Smart Alex Catering Sevice (SACS) is a company offering top class catering staff  for prestigious events.  The company employs approximately 200 hourly paid contact staff - chefs, silver service waiters/waitresses, barmen/cocktail, entertainers  and so on. All potential employees are vetted to ensure they are of an appropriate standard and are paid a generous rate and bonus to ensure they remain loyal to the company and uphold its high values. The company has enjoyed considerable growth in spite of the economic downturn and the proprietor is now looking to set up an integrated database to support the operations of the company, which he hopes will be able to replace the disparate collection of applications currently in place

SACS currently has a client base of approximately 500 companies. A client places an order using a form which asks for the date and type of the event, its location, approximate numbers of guests, type of catering (buffet/sit down meal etc) and what type of entertainment (if any) is required.  The staff coordinator will then estimate the type and number of catering staff required and publish this online. Staff who are able and willing to work on that day will sign up for the event. As soon as the required numbers are obtained the event is flagged as 'full' and no more names are accepted.

In order to maintain high levels of service, clients are encouraged to give feedback on the service they get from SACS.  If there are any complaints about a particular staff member this will be recorded and anyone with more than two complaints against their name will be told their services are no longer required.  Catering staff are paid weekly. As they are self employed a schedule is generated listing the jobs they have covered, the hours for each job and a total for the week based on their stipulated hourly rate.  A quarterly bonus is paid to all catering staff based on the number of events they cover. 

The company has been experiencing problems with keeping track of staff bookings and is hoping that the new database will be able to solve these and improve efficiency.