On the spot courier services

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Reference no: EM131462892

On The Spot Courier Services (OTS)

As an employee of a large international courier and shipping services, Bill Wiley met almost every day with many companies that shipped and received packages. He was frequently asked if his company could deliver local packages on the same day. Over several months, he observed that there appeared to be a substantial need for courier services in the city in which he lived. He decided that he would form his own courier delivery company called On the Spot (OTS) to fill this need.

Bill began by listing his mobile telephone number in the Yellow Pages. He also sent letters to all those companies that had requested same-day courier service that his prior company had not  been able to serve. He hoped that, through good service and word-of-mouth advertising, his business would grow. He also began other advertising and marketing activities to promote his services.

At first, Bill received delivery requests on his business mobile phone. However, it was not long before his customers were asking if he had a Web site where they could place orders for shipments. He knew that if he could get a Web presence he could increase his exposure and help his business grow.

After he had been in business only a few short months, Bill discovered he needed to have additional help. He hired another person to help with the delivery and pickup of packages. It was good to see the business grow, but another person added to the complexity of coordinating pickups and deliveries. With the addition of a new person, he could no longer "warehouse" the packages out of his delivery van. He now needed a central warehouse where he could organize and distribute packages for delivery. He thought that if his business grew enough to add one  more delivery person he would also need someone at the warehouse to coordinate the arrival and distribution of all the packages.

The package pickup and delivery process are as follows. When Bill got an order, at first, only on his phone, he recorded when he received the call and when the shipment would be ready for pickup. Sometimes, customers (business and individual) wanted immediate pickups; sometimes, they were calling to schedule a later time in the day for pickup.

Once he arrived at the pickup location, Bill collected the packages. It was not uncommon for the customer to have several packages for delivery. In addition to the name and address of the delivery location, he also recorded the time of pickup. He noted the desired delivery time, the location of the delivery, and the weight of the package to determine the courier cost. When he picked up the package, he printed out a label with his portable printer that he kept in the delivery van.

At first, Bill required customers to pay at the time of pickup, but he soon discovered that there were some regular customers who preferred to receive a monthly bill for all their shipments. He wanted to be able to accommodate those customers. Bills were due and payable upon receipt.

To help keep track of all the packages, Bill decided that he needed to scan each package as it was sorted in the warehouse. This would enable him to keep good control of his packages and avoid loss or delays.

The delivery of a package was fairly simple. Upon delivery, he would record information about when the delivery was made and who received it. Because some of the packages were valuable,  it was necessary in those instances to have someone sign for the packag

In summary, On the Spot (OTS) is a small, but growing, courier service that needs an application system to track customers, package pickups, package deliveries, and delivery routes. The system will require real time update of pickups and deliveries with mobile devices. It will also allow the customers to schedule their own pickups and deliveries via a Web based interface.

Your group has been assigned to be the OTS Courier Services System development team. The OTS Courier Services system will consist of four subsystems: pickup request; package delivery; customer account; and routing and scheduling.

Consider the following as well. As On the Spot Courier Services (OTS) continues to grow, Bill discovers that he can provide much better services to his customers if he utilizes some of the technology that is currently available. For example, it will allow him to maintain frequent communication with his delivery trucks, which could save transportation and labor costs by making the pickup and delivery operations more efficient. This would allow him to serve his customers better. Of course, a more sophisticated system will be needed, but Bill's development consultant has assured him that a straightforward and not-too-complex solution can be developed.

Here is how Bill wants his business to operate. Each truck will have a morning and afternoon delivery and pickup run. Each driver will have a portable digital device with a touch screen. The driver will be able to view his or her scheduled pickups and deliveries for that run. (Note: This process will require a new use case - something the Agile development methodology predicted would happen.) However, because the trucks will maintain frequent contact with the home office via telephony Internet access, the pickup/delivery schedule can be updated in real time - even during a run. Rather than maintain constant contact, Bill decides that it will be sufficient if the digital device synchronizes with the home office whenever a pickup or delivery is made. At  those points in time, the route schedule can be updated with appropriate information.

Previously, customers were able to either call On the Spot and request a package pickup or visit the company's web site to schedule a pickup. Once customers logged in, they could go to a Web page that allowed them to enter information about each package, including "deliver to" addresses, size and weight category information, and type of service requested. On the Spot provided "three hour," "same day" and "overnight" services. To facilitate customer self-service, On the Spot didn't require exact weights and sizes, but there were predefined size and weight categories from which the customer could choose.

Once the customer entered the information for all the packages, the system would calculate the cost and then print mailing labels and receipts. Depending on the type of service requested and the proximity of a delivery truck, the system would schedule an immediate pickup or one for  later that day. It would display this information so the customer would immediately know when to expect the pickup.

Picking up packages was a fairly straightforward process. But there was some variation in what would happen depending on what information was in the system and whether the packages were already labeled. Upon arriving at the scheduled pickup location, the driver would have the  system display any package information available for this customer. If the system already had information on the packages, the driver would simply verify that the correct information was already in the system for the packages. The driver could also make such changes as correcting  the address, deleting packages, or adding new packages. If this were a cash customer, the driver would collect any money and enter that into the system. Using a portable printer from the van, the driver could print a receipt for the customer as necessary. If there were new packages that weren't in the system, the driver would enter the required information and also print mailing labels with his portable printer.

One other service that customers required was to be able to track delivery status of their packages. The system needed to track the status of a package from the first time it "knew" about the package until it was delivered. Such statuses as "ready for pickup," "picked up," "arrived at warehouse," "out for delivery" and "delivered" were important. Usually, a package would follow through all the statuses, but due to the sophistication of the scheduling and delivery algorithm, a package would sometimes be picked up and delivered on the same delivery run. Bill also decided to add a status of "cancelled" for those packages that were scheduled to be picked up but ended up not being sent.

Reference no: EM131462892

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