dc.description.abstract | The title of this project is "UL marketing management decision support system" here
referred to as UL-DSS.
The system is designed to assist the sales and marketing managers III making more
accurate and timely decisions supported by available data.
In terms of functionality, the system is a web based database oriented application with
PHP as the interface programming language.
The system accepts input in form ofraw field data for analysis and eventual generation of
output inform of reports for management.
The raw data is gathered and fed in to the system on a continuous basis by the field sales
representatives. The information collected relates to competitor activity, individual
product performance, market share and customer service issues. At intervals of specified
periods of time, the field sales representatives will feed current information into the
system to reflect current occurrences in the market.
For data analysis and processing purposes, SQL statements are used to retrieve specific
informatior from the system in the required format. Such information may be time based,
in which case it becomes useful in generation of reports that reflect patterns and trends
that are important for decision making. Some of the mportant trends generated include
price variations for different products or product categories over time, seasonal variation
in sales volumes of certain products and product dominance in different regions.
The system enables exporting of information from the underlying database into a
Microsoft excel worksheet for further analysis and manipulation. It makes use of the
chart generation capabilities in excel to enable the user come u p with more precise
reports for management. | en |