Electronic Data Processing Systems

(a) Identify five deficiencies and/or weaknesses in the data entry procedures described here.

(b) Suggest an improvement to remove each weakness/deficiency that you note in (a)

SEE SCENARIO

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The With-It Company, an Internet service provider, uses direct, on-line processing in its customer payments business process. Data entry terminals in the cashier's department allow direct entry of customer payments data into the computer system for processing.

Customer payments are delivered from the mailroom to the cashier's office for processing. Clerks working under the supervision of the customer payment supervisor open the customer payments to ensure the both a remittance advise and a check are enclosed. It either of these is missing, the payment is set aside in a batch that is subsequently delivered to the chief grouped into batches of about 50. The customer payment supervisor attaches a batch control form to each batch and assign the batches to the data-entry operators for processing.

Data entry operators sign onto the computer system using their own unique password. Operators enter customer account numbers form the remittance advises. When an account number match is made, the system prompts the operator to key in the other information- such as check number and the amount of the payment-as required. These data are taken directly from the customer's check. In all cases where input is not possible, the remittance advises and customer payments are returned to the customer payment supervisor for resolution.

After each batch of payments has been entered, the operator terminates the session with a special command. The system then presents a summary report of terminal activity on the monitor. The operator copies the total amount of payments from the summary report onto the batch control form and then returns the batch to the supervisor. The supervisor keeps a cumulative total of payments applied by the operators; as each batch is returned, the total amount of payments shown on the batch control form is added to the running total. At the end of the shift, the customer payment supervisor prepares a payments received report (three copies). The customer payments and two copies of the payments received report are forwarded to the chief cashier for verification and deposit. The customer remittance advises, in batches, are filed with the payments received report by date.