Client Requirements

Client Requirements - Section A

The Client:

The client is Mr. James Pane who wishes to have his current system reviewed and upgraded. James is a good friend of my dad and he knows that I am currently studying AS level ICT. James got in contact with my dad recently expressing his desire for his current system to be changed. My dad forwarded on my details to James and he later contacted me to arrange a meeting to review his system.

James is currently a self-employed accountant who primarily works from his home office. James does currently have a computer system in place but he had been finding that his system is very slow resulting in him being unable to fulfil a lot of his jobs requirements.

When I visited James’s house I decided to carry out a thorough inspection of what system he currently is running.

The Current System:

James is currently running Windows 2000 on his machine. He purchased this machine and its extras in 2001 second hand advertised in a local paper. It currently runs a 700MHz Intel processor, 128 MB RAM and a 20GB hard drive. The PC also has a built in 56k modem and sound card. Also on the PC he has a 16Mb on board Intel graphics card and James is using a standard 15” CRT monitor to the single VGA port on his graphics card. It also has 2 USB 1.1 ports built into the machine.

He only has 5GB left on his hard drive at present

The machine is update to date with Windows 2000 service pack 4 and Office 97 suite. He mainly uses Word and Excel packages.

James does not use any form of anti-spy ware/anti-virus/firewall software.

He currently only an old Brother black and white inkjet printer connected to the pc via a serial port.

James uses his 56k modem to dial up to the internet

He uses Orange’s dial up any time package for £14.99 per month to enable him to use his dial up connection whenever he wants.

James also makes use of Orange’s web mail account; he primarily sends and receives text documents for work.

Problems With It:

Takes a long time for the operating system to shutdown and load back up.

PC regularly crashes and hangs whenever he tries and opens more than a single application. This problem could be cause by the insufficient RAM and processor.

James is finding that his internet connection is extremely slow and tedious. To update his system takes him a very long time in which time he cannot fulfil a lot of his business needs. He also wants to be able to use his landline telephone at the same time at going on the internet.

His desk is cluttered with wires mainly from his keyboard and mouse.

His 128MB USB memory stick is very slow at transferring files to and from it. This is probably cause my the fact of only have a USB 1.1 port and not a 2.0 port.

James is finding a little difficult to see on his 15” CRT screen. He complains that sometimes the writing on screen is “fuzzy”.

He has heard great things about Windows XP and the 2003 office suite but he has been told however that his system would be incompatible to run such operating system and application.

James’s desk at the moment is far to small and his main office chair is really a basic up right flat chair. It is important that the ergonomics for James are correct for him (i.e. his posture).

Requirements:

Following on from the needs analysis in the first meeting, James has implied that he would like the following system setup:

A whole new computer system set-up.

A broadband connection, orange offer an 8Mb broadband connection for a few more pounds per month.

More update to date word processing and spreadsheet software on his computer.

A laser printer so as he doesn’t keep needing to change cartridges as often and also to enable faster printing as some of his documents have 30+ pages which takes a very long time to print on an ink jet printer.

With a broadband connection, always on, appropriate security measures will have to be taken to protect James’s new machines and his work on in.

Interview:

I contacted a few interview over a few days with James. As on some of the days James was a little busy some I managed to ask him face to face and other I had to e-mail him with. Here are the questions and answers I received with some comments about each one.

Question

Answer

Notes

With a new machine, what would you intend to use it mainly for?

Word processing reports and using spreadsheet packages to handle figures

Generally browsing the internet whenever I want to, sometimes for some research

E-Mailing, to mainly e-mail clients, would however like more functions to be available when emailing

Would like to start to use online banking to help me manage my finances from home

Would like to listen to some music from the machine once in a while to help me relax a little when working

Need latest dual processing technology to help carry out multi-tasking.

Need further amount of RAM to again help him with his processing, about 512MB-2GB would be adequate.

Graphics card support DVI output for the monitor to look even finer.

17” LCD monitor to help save space and clearer picture. Should have DVI imputer to work with a DVI graphics card.

A good security package so as if he does online banking he can help protect his data.

E-mailing package to help him manage his e-mails better

Set of speakers to listen to music from.

In terms or data/work, how much would you say your work makes you generate?

As I mainly use text based document the overall size of documents is relatively low however sometimes I will produced up to 20Mb documents for clients.

About a single 120GB hard drive would be good enough. This would be more than enough space for all of James’s needs.

What sort of features would you look for on a printer?	I would to be able to print of lots of paper at quite a fast rate. I would want the text on the documents to look crisp and fresh because ink-jet printed ones looks a little amateur for my liking. When I print I usually use A4 plain paper however I would like to be able to print on smaller bits of paper like A5 and on envelopes.	A black and white laser printer would be perfect as it suits all of his needs.
How long per day do you use your computer for or sit at your desk?	As I work from home, most of the day I spend sitting at my desk. Per day I may use my computer for about 6 hours in all. The chair does uncomfortable once in a while	A bigger desk, wrist mats for keyboard and mouse. Also an upright adjustable chair.
How important is it that your computer actually works?	It is very important as without it I am unable to complete my business and this can sometimes anger clients. I am ok not to use the machine for say a few hours but not really for a long time period such as a week.	Make sure computer is not clogged up by viruses and malware/adware by installing appropriate software.
How much do you move around the office?	Not very much, I may leave to go and get a coffee once in a while or something like that. However I am not very keen on the amount of wires lying around my desk.	Using wireless technology with keyboard, mouse, printer and modem to help insure that he doesn’t trip over any wires.
Would you be interested in wireless networking technology?	It does sound like a good idea as my telephone line in my office a long way from my computer so I have to run a long wire across the room.	A wireless router would nicely do the job.

System Spec:

As James’s computer is very out-dated the upgrade possibilities were extremely limited. With the current motherboard, it is virtually impossible to upgrade the machines hardware (processor especially). A new motherboard needs to be installed and thus a new processor, memory, graphics card, sound card, and a new hard disk also need to be installed. I have used non-technical terms for the parts - in bold - with the actual specification in brackets should you wish to price these elsewhere. I have priced an alternative complete system from Dell to give you an idea of the difference between upgrading and purchasing a brand new system, as against buying multiple peripherals for the current system. Purchase of a new system might however be more cost-effective in the long term. Dell is an online only retailer and you might be interested in purchasing from a main street computer supplier such as PC World or Staples.

I have managed to price up a system as near to your requirements based on installing individual parts.

Product	Description	Cost (inc.VAT)	Notes
PROCESSOR	Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86ghz - Skt775 Fsb1066 2mb Cache	£114.54	Decent processor
MOTHERBOARD	ASUS P5V-VM DH Pentium 4	£47.52	-
OPERATING SYSTEM	Microsoft OEM Windows XP Home SP2B (Includes Vista Upgrade Coupon)	£56.23	Allows you to upgrade to latest OS, Vista if you ever wanted to
MONITOR	HANNS.G JC171D 17" (1280x1024) 700:1 12ms Black & Silver DVI TFT	£98.69	DVI connection
MEMORY	Kingston Value Ram 1Gb DDR2 533MHz/PC2-4200 CL4 Dimm 240 pin Unbuffered (2x 512mb)	£29.37 (per 512mb stick) overall £58.74	Same as Dell
HARD DRIVE	Seagate ST3120814A 120GB 7200RPM ATA/133 Hard Drive	£36.84	Good amount of RAM

OPTICAL DRIVE	LITEON DVD8900/DW1670 16x DVD±RW/RAM Bare Black - OEM	£17.62	Allows you to read and write CD’s and DVD’s
GRAPHICS CARD	Sapphire Radeon 9550 256MB DDR VGA TVO DVI-I AGP	£35.75	Suitable graphics card with DVI
PRINTER	Brother HL2070N 20ppm 2400x600dpi 16MB USB/PAR/ENET	£126.53	High quality printer than can print wirelessly
SOUND CARD	Asonic 4 Channel Soundcard C-media 8738 Chipset 3D - PCI	£4.49	Basic sound card
SPEAKERS	Logitech OEM S100 Stereo Speaker 2 W Rms 2 pieces Black	£7.25	-
SECURITY SOFTWARE	McAfee Internet Security Suite 2007 OEM	£7.36	1 years subscription, can renew after that
ROUTER	Belkin 54mbps Wireless ADSL 4 Port Modem Router with Free USB Adapter	£39.99	Very good offer, with USB adapter will enable PC to become wireless and have a wireless internet connection.
OFFICE SOFTWARE	Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 (Upgrade Version)	£176.24	Stable, able to upgrade from previous Office 97
Total Cost (inc. VAT and Delivery		£842.11

This list is for a Dell Dimension E520 which is again as near to your specification as possible. The model has been modified slightly to be even more like your chosen specification

Product	Description	Notes
PROCESSOR	Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4300 Processor (1.80GHz, 800MHz, 2MB
OPERATING SYSTEM	English Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic	Not recommend, still a relatively unstable operating system
SUPPORT SERVICES	Basic Package, 3 Year At-Home Service	Very good warranty
MONITOR	Dell™ 19" UltraSharp™ Digital/Analogue Flat Panel (1907FP) - UK/Irish	Maybe a little too big
MEMORY	1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x512] Memory
HARD DRIVE	160GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache	More than enough space
OPTICAL DRIVE	16X DVD+/-RW Drive	-
GRAPHICS CARD	Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000	Comes with DVI
PRINTER	Dell Laser Printer 1110	-
SOUND CARD	Integrated Audio with Dolby Digital 7.1 capability	-

SPEAKERS

Dell™ A225 Stereo Speakers

Basic 2 stereo speakers

SECURITY SOFTWARE	McAfee® Security Centre™ 15-month Protection	You may want to choose another anti-virus software.
OFFICE SOFTWARE	Microsoft® Office 2007 Basic	Still early and unstable
Total Cost (Inc. VAT and Delivery)		£861.75

A similar PC setup from PC World. It is the PACKARD BELL 754 desktop PC:

Product	Description	Notes
PROCESSOR	Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E4300 Processor (1.80GHz, 800MHz, 2MB	-
OPERATING SYSTEM	Windows XP Home edition	Appropriate Operating system
SUPPORT SERVICES	Standard warranty	Only standard 1 year electrical one
MONITOR	17" Philips TFT Monitor	Probably doesn’t include DVI support
MEMORY	512MB DDR RAM	Adequate
HARD DRIVE	80GB Hard Disk Drive	Not quite enough
OPTICAL DRIVE	Multi-Format Dual Layer DVD RW Drive	-
GRAPHICS CARD	64MB nVidia GeForce 7300 SE Graphics	May not come with DVI
PRINTER	Unspecified	-
SOUND CARD	Unspecified	-
SPEAKERS	None

SECURITY SOFTWARE	SYMANTEC NORTON INTERNET SECURITY 2007 2 USER EDITION WBW	Popular anti-virus software
OFFICE SOFTWARE	None	-
Total Cost (Inc. VAT and Delivery)		£554.92

LITEON DVD8900/DW1670 16x DVD±RW/RAM Bare Black - OEM