FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS COMING FOR THE CSO INVENTORY SYSTEM

In order to get a computer-based inventory and sale system to the customer as soon as possible, the entire system will not be delivered at once. A basic system to control sales and inventory will be delivered first. This section contains information on up coming software to enhance the capabilities of the basic product.

ENHANCED SECURITY FUNCTIONS

For those customers concerned with the details of security, an up coming package will provide more flexibility in security. By selecting a security level for every function available to the users, managers can customize their systems as they feel is required. While the basic system does allow some flexibility in the setting of security levels, it has been simplified for ease of use, and is not as powerful as this package.

The operation of the system is as follows: 

AVAILABLE TASKS                    AUTHORIZED TASKS
+-------------------+-+            +----------------------+-+
|                   |^|            |                      |^|
|                   +-+  ADD >>    |                      +-+
|                   | |            |                      | |
|                   | | << DELETE  |                      | |
|                   | |            |                      | |
|                   | |            |                      | |
|                   | |            |                      | |
|                   +-+            |                      +-+
|                   |v|            |                      |v|
+-------------------+-+            +----------------------+-+


+----------+   +--------------+
|    OK    |   |    CANCEL    |
+----------+   +--------------+

Every function available to a user of the system will be displayed under "Available Tasks." The tasks available to users of each security level can be set by selecting a function in the "Available Tasks" window and pressing the "Add" button. The selected task will then appear in the "Authorized Tasks" window, indicating that a user of this level will be able to access this feature of the system.

To remove a task from the list of authorized tasks, a similar approach is taken. By selecting a task from the "Authorized Tasks" list and pressing the "Delete" button, this task will no longer be available to a user of the currently selected security level.

ACCOUNTING AND HISTORY

The base system of the CSO Inventory System records all interactions with the database. As the analysis of this record is beyond the scope of a minimally operating system, it will be available at a later date.

This system is used to analyze all interaction with the database. This provides added security, beyond limiting user access. The following information is stored in the audit file:
  • Date and Time of transaction
  • Transaction number
  • Login name

    The login name is used to identify which employee made the transaction. This will allow managers to know who has been using the system. The transaction number indicates the type of transaction that was done. For example, a sale of an item will have a different transaction number than a refund. By combining these two entries, it is possible to determine who has been using the system, and how they have been using it.

    The remaining item in the audit file consists of the time and date of the transaction. This allows the manager to know exactly when the transaction took place. This information can then be used in an additional accounting package. It can be used to track inventory.