Case Study: BataShop chain shop is an expanding business involved in trading footwear. Recently there have been some complains about their capability of handling the demand and inadequate services. The Director of the company feels that the sales department and stock controlling system of each shop should be computerised for better customer support.

To introduce computerised system in the individual shop, the stakeholders need to be interviewed. The Shop Manager and a Sales Representative were interviewed. But to get an overview the whole system the Director of the company was also interviewed.

Interview with the Director (D):

Q. Can you briefly describe how the whole system works? D. We have a chain of suppliers. They supply the products straight to the shop outlets. The requirements are decided at the head quarter when we receive information from our outlets. The shop managers send us the list of products, which they ran out or about to run out. Shop Managers also track the popular product and are supposed to keep a good stock of them.

Q. What about the selling procedure? D. The shop managers have the whole responsibilities regarding the sell. Basically, we have two types of customers, one is regular and others are one-off. Among the regulars, most of them are enjoying the facility of the scheme we have started last year. It is called BataShop Advantage Card. Customers who shop at BataShop regularly are encouraged to get an advantage card, which enables them to book a particular product if not available at the moment and they also get 10% discounts on their purchases. We do keep a deposit for the booking. But it is a very small percent, just to confirm the booking.

Interview with a Shop Manager (SM):

Q. Let's start with an overview of the system at present. SM. Basically we have a stock room in every shop and show racks in front where a single shoe of a pair is displayed. Customers choose from the display and ask the sales representative for it to try on or buy straight away. Sales reps usually go to the stock room and find the appropriate size for the customer and if available, hand the customer to try. Well, actually it's the basic way of running business for every footwear shop.

Q. What if the particular size is not available? SM. Usually the sales reps know which sizes of which designs are available. But sometimes if they do not know, they have to have a look at the stock room first and if not found we have to apologise to the customer.

Q. Isn't their any list of available sizes in every design? SM. Unfortunately not. It is very difficult to update a stock list after every single sell. Instead what we do, whenever a sales rep finds out that we have ran out of a particular size, he/she informs me. I go through the previous sells of that particular design and contact the warehouse for more goods according to the demand.

Q. There has been some complains about inadequate service, isn't it? SM. Yes! But it's not because of inadequate staff. Actually BataShop has a very good reputation selling quality footwear, eventually the demand is very high. But it takes a lot of time just to check the stock as we have lots of design. Even though the stock is organised according to the designs but still, going through the stock takes a good amount of time. In the meantime, customers get annoyed and new customers can not find sales reps to assist them.

Q. Can customers book a particular size of footwear in a particular design if it is not available at that moment? SM. Yes he can. But s/he has to be one of our selected customers. We have a very large group of regular customers, for whom we have started a new scheme from last year. Customers can get a Membership card called 'BataShop Advantage Card' after a single purchase. This membership is for free. Customers holding this card enjoy various facilities like, discount, booking, etc.

Q. What exactly they have to do to book a product? SM. I personally handle this sort of booking. If a customer wishes to book a particular product, the respective sales rep informs me. At first the sales rep verifies the customer's status, I mean, if s/he is an advantage cardholder or not. If s/he is, then I check with the warehouse about that particular size and design of the product and track the required days of delivery, if the customer agrees with the timing, we keep a nominal percentage of deposit, which is 5% and fill-in a booking request for the customer.

Q. How many sizes you offer at the moment? SR. Six different sizes.

Interview with a Sales Representative (SM):

Q. How do you assist a customer? SR. A Customer chooses a design from the display and asks for the size he wants. I take the sample and search the stock room for that size and return to the customer with it. This is really a headache. Sometimes, if Im fortunate I find it straight away. Otherwise it takes a lot of time to search the exact size in the stock room. And then the customer thinks I am not doing my job properly. There have been some complains about this delay. Sometimes, after a long search when we can not find the product in the stock, customers get annoyed and I cant blame them.

Q. What happens next? SR. The customer tries it and if he wants to purchase it I lead him to the cash counter where he pays for the product. Sometimes I hand him to the sales rep at the cash counter or I, myself do the billing.

Q. What if the particular size is not in the stock? SR. I apologise to the customer. Afterwards, I inform the Store Manager about the shortage, he takes necessary steps.

Q. What facilities do you offer to selected customers? SR. Oh! I forgot. If a customer has BataShop Advantage Card, he can book a particular size of a particular design. When I can not find the desired size, I ask the customer if he has the advantage card and whether he wants to book it. If he agrees, I lead him to Store Manager. Store Manager does the rest. Advantage customers also get a 10% discount on their purchases. We check customers advantage card and deduct the discount while billing.

After assessing the requirements on the above interview perform ER Diagram Analysis (Chapter 3) and Map the ER Diagram into Relational Schema (Chapter 5). In some case you may have to be innovative and create your own.

Complete your design only for an individual shop, not for the whole company. If you make any assumptions do not forget to mention it.

Part 1: Prepare a summary of the case based on your understanding. It can be written in the case study format, like the way written in the lecture notes (Chapter 3- Exam case 3/ 4). List of the entities and their attributes, and the relationship

Part 2: ER Diagram

Part 3: Relational Mapping

Assessment Weights: Part 1: Case and List of Entities and their Attributes 10%

Part 2: ER Diagram Chapter 3 50%

Part 3: Relations (Tables) Chapter 5 40%