond, improved the author’s intention of developing a system that all age ranges
will be happy with it.


Page 38

Q3. Occupations of the respondents

Civil servant

9

23%

Business

22

55%

Student

9

23%

Other

0

0%

Figure 11: Age Range of the Respondents

occupation

Civil servant

Number of 9
respondents
Percentage
23%

Business

Student

Others

22

9

1

55%

23%

03%

Table 3: Occupations of the respondents

Above bar chart captured the respondent’s information in terms of the occupation they are
currently undertaking, the details description of the respondents are as follows.
Nine (9) of the respondents are civil servants which means they are employee of different
companies or government agencies, this gives rise of having 23%. Twenty two (22) of the
respondents are people that are undertaking various businesses this give them the highest
percentage of 55%. Nine (9) of the respondents are students of various schools this gives them
23% of the total respondents. The last batch of the respondents is others, where they only occupy
3% of the respondents. These enable the author to know that most of the people that are
interacting with delivery companies are business gurus.


Page 39

Q4. Have you ever use any kind of online delivery system

Yes

36

90%

No

22

10%

Figure 12: Different Age Range of the Participant

Response

Number of respondents

Percentage

Yes

36

90%

No

04

10%

Table 4:Have you ever use any kind of online delivery system

The above chart captured the respondents’ views for the above question where as 36 people
answered (Yes) and 4 people answered (No) which means they have never used any kind of
delivery system the percentage of the responded is 90% and 10% respectively.
The major objective of this question is to understand how often nowadays people are using
online delivery system. This will increase the confidence of the author while developing the
system.


Page 40

Q5. Is online package delivery system important

Yes

40

100%

No

0

0%

Figure 13: Is online package delivery system important

Response


Percentage

Yes

40

90%

No

00

0%

Table 5: Response views on the importance of online package delivery system

The above chart captured the respondents’ views for the above question where as 40 people
answered (Yes) and 0 people answered (No) this means nowadays people really like online
delivery System, the percentage of the responded is 90% and 10% respectively. This gives the
author clear impression that majority of people understand the importance of online delivery
system.


Page 41

Q6. How will you rate the current online package
delivery system

Excellent

23

57%

Good

9

23%

Natural

4

10%

Bad

0

0%

Very bad

0

0%

Figure 14: Respondent views on the current online package delivery system

Criteria

Percentage

Excellent

Number of
Respondents
23

Good
Neutral
Bad
Very bad

09
04
0
0

23%
10%
0%
0%

57%

Table 6: Respondent views on the current online package delivery system

Above chart captured the information of people (respondent) about the current online package
delivery system, where 23 people select excellent and offered with 57%, 9 people filled good and
gate 23%, 4 peoples choose neutral and offered 10%, none of the respondent take bad and very
bad therefore their percentage is 0% respectively.
The above respondent views increased the authors concern and called his attention over the
challenge of developing a comprehensive online delivery system which com with current
delivery system.


Page 42

Q7. Online pricing engine is important to package delivery system
Strongly agreed 31

78%

Agreed

4

10%

Partially agreed

0

0%

Not agreed

0

0%

Figure 15: Importance of pricing engine in an online delivery system

Criteria

Percentage

Excellent

Number of
Respondents
23

Good
Neutral
Bad
Very bad

09
04
0
0

23%
10%
0%
0%

57%

Table 7: Respondent views on the importance of pricing engine in an online delivery system
Above chart analyses the views gathered from several people on the importance of pricing
engine in a delivery system, where 23 strongly agreed with the statement, this covers 57% of the
total response, 9 people selected good which offered them 23% of the total respondents, 4 of the
respondents filled neutral which means they are not in either of sides this gives them 10%, lastly
no one have chosen bad and very bad.

Based on the above response it clearly shows that Pricing engine is very important in the delivery
system, this call the attention of the author to put more effort in developing the proposed new
system.


Page 43

Q8. How do you find the process of online package delivery system
Excellent

70%

Good

6

15%

Average

2

5%

Not good

Criteria

28

0

0%

Percentage

Excellent

Number of
Respondents
23

Good
Average
Not good

09
04
0

15%
5%
0%

70%

Table 8: Respondent views on the how do you find the process of online package delivery system
Above graph captured responder’s views about this question: How do you find the process of
online package delivery system in terms of the above options. Where 23 people out of the
respondent select excellent this enable them to have 70% , 9 people filled good this give them
15% and 4 people filled average this give them 5% and none of the respondent select not good.
So by the respondent answers above this give author impression that the current process uses in
delivery system are convenient as such will be considered during development stage.


Page 44

Q9. Do you think that tracking of parcels is important in an online delivery system

Agreed

33

83%

Not agree

01

3%

Figure 16: Importance of tracking in an online package delivery system
Response


Percentage

Yes

36

90%

No

04

10%

Table 9: Importance of tracking in an online package delivery system

As most of the major package delivery companies’ offer tracking services, the author intends to
get views on the importance of service, 36 of the respondents think it important with 90% of the
total response, 4 people among the respondents think is not important with 10% of the total
response.
From the above views it can be clearly understood that nowadays people prefer tracking services,
this will be taking into consideration.


Page 45

Q10. How will you rate the importance of the following field in an online delivery system
Origin
Dimension
Destination

Table 10: Importance of dimension of package in pricing engine

Criteria

Number of Respondents

Percentage

1

0

0%

0
1
1
34

0%
3%
3%
85%

a pricing engine

2
3
4
5

Table 11: Respondent views on the importance of dimension field in a pricing engine

Criteria


Percentage

1

0%

0%

2

0%

0%

3

0%

0%

4

2%

5%

5

33%

83%


Page 46

Based on the above response it clearly shows the importance of the above fields (origin,
dimension and destination) in pricing engine, as such will be considered for the development of
good and comprehensive pricing engine.

Q11. What feature do you think is important and need to get more attention in an online delivery
system.
Tracking
services

34

94%

Online customer
support

36

100%

Integrated XML
services

33

92%

Other

0

0%

Figure 17: What feature do you think is importantin an online delivery system.

Above chart captured the response view’s as the question took 4 options for them to select their
choices, where 34 out people of the 36 select the tracking services which is 94% of the question.
All the 36 people that fill the question also go for online customer support which is 100% of the
question. 33 people also go for integrated XML Services which gain 92% of the question. The
last among the list is other which fails to get any respondent.
So by analyzing the above response it is revealed that 100% of the respondent support the online
support system, this implies that nowadays people prefer a system with customer support
services.
The question is being asked in other to gate better understanding what new features people want
for a new Delivery system. This will enables the author to produce a system with highly users
support and to meet all their requirements of users.


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Q12. Online delivery system is an efficient and cost effective means of delivery in comparison
with traditional delivery system

Agreed

36

90%

Not
Agreed

0

0%

Figure 18: Response on efficiency of online delivery Systems

Response


Percentage

Agreed

36

90%

Not agreed

0

0%

Table 12: Response on efficiency of online delivery Systems

The above chart captured the respondent’s views on the efficiency of the nowadays delivery
system as compared to traditional delivery system. This views shows that almost all the people
prefer the modern way of delivery over the traditional way of the delivery, which is the online
delivery system. The output derived from the respondents shows that all the 36 people that
attempt the question agreed with the statement with 90%.
For the above question or respondent views allow the author to pick out that traditional delivery
system is inefficient and time consuming process and there is need to come with the system that
will help the customers in reducing such difficulties.


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3.2.5. Conclusion of the Data Analysis
After the data had been analysed, there are some conclusions that can be made in this
analysis. This development of the online delivery system website will be based on
facilitating the user in registering and calculating the price of his/her parcels. The website
will have at least three major and basic features registration of parcels, calculation of parcels
price as well as checking of delivery status whether is delivered or not.
3.3.

Use Case Diagram

After the successful completion of the data analysis, the system developer can set out the
basic functionalities of the system. In the first level the functions of users, Administrator
will be drawn together in the use case later on the functions will be decomposed so it can
gives better understanding in developing the system.

Figure 19:Use case of the Initial Stage of the System


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From the diagram above, it can be understand that every user have the basic functions for
User Registration, Login, Parcels Registration which is extend to parcels pricing calculation
and also after registering he can check his delivery status, log out. Similarly, the System
administrator also has his own functions where the administrators can Login manage the
users account information; manage the database that includes the delivery order information
and the remaining functions of the users. All functions in the above initial stage would be
decompose and explain in detail in later use case diagrams.
3.3.1. Use Case Description
PROCESS 1: Login

The function of login use case is to allow the user to have access the system components
and features. All the two actors can use this panel to login into the system.

PROCESS 2: User Registration

User Registration process allows the users to register to the system. Any user can access this
function and register himself as a customer, after successful registration the user will get his
user Id and password. The administrator is responsible for managing the registration system.
This function will be explained in detail in the below section.

Process 3: Parcels registration

After successful registration the user can use his/her user Id and password to login to parcels
registration page (this is extend to the pricing engine function) where the customer can
register his parcels and also can use pricing engine calculator to get the amount to be paid
for the delivery.


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Process 4: Check Delivery status
After all the due process of registration and a successful payment for the delivery the user
can check his delivery status whether it is delivered or not using his/user id and password to
log in to the panel.

Process 5: Cancel Delivery Order

The function of cancel order in use case is used for customers that wish to the cancel their
delivery order. This is achieved by sending cancellation request to the company. The
administrator is responsible of managing the feedback of the request.

Process 6: Manage Users accounts.
All the registration details of the users can be manage by the administrator such as view user
information, add new user, search user, edit and update user information. All the functions
will be explained in later below section.

Process 7: Manage Database
Administrator can use this panel to control/manage all the users information regarding their
parcels delivery order, this is a function whereby the administrator can view delivery order
information, search for order information, edit and update information lastly he can delete
any delivered order information. This will all be explained in detail in the upcoming section.

Process 8: logout
The function logout in the use case is to use allow the user /administrator to sign-out from
his/her account. All the two actors can use this panel to logout from the system.


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Actors Identification
The following table identifies the actors of integrated pricing engine for package delivery.

Actor

Description

Administrator

Is a special kind of user of the system who
involve in access control of the system and
the data Maintenance for all the system
components.

User

Users of the system who involve only
In enquiring information such as user
registration,
pricing

parcels

calculation

registration
and

with

checking

of

delivery status.
System

The system collects information from the
user and generate result example: In the
pricing calculation the user only provide
the system with the details and the system
calculate and generate the result.
Table 13:

Actors Identification


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3.3.2. Detail User Registration Function

Figure 20: Detail User Registration Function

In home there will be quite a simple function, where from there users may go to registration,
Registration form, after registering the user can view own profile, update registration details
and change password.


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3.3.3. Detail Parcels Registration Function

Figure 21: Detail parcels Registration Function

In parcel registration and postage calculations function, the user has to login first after then
register his parcels and use the postage calculator. The user can also check delivery order
status. While using postage calculator the user provides the information to the system and
the system calculate and generate the result.


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3.3.4. Overview Detail Use Case of Users

Figure 22: Overview

Detail Use Case of Users

As shown above is the overview of all the functions of user. The system will be developed
based on the use case drawn above. This looks complex and complicated, but it will be
explain more in class diagram.


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3.3.5. Overview of the Detail Use case For Administrator

Figure 23: Overview

of Detail Use Case for Administrator

The above use case diagram is the overview of the administrator’s functions where the
development will be based on the functions above. The administrator can manage all the

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functions of the customers such as the Customer registration and Parcels registration. The
administrator has to login first and he can add new user, search and view user profile, Edit
and update user information and then also he can search and delete user. The administration
also have the privilege to manage the parcels registration function where he can search and
view order detail, edit and update order details and also he can search and delete delivered
order.
3.4.

System Requirements specification

Requirements specification are the set of requirements gathered for the development of the
system, this sought of requirements are categorized into two different classes, the first one is
the functional requirement of the system which contain the necessary function for the
system to be used by the user and perform the task that are expected to do, then nonfunctional requirement which specifies the behaviour of the system.
3.4.1. Functional requirement
Functional requirement refers to what the system should do "A requirement specifies a
function that a system or component must be able to perform." This can said to be the set of
functions that will enable administrator and users to perform a specific required task, if the
system does not perform those requirements are considered to be failed system (John.,
2011).
System Requirements
1. The system would simplify the registration process of parcels as well as the pricing
calculation of the parcels to be delivered; this will reduce hectic working exercise of
the employees.
2. The system must allow user to register as a new customer.
3. The system must allow user to Login as an existing customer.
4. The system must allow user to view his registration details
5. The system must allow user to edit and update his registration details
6. The system must allow user to change his password
7. The system must have the login function that will allow different user to login and
perform different functions.
8. The system must allow the user to register his parcels and use postage calculator

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9. The system must be able to calculate the price of parcels based on the user input
10. The system must be able to give the output of the calculation
11. The system must be able to save the result of the calculation
12. The system must be able to keep track of the status of parcels whether is delivered or
not.
13. Allow authorized administrator to login.
14. Allow the administrator to register a new customer.
15. Allow administrator to search for customer information record.
16. Allow the administrator to view customer information.
17. Allow the administrator to delete customer.
18. Allow the administrator to edit and update customer information.
19. Allow the administrator to view delivery order details.
20. Allow the administrator to edit and update order details.
21. Allow the administrator to search order details.
22. Allow the administrator to delete delivered order
23. The system will be capable of performing the functions which where design for the
storing the customers and parcels records.
24. The system shall provide a section, which will give the users the ability to send
suggestion regarding their parcels delivery.
25. The system must allow administrator to generate reports for all the traction history.
26. The system must be able give customer his previous transaction history
27. The system must enable user/administrator to logout from the system.
3.4.2. Non-functional requirements
A non-functional requirement specifies how the system should behave, according to
John j. (2011) "A non-functional requirement is a statement of how a system behave; it is a
constraint upon the systems behaviour”(John., 2011).
On the other hand a non-functional requirement, are often simply a number of requirements
that does not cater all user requirements that are not clearly express as functional. From the
definition above it can be understood that non-functional requirements are the set of


Page 58

requirement that are not part of the functional requirements but they are expected to provide
users with support and work efficiently and in convenient and work effectively.

The following are set of requirements:
 Reliability: Is the ability of the system to perform its required functions under stated
conditions for a specific period of time.The Constraints of the run-time behavior of
the system can be considered under the following:
-

Availability: This refers to the availability of services when requested by
end-users, how often the system fails to deliver the service as expected to
the end-user.

-

Dependability: Dependability of the system is also another issue to be
considered to the delivery system i.e. the ability to deliver service that can
justifiably and be trusted by users at any specific time.

Reliability techniques can be divided into two categories: Trending and Predictive
-

Trending reliability: Tracks the failure data produced by the system to
develop a reliability operational profile of the system over a specified
time.

-

Predictive reliability: Assigns probabilities to the operational profile of a
system; for example, the system has a 5 percent chance of failure over the
next 60 operational hours. (SW-Assuarance, 2011)

 Performance: Is use to specifies the amount of time taken to complete specified tasks
provided by the user, the performance of the system usually defends on the speed of
the network and also speed of the computer system in general. The system would be
developed based on the following criteria.
-

Response requirements: The system should respond to the user as fast as
possible, it should also have a timing bar indicating progress of a search or
computation..

-

Output requirements: How much system can accomplish within a specified
amount of time. (Nixon, 2000)


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 Security: This refers to the protecting of the system from unauthorized access.
System security focuses on ensuring the availability and correct operation of the
system.
This system will be developed with the security requirements included to ensure that
only unauthorized uses can access the system.

Below are the proposed security requirements for the system
-

There will be a strong authentication before access the system data and also
only the administrator can have the permission to alter the data in the
database.

-

A back up copy of the database must be maintained at least every day after
working hours in a secured location.

-

All esteemed data must be encrypted before sending over the network.

(Nixon, 2000)
 Accessibility: The system will be design with good user interface for easy access
 Modifiability: The system allows modifications and editing if there is any errors
 Maintainability: The system should be easy to maintain.
 The system should be able to hold a number of concurrent users at a time
 It should also tolerate high transaction entry rate.

3.5.

Conclusion of the analysis phase

This chapter describes the system requirements analysis, requirements of the system are
critically analyse, the primary data have been collected using the fact finding techniques, the
online survey has been use for collecting data from customer’s and employee of different
companies. The secondary data are gathered using the research method i.e. based on the
reviewed similar system, and then eventually, the functional and non-functional
requirements of the system are also identified.


Page 60

4.

CHAPTER (4)SYSTEM DESIGN

4.2.

Architectural Design.

Architecture design is the design process for identifying the sub-systems that make up a
system as well as the framework for sub-system control and communication. This
system is designed based on the functional specification defined earlier on as well as
some additional features that will enhance the quality structure of the system. Below is
architectural design of the system which the overview structure of the proposed system.
Simple Login

User Interface

Data collection

Reports

Verify

Overall Inventory
Details

Order Details

Search Engine
User Information

Receiver Details

Parcels details

Services

Servicess

SQL
DATABASE

Servicess

Figure 24: System Architectural Design


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4.3.

Sequence Diagram

In this section, sequence diagrams have being used to display the interactions between
user and system. The main interactions are system login, user access control and the
database.
4.3.1. Login Sequence Diagram

Login

User Database

Top Package::User
Click
Validator

Validator Status

Success

Figure 25: User login Sequence Diagram

The user initiate the process by clicking on the Login Form and enters the UserID and
password, the system then send a request to the database to check whether his userid and
password existed. If the userId and password exist, then the system will automatically
logged him/her in to the system and if it doesn’t exist the system will automatically return
the to the Login Form and display an error message.


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4.3.2. User registration Sequence

Registration Form

Controller

Validator

DAO

Top Package::User
Select()
Registration

Return Result: Boolean
Validate
Return Result: Boolean
Comfirm Registration

Validate
Return Database: Boolean
Registration
Return Result:Boolean

Return Result:Boolean

Figure 26:Customer

Registration Sequence Diagram

The function of this sequence diagram will start when the user click on registration button
and it contains five participants. The first participant is the key starter of the system. If all
required fields were filled successfully, the system will send the information to the
controller where the controller will return result to the Form. When the Form confirmed the
information by sending a validation request to the vvalidator, then the validator will check if
all the data types were filled correctly. The validator will then pass the request to the DAO
to check. The result will be returned from the DAO to the Validator where the Validator
return the result to the user Form.


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4.3.3. Parcel Registration and Calculation Sequence

Parcel
Calcculation

Top Package::User

DAO

Select()

Validator
Get Last OrderDetails
Return Result

Calculate Parcel
Save Details ()
Confirm
Display Total

Figure 27: Registration

Sequence Diagram

The function of this sequence diagram will start when the user click on Parcel calculation
link, the link will direct him to the order page where he/she can choose to view previous
order history or to proceed to calculate the price of another parcel. The user can choses to go
for another parcels calculation, the validator will validate the user and then proceeds to t
calculation page. After the successful calculation the user the result will be sent to the DAO
and them it will also displayed to the customer.


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4.3.4. Administrator Sequence

Admin

Users form

Uers controller

Validator

DAO

On click():
Add Employee():
add users

Return Result Boolean

Validate employee
validate users
return result boolean

On click

Confirmation
Add Employee():
add users
retreive users ID (Emp ID)
Retrive Employee (ID)

Return result

Employee ID Valid
users ID valid
Employee ID Exist
users ID exist

return result Boolean
Remove Employee():
remove users ()


Figure 28: Admin Add and Remove Customer Sequence Diagram

The above sequence contains five participants where the admin is the initiating the process,
after login with valid user name and password then Admin can execute several functions
such as adding and or removing users from the Database. In all the above processes, the
System communicates with the controller; while the controller usually returns result to the
Administrator in the users form to ensure the specified task or tasks are achieved. The
administrator will then confirm and send the validation request to the validator participant,
this is to ensure all data is interred in a valid data type, then the validator will forward the
result to DAO for checking, the data access object (DAO) will then take the result to
administrator through of validator and controller.


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4.4.

Activity Diagram

This shows the graphical representation various activities and actions which can support
both choice and action concurrently. Activity diagram is used to describe the work flow of
components in a system step by step.

Parcel Delivery System Home Page

Get Registration

*

Login
*

View Profile

Intercept

Previos Calculation Details

Intercept

Add Order

Figure 29: Activity Diagram

The activity diagram shows the steps in which a customer follows to register and calculate
the price of his parcels to be delivered. Firstly when the user visits the system it will direct
him to the home page. The user has to register to before he/she will perform any transaction
but if he is already a registered user he/she may login to the system to his previous order
detail or to carry out another transaction.


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4.5.

ModuleDesign

The diagram below describes the module design of the system. The design represent the
entire system components, the authenticator package comprises classes that handles
validation, user access level and user authorization. The registration package is responsible
for handling the registration and issuing user ID and password. The admin module is
responsible for management of all the transaction of customers. The data security module is
used to provide all the necessary security features to the database.

Parcel Delivery System

Informative Site

Admin
Authentication

Customer Registration
User Profile

Data Base

Login

Parcel Calculation

Data Security

View Parcel Record/ Delivery Status

Figure 30: Module Design


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