Question: To begin the database design process, Hudson wrote the following narrative describing the visits and sales business processes: In a car dealership, it is very

To begin the database design process, Hudson wrote the following narrative describing the visits
and sales business processes:
In a car dealership, it is very important for salespeople to make early contact with the customer.
Therefore, salespeople are constantly looking for customers either driving or walking around the
lot or entering the dealership. The first point of contact occurs when a salesperson greets the
customer. The salesperson tries to find out what the customers needs are and will show the
customer vehicles if the customer desires. During the visit, the salesperson obtains the
customers name and telephone number and asks if the customer has been to the dealership
location before. If the customer has not previously visited the location, then the salesperson also
obtains the customers address and asks where the customer heard about Beta (e.g., newspaper,
radio, etc.) to help management determine which advertising touchpoint was effective in
bringing in that particular customer.
After the customers visit, the salesperson records information in the visit information system.
For a new customer, the salesperson creates a new customer record in the system and inputs the
customers name, complete address, and telephone number. The visit information system assigns
a unique identifier as the customer number. For a customer who has previously visited the
location, the salesperson uses the name and/or telephone number to look up the customer
number. For each visit, the salesperson enters both the date and day of week of the visit, the
customer name and number, and the vehicle model(s) the customer viewed during the visit. The
salesperson also enters his/her own name and number in the visit system, in case the customer
comes back to the dealership (i.e., the salesperson could then continue to assist this customer in
hopes of making a sale). Salespeople also use the visit information to make follow-up contacts
with a customer. The salesperson inputs the advertising touchpoint for a new customer in the
visit system and leaves the field blank for a customer that visited the dealership before.
A customer may visit the dealership multiple times, and additional visits are recorded as new
records in the visit information system. Additionally, a customer may talk with one salesperson
on one visit and come in and request the same salesperson or choose to work with a different
salesperson on another visit. Also, a customer may visit different locations, but the dealership
has no way of knowing this, as each location tracks its own customers, visits, and sales,
separately. Currently, salespeople work at one location, but sometimes may work at another
location if that location is short-staffed or running a promotion.
When a customer decides to purchase a vehicle, the salesperson handling the sale fills out a sales
form with information about the sale (and this is the salesperson that gets the commission). In the
rare event that a customer purchases more than one vehicle at a time, each vehicle is recorded as
a separate sale. Beta also does not offer orders, thus customers can only purchase cars that are in
stock. Inventory is assigned by VIN (though this is not in the Excel file due to privacy concerns).
If a customer finances a vehicle or purchases an extended warranty through the dealership, the
salespeople complete additional forms, from which a bookkeeper enters the information into the
system. Since the dealership offers financing, customers can make monthly payments on their
vehicles so customers can purchase now and pay in installments later. These payments are sent to
the Accounts Receivables (AR) department. Additionally, the dealership has multiple cash
accounts and that customer payments are always deposited in the same cash account. See Figure
1 for the data fields that were extracted from these information systems. You can also view the

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