Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.

48317

ICT AS Unit 2: ICT and Organisations

Organisation Report

Contents
I. Introduction and Background Information....................................................................................2
II. ICT Systems....................................................................................................................................3
A. Information handling needs.......................................................................................................3
B. Previous systems.......................................................................................................................3
C. Current Systems.........................................................................................................................4
1. The ‘Contact Details’ wing of the CMDB................................................................................5
2. The ‘Player Statistics & History’ wing of the CMDB...............................................................5
3. The ‘Health & Safety’ wing of the CMDB...............................................................................5
4. Mail merging from the CMDB................................................................................................5
5. Inputs, Processes and Outputs..............................................................................................6
III. How does the system meet the purpose and goals of the organisation?..................................8
IV. How has this ICT system affected working styles?.....................................................................8
V. Review and Conclusion..................................................................................................................8
VI. Bibliography...............................................................................................................................9
VII. Index........................................................................................................................................10

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 Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.48317

York Junior Football League

I. Introduction and Background Information
1.0 In this report you will read about how the YJFL 1 is managed how ICT systems play a central
role in the organisation. The reason for choosing this organisation was that I had a primary source of
information; my brother who regularly volunteers as the Dunnington under 13’s team manager.

1.1 The YJFL is a small non-profit organisation that has run in the York area since the year 2000.
The purpose of this organisation is to provide boys between the ages 10 to 16 a weekly supply of
exercise and fun, but on a more serious note helps to build their self confidence and gives the
opportunity to teach the importance of respect, both for their manager and team mates.

1.2 Coaches are trained on a yearly basis and cover topics such as health and safety (in case of
injury during games), but also to show them how to gain the players’ respect and pass on the skills to
the members themselves so that they can apply it to other situations in life.

1.3 The organisation only allows registered players to compete as the joining fees go towards
providing equipment and coaches. Any profits made are put towards team building exercises and
trips that are awarded via raffle. An example of this would be the trip to the activity centre X-scape
awarded to Pocklington in summer 2009 as they were randomly selected for the prize. The basic
structure of the organisation is hierarchical; represented in the diagram below.

Manging
Director

Head of
Head of IT
Coaching

Fixture &
Health & Equiptment Application Profile
Team coaches activity
Saftey department processors Updates
planners

Figure 1

1
Abbreviation of ‘York Junior Football League’.
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II. ICT Systems

A. Information handling needs
2.0 The organisation handles records on around 300 members, of which consist of information
such as contact details and player statistics. As a result, the organisation doesn’t need substantial
hard drive space as their database file is only about 20mb. The information is held on the hard drive
of the organisation’s main computer which is backed up once per week on an external server in case
of fire or accidental damage, which is accomplished by simply uploading the database to a ‘Google
Docs’ account which is owned by the organisation.

2.1 In addition, the YJFL use their database to identify members that are regularly in breach of
the rules (further explained in the ‘Current Systems’ section of this report) and write letters to them
as a warning and eventual banning if they continue to be involved with incidents.

B. Previous systems
2.2 Prior to the current database system, the YJFL used a paper base system which consisted of
three filing cabinets containing all of the members’ applications to the league; of which were
ordered alphabetically by surname. Around 300 records where held in these cabinets which were
difficult to manage due to the limitations attached to physically organising papers.

2.3 In the year 2007, the YJFL decided to convert this system into what is now the current
database. In comparison to the current system, the paper base was very rarely used as the
organisation felt that it wasn’t worth sifting through hundreds of records unless it was absolutely
necessary.

2.4 Finally, the paper base was in no way backed up meaning that if the building in which they
were stored where to have a fire, the records would be lost and in the same way if things where
accidentally thrown away. This called for the new system to be installed which is written about in
more detail in the ‘Current Systems’ section below.

C. Current Systems
2.5 The main ICT system that the YJFL use is the database named ‘CMDB’2. The database is
password protected in order to ensure that the information can only be accessed by the YJFL, and
therefore complies with the data protection act. If the database wasn’t protected, the manager
could be prosecuted with breaking the data protection act in the event of the database being stolen.

2.6 The CMDB holds records on every member who is registered with the YJFL, containing
similar information to the paper base such as home telephone numbers, addresses and so on. This
type of information goes under the contact details wing of each member’s profile/record. The other
wings of the CMDB are player statistics & history, and the health & safety tab which is a legal
requirement in case the organisation has any issues with players being injured. On the next page is a
more in-depth evaluation of each of the wings in the CMDB, explaining how and why they are used.

2
Central Member Database.
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1. The ‘Contact Details’ wing of the CMDB

2.7 Once the user has opened the database, they are presented with 3 tabs. The first of these
tabs is named ‘Contact Details’ which consists of the following fields; member ID, first name, last
name, date of birth, address, postcode, home telephone number and mobile number.

2.8 The user can search for members by any field in the table by simply navigating from the
main menu into the ‘Search Users’ sub menu, then clicking the appropriate button such as ‘By First
Name’ or ‘By Team’. These buttons run queries on the members table and output information in a
printable, read-only report format.

2.9 This ‘wing’ is mainly accessed at the beginning of each season when application forms are
processed. The application processors will first search the database to ensure the member doesn’t
already have a record so that data isn’t repeated (which would subsequently become redundant),
and if any details have changed they will simply update the current record.

2. The ‘Player Statistics & History’ wing of the CMDB

3.0 This ‘wing’ is the most regularly accessed area of the database. Players’ statistics are
updated very regularly as the table holds information such as ‘Total Goals’ which will obviously need
to be updated each week. These statistics are used to calculate and enter the top 5 teams into the
annual trip raffle.

3. The ‘Health & Safety’ wing of the CMDB

3.1 This ‘wing’ of the database holds details on each member’s medical information which is
rarely accessed. The information is held in case of accidents during games so that the YJFL know the
members’ medical history and who to contact for instance.

4. Mail merging from the CMDB

3.2 The YJFL use Microsoft Office Access’ ‘Mail merge’ feature to produce personalised letters
for groups of members. The most common situation in which the YJFL use the mail merge is when
they wish to send letters to all members in a year group, normally for some sort of newsletter.

3.3 By setting up the mail merge template, Word automatically drags through the contact details
of each member in the queried age range, and personalises the letter i.e. saying ‘Dear James’ rather
than ‘Dear Member’.

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5. Inputs, Processes and Outputs

Table 1

Type Format Name Function Comments / example of its

use.
Input Form Main Menu Provides a foundation for navigating Part of the database’s user
the database as it hold buttons interface.
linking to all user certified
operations.
Input Form New Allows the user to add new member This part of the database
Member records to the database. would be used by the
application processors.
Input Form Amend After the user has found the record Sometimes, the same
Member they wish to edit, they click the member may reapply to
Contact button ‘Edit’ under the ‘contact the YJFL with different
Details details’ tab which opens this form, contact details. Rather
allowing all fields other than than creating another
‘Member ID’ to be changed. record, they use this form
(the applications have a
check box for ‘my contact
details haven’t changed’
so that only those that
have are put into the
amendment pile).
Input Form Amend After the user has found the record This form would be used
Member they wish to edit, they click the most commonly to update
history. button ‘Edit’ under the ‘history and the number of goals that
statistics’ tab, and update any field the member has scored,
i.e. goals. used by the ‘profile
updates’ section of the IT
department.
Proces Query Search by Finds the record(s) that comply with This query is the quickest
s ‘ID’ the parameter value entered by the way of finding a specific
user. member as all ID’s are
unique to the record.
Proces Query Search by Finds the record(s) that comply with This query is often used by
s ‘First the parameter value entered by the the application processors
Name’ user. to find a member in order
to amend their contact
details.
Proces Query Search by Finds the record(s) that comply with This query is often used by
s ‘Surname’ the parameter value entered by the the application processors
user. to find a member in order
to amend their contact
details.
Proces Query Search by Finds the record(s) that comply with This query is used by the
s ‘Date of the parameter value entered by the mail merge to send letters
Birth’ user. to all members in a year
group.
Proces Query Search by Finds the record(s) that comply with This query is used to mail

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 Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.48317

s ‘team’ the parameter value entered by the merge letters to members

user. of the teams who receive
the annual trip prize draw.
Proces Query Find all This query flags all members The query is used to mail
s members deemed to have been involved with merge letters to those
involved >3 incident(s) in the last month. who are regularly in
with >3 breach of the rules as a
incidents in warning.
the last
month.
Proces Query Find all The query flags members who have This query is used to mail
s members been involved with 3 incidents this merge a letter concerning
involved month. the member’s behaviour
with 3 and submits a fine.
incidents
this month.
Proces Query Find all This query flags all members This query is used to mail
s members involved with 4 incidents in the year. merge letters to notify
involved members of being banned
with 4 from the league.
incidents
this year.
Output Report - Reports are outputted from all -
queries. They list the names of all
members in the range of the criteria
searched, and provide a link to that
member’s record.
Output Mail To age Using the query ‘Search by Date of This mail merge may
merge group Birth’, this mail merge pulls the contain some form of
addresses, postcodes and names of newsletter ect.
members in the queried range.
Output Mail To team Using the query ‘Search by team’, This may be used to notify
merge this query pulls through the members of the teams
addresses, postcodes and names of awarded the raffle prize of
members in the queried team name. a trip, with further details.
Output Mail - Mail merges for the queries ‘Find all -
Merge members involved with >3 incidents
in the last month’, ‘Find all members
involved with 3 incidents this month’
and ‘Find all members involved with
4 incidents this year’ all pull through
the contact details of members in
breach of the rules, but the content
of the letters is personalised to
highlight the issue in hand.

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 Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.48317

III. How does the system meet the purpose and goals of the
organisation?
4.0 As stated in the introduction and background information section of this report, the
organisation’s purpose is ‘to provide boys between the ages 10 to 16 a weekly supply of exercise and
fun, but on a more serious note helps to build their self confidence and gives the opportunity to
teach the importance of respect, both for their manager and team mates’.

4.1 The ICT system allows the YJFL to quickly query for information, meaning that they have
more time to focus on the maters in hand. The system is especially useful as it keeps track of players’
histories meaning that the YJFL are able to highlight members that are frequently involved in
‘incidents’. Therefore, they can target the member and try to guide them back onto the correct path.

4.2 In addition, the CMDB’s ‘player statistics and history’ wing is extremely helpful as it keeps
track of those who maintain a good record (both in their goals but also behaviour). This makes it
easy to reward them with letters of praise via mail merge, and also increases the team’s chances of
being drawn as one of the 5 teams rewarded with trips.

IV. How has this ICT system affected working styles?

5.0 The database has been of great help to the YJFL as it allows them to organise members in a
way that can be queried. The previous filing system consisted of alphabetically ordered records on
the members’ surname making it impossible to draw any other information without physically
looking through the papers. By contrast, the CMDB allows the organisation to search their members
instantaneously making light work of the 300 or so records. As a result, it is now much easier for the
YJFL to find the information required.

V. Review and Conclusion

6.0 Overall, the ICT system has allowed the YJFL to reinforce their purpose which is to help
young boys to respect one another as it makes it easier to find those who are regularly involved with
incidents, meaning that they can direct help to them.

6.1 Also, the CMDB has helped the YJFL to organise themselves to a higher standard due to the
fact that the database is well structured and can be queried by a much greater range of criteria in
comparison to an alphabetically ordered paper base. Subsequently, the database is more efficient in
virtually every way, not to mention the fact that its users are more confident for example if the YJFL
needed to find the records of all members in a year group using the paper base, it would be likely for
some to be missed to human error whilst sifting through hundreds of files.

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VI. Bibliography
Table 2

Figure / section Source Specific material used

I. Introduction and background Interview with the Mark Statistics about the
information Anderson: the YJFL’s ‘Head of IT’ organisation’s history and
protocols.

Figure 1 Notes form Interview with the I asked Mr. Anderson for a
Mark Anderson: the YJFL’s ‘Head basic profile of the
of IT’ organisations structure and
made notes.

II. ICT systems Interview with the Mark Description of the paper base
Anderson: the YJFL’s ‘Head of IT’ and its pitfalls, and how the
new database is more efficient.
Also, I was given the chance to
look at the database so made
notes on the inputs, processes
and outputs.

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 Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.48317

VII. Index

C O
CMDB, 3, 4, 7 Organisation, 1
Output, 6
D
P
database, 3, 5
Process, 5
I
U
ICT, 1, 2, 3, 7
Input, 5 user interface, 5

M Y
Mail merge, 4, 6 YJFL, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7

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