Documenting Information Systems
By Slade Augustine
Contents Page

Introduction Pg 3

Rea Ontology Outline Pg 4

The Value System Rea Model Pg 5 - 7

Environmental Analysis Pg 8 - 12

The Value Chain Model Pg 13 - 17

The Business Process Model Pg 18 - 22

Database tables Pg 23 - 24

SALES/COLLECTION (DEBTORS) DATABASE DESIGN Pg 25

The Financing Business Process Pg 26 - 34

Supporting Documentation Pg 35

Rea Task Level Model Pg 36 - 41

Conclusion Pg 42

Company Information Pg 43

Bibliography Pg 44

Introduction

Cape Town Partnership was established in the year 1999 by their chief executive officer Mike Farr. Over the past decade, Cape Town Partnership has been developing and improving the CBD (Central Business District). The Cape Town Partnership is an agency which facilitates partnerships between government and private sectors. Through the Cape Town Central City Improvement District who is closely affiliated with the Partnership, they manage the operational activities, to assist with project development and urban management. Since its establishment, the Cape Town Partnership has become an internationally acclaimed model of public and private partnerships between property owners and businesses supported by the City of Cape Town.

Cape Town Partnership specializes in major city projects such as building and maintaining of roads in central business district, promoting a safer and cleaner city, the company also provides security in the business district and it creates job opportunities for those who are unemployed.

Therefore the company is subsidized by the government and investors to provide the value services that they need to produce.

For this assignment I will analyze the environment in which the business operates, and from this I will develop a sales revenue system for Cape Town Partnership by using a business tool called Rea Ontology.

Rea Ontology Outline

Rea Ontology was first discovered in the early 1980’s as a core framework for transaction processing of economic phenomena in a shared data environment. (William E. McCarthy, The Accounting Review (July 1982) pp. 554-78).

The Rea framework is important because it allows us to identify the necessary steps for developing a sales revenue system. Rea focuses on Resources, Events and Agents and it contains four levels which are Value System Model, Value Chain Model, Business Process Model and Task Analysis Model.

The Value System Rea Model

The Value System Model examines the direct flow of resources between the enterprise and its external business partners.

The diagram above represents Cape Town Partnership’s Rea Value System model.

Investors and Creditors

Cape Town Partnership receives cash from investors on a yearly basis in order to carry out the services which they need to be provided. The creditors provide the company with staff in order to assist with the services the partnership provides and intern cash is repaid to the creditors for services rendered as well as interest payments.

Suppliers

The resources that are exchanged between CTP are services that are provided to CPT for cash. Cape Town Partnership recruits staff from various security and cleaning companies, to help promote a cleaner and safer CBD.

Employees
The exchange between the employees and CTP is labour for cash (salary). Cape Town Partnership has 27 employees which various from business manager to communication manger to project manager and security manger.

The next page displays an organization structure of Cape Town Partnership.

Customers

Cape Town Partnership is a nonprofit organization which means that the company does not receive any revenue from their customers. The Partnership is a registered section 21 company who provides services to customers (the general public in the central business district) and the customers repay these services through tax payments to the government. The government provides the Partnership with a yearly budget to pay salaries, payments to the creditors as well as to provide services to the public.

Environmental Analysis

Vision

The partnership vision is to retain a historical character of the Central city which reflects a common identity for the people of Cape Town.

Mission

The partnerships mission is to develop, manage and promote the Cape Town Central City as the leading centre for commercial, retail, cultural, tourism, education and entrainment activities.

Strategic Analysis using Porter’s five forces model

• Threat of new entrants - it is not easy to enter the industry of Cape Town Partnership as it is quite a process in itself. There are strict rules and regulations and procedures that need to be followed according to the City of Cape Town if one wants to enter into the industry. One would need to obtain a clear business plan and strict budget allocation for permission and approval from the City of Cape Town.

• Bargaining power of suppliers - over the years a good trustworthy relationship is built with existing and new suppliers.

• Bargaining power of buyers - a good and trustworthy relationship is built with existing and new suppliers. Efficient service provides a good platform for our bargaining power with buyers.

• Threat of substitute products and services - staying abreast of activities and events not only locally but worldwide prepares the Partnership for threat of substitute services. Briefing before events and debriefing after events, is a strict processed followed to learn about mistakes and good practices for future plans.

• Industry competitors - rivalry among existing firms - maintaining a good relationship with existing partnerships and persistence on building new ones improves the competitive position of the company.

Pestle Analysis

Political The political factors that influence Cape Town Partnership are the employment contract details such as the code of conduct, human resource procedures as well as monthly board meetings held by the Partnership. The employment act of the Partnership is followed by the BEE system.

Economics

The Partnerships management staff has to study the economic factors to try and find key areas where the Partnership can be more competitive in the industry as well study the demands of consumers in the central city.

The changes in the economic factors can create opportunities as well as threats for Partnership and requires a suitable reaction by the Partnership. Therefore it is important for the Partnership to implement strategies to overcome these economic changes.

Social Issues

The Cape Town Partnership holds a close relationship with the premier and the Mayor and the Partnership believes that it is important to share the same beliefs and values as these important people with regards to the purpose of the company. This is to ensure that the Central Business District is a better place for everyone who partakes in it.

Technological

The Cape Town Partnership has currently done extensive upgrades to their database servers, which allows them to be more efficient by safely storing their project information and distributing tasks to staff via the server network. This allows them to save time and to be more productive in the industry.

The Partnership has also introduced a new network to their company called the Virtual Private Network. With this network information is available immediately to clients and customers, thus also reduces time wastage and allows the Partnership to be more competitive in the industry.

The Partnership’s I.T department completed a research survey into the future needs and future technological requirements of the Partnership to determine which equipment is

best suited for company for the present time as well as for the future being of the company.

Legal

The issues that mandate Cape Town Partnership is not as extensive to that of the City of Cape Town.

• There are certain fields within the Central City where the Cape Town Partnership may not be allowed to venture in. The Partnership therefore needs the permission of the City of Cape Town to be allowed to do certain things.

Ecological

Internally the Cape Town Partnership has formed a Green Committee who are made up of staff members and their role is to reduce waste within the Partnership and promote an eco efficient working environment.
There aim is to;

- Minimize the carbon foot print.
- Promote a healthy and clean working environment.

Externally the Cape Town Partnership has recruited coordinators to monitor and make sure that the CBD (Central Business District) adheres to the rules of keeping the city clean.

Micro environment

Factors that influence the company

1. Employment and Finance Policies adopted within company.

2. The Board Management Direction • The company is governed by 19 Board Members
• A monthly Board meeting is held where factors influencing the company and any concerns raised are discussed and reviewed.
• A staff general meeting is also held on a monthly basis.

1. The company undergoes an annual audit performed by external auditors.

2. Internal Budget dictates the company’s future plans.

3. Employment Contracts :

• Code of Conduct

• Operation Procedures

• Disciplinary Procedures

• HR Policies

Macro environment

The factors that affect the company within the macro environment are as follows.

• Chamber of commerce
• The company is guided by the Articles of Association and Memorandums of Agreement
• The political structure of the city, locally and provincially influences the company in the scope of mandate and operational
• The economic policy of the country, locally and provincially affects the company through budgets and the allocation thereof. Example of this is FIFA 2010 world cup which we are in partnership with the city of Cape Town

Market Environment

The partnership between Cape Town Partnership and the City Of Cape Town allows them to have a competitive advantage over their rivals Cape Town Tourism. Cape Town Partnership shares their expertise with the City of Cape Town and vice versa. Due to financial funding through the City Of Cape Town and its border members the Partnership has numerous ways to receive revenue to upgrade services whereas Cape Town Tourism has to rely on tourists to bring in income to upgrade their services.

Strategic alliance

The Cape Town Partnership is linked together with the City of Cape Town which enables the two companies to share any values which they may lack, thus making the two companies more competitive in the industry. It also makes it harder for other partnerships to join the industry as they will have ground to make up in the field.

Consumers

The Target market group of Cape Town Partnership is particularly the people who work in the Central City of Cape Town as well as those people who shop in Central City. In conjunction with City Of Cape Town they also target tourists and visitors to The Central City.

The Value Chain Model

The second level of Rea Ontology is the Value Chain Model. This model focuses on the resource flows between its internal and external business processes. The business process is a series of activities that accomplishes a business objective; to simplify it we can say that it’s adding value to input resources. We can now identify the resources that flow into and out of the enterprise after we identify the resources we can examine what the enterprise does with its input resources and how it produces its output resources.

As I mentioned earlier the partnership creates value by providing services that customer’s desire and need. These goods and services are provided through a series of business processes.

The diagram below illustrates three business processes that each organization usually adopts.

In order to create a Value chain model we need to complete three steps

 Write the entrepreneurial Script
 Connect the Scenes with Resource Flows
 Specify the Economic Exchange event within Each Scene.

Write the entrepreneurial script.

• Cape Town Partnership receives a yearly subsidy from their investors e.g. City of Cape Town.

• The partnership provides services to the public in the central city.

 They use the subsidy to purchase equipment and resources to reach their target market.(Acquisition/ payment process)

 They use the subsidy to pay employees a salary (payroll process)

 They use equipment and resources to produce the services they need to provide e.g. security in the central city. (Manufacturing process)

 They then provide the services to the public for cash (in sense of tax payments to the government). (Sales/collection process).

• The partnership is then given a new subsidy.

Connect the scenes with resource flows.

Now that all the scenes have been identified, they need to be combined to form a value chain. The flow of resources provides us with a link from one scene to the next scene. “The assumption is that the resources produced are worth more than the resources used up”. (Dunn, et al., 2005:45)
This means that value is added to the company in each resource link.

Summarized Rea Value Chain Model of Cape Town Partnership.

Specify the Economic Exchange Events within Each Scene

The third step in creating the Rea value chain diagram involves depicting the economic exchange events inside each scene’s bubble on the value chain diagram. This step adds more detail to the diagram and clarifies how each scene’s representation in the value chain diagram provides the starting point for a business process level modeling representation. Each scene contains at least one economic increment (take) event and at least one economic decrement (give) event.

The Business Process Model

The third level of rea ontology is the Business Process Level. Business Process Modeling is commonly performed by business analyst and business managers who aim to improve process quality and efficiency. In this level we focus on one business process at a time.

Below are the steps involved for creating a business process level model.

STEP 1: Identify Economic Exchange Events.

• During the first phase, you should consider the resource inflows and the resource outflows.

• Choose only one business process.

• Extract the economic exchange events with a duality between them.

STEP 2: Attach Resources to Economic Events.

• During the second phase, you need to attach the resources to the appropriate stock flow relationships.

STEP 3: Attach External Agents to Economic Events.

STEP 4: Attach Internal Agents to Economic Events.

• During the third phase, attach appropriate external agents via participation relationships.
• Examine the value system level.

• During the fourth phase, attach appropriate external agents via participation relationships, and examine the narrative or ask for the employees responsible for each economic event.

STEP 5: Attribute Assignment.
STEP 6: Participation Cardinality Assignment

• In the fifth phase, assign attributes to each entity and relationship that requires them.

• You can then categorize it according to the entity and relationships.

• In the sixth phase, assign the participation cardinality to each relationship.

Participation Cardinalities. (Min, Max)

Minimum cardinality expresses the minimum number of times one instance of an entity set must participate in a relationship. 0 = optional participation 1 = mandatory participation

Maximum cardinality expresses the maximum number of times one instance of an entity set may participate in a relationship 1 = one-time only participation N = as many times as needed, no restrictions

Database tables for the Account and Supplier table.

Supplier Table
Supplier_id Supplier_name Supplier_address Supplier_telephone Acc_num
1001 Jewls Cleaning Services 12 Fox Street Cape Town 214198720 99125
1002 Maximum Security 49 Bree Street Cape Town 214932519 99322
1003 Monix Office Equipment Suppliers 223 Lower main rd Woodstock 214055549 99327

Account Table
Account Num Account Type Account Balance
99125 Cash R 12,223.00
99322 Credit R 10,020.00
99327 Credit R 9,110.00 SALES/COLLECTION (DEBTORS) DATABASE DESIGN

Rea Ontology database design for sales/collection process o Cape Town Partnership

The diagram below shows the pattern for exchanged services for money, the marketing of services provided by the partnership and the capital acquired by the partnership.

The Financing Business Process

The financing business process is the final stage for creating a REA model for a business.

In this stage I will explain the various components of the Rea ontology in the financing process.

Financing Cycle in the Value System

The above picture illustrates the financing cycle in the value system. The diagram indicates the direct flow of resources between the business and its external partners.

Financing Cycle in the Value Chain

The diagram above shows the financing cycle in the value chain. This stage provides more detailed information to how the starting point of the financing cycle in the business process is developed.

Financing Cycle in the Business Process Level

The diagram above indicates the components needed in order for cash to be distributed throughout the business in order for the business operate and provide services for the public.

Financing Cycle Resources

Cash Resource = Cape Town Partnership acquires its cash resource from its major investor The City of Cape Town. The cash is used to provide services to the public in the Central Business District e.g. safety and security

Cash Requisition = Cape Town Partnership’s cash requisition is obtained through its external source The City of Cape Town on a basis of an annually budget agreement.

Financial agreement = The agreement between City of Cape Town and Cape Town Partnership is that the CCT provides funds to CTP in order to ensure that daily routines are performed in the CBD . The agreement is drawn up annually due to the increase of inflation. Cape Town Partnership in turn does not repay back the funds but only ensures that certain tasks are performed in the City throughout the year.

Cash Disbursement = Cape Town Partnership do cash disbursements to service provides for services rendered according to service level agreement between its suppliers and the business.

External Agents - City of Cape Town’ board of directors

Creditors for debt financing.

Internal Agents – Financial Clerks process cash receipts and cash disbursements. City of Cape Town’s board of directors approves debt and financial agreements.

The diagram below is the Use Case Diagram for the financing cycle of the business. The diagram illustrates the tasks carried out by each actor.

The diagram below is the Activity diagram for the financing cycle of the business. The diagram indicates the vital roles performed by each member involved in the financial cycle of the business.

Please refer to the diagram on the next page.

The Sequence diagram is displayed on the next page and shows the sequence of important steps followed by the actors involved in the financial process of the business. The diagram illustrates the flow activities in order, which will indicate how a transaction is conducted within the business.

Cape Town Partnership

Support Documentation

Rea Task Level Analysis

Use Case Diagram

The following diagram below shows the use case diagram of Cape Town partnership. The diagram displays the relationship among the actors and the use cases. Actors are the people within the company associated with a task and the cases illustrate the task carried out by each actor.

Activity Diagram

The activity diagram is more visual than the use case diagram. This diagram captures the detailed knowledge of the experts who deal with system regularly and who knows the systems finest details. In overall the diagram makes it easier to understand the overall flow of activity.

The next page shows an activity diagram illustrating the flow of activity of Cape Town Partnership’s sales system.

Sequence Diagram

The sequence diagram shows the sequence of messages passed between objects (actors or business objects) ordered in time.

Conclusion

From my study of the company, I can conclude that I was able to draft a theory of a Sales Revenue System. Taking into account all the relevant information gathered during my research into the various departments of the company. It is evident that each staff member plays an integral role in the Sales Revenue System I have considered vital aspects of the company such as their day to day operational work as well as the role of an acting agency creating valuable partnerships and constructed my Sales Revenue System around my findings thereof..

Upon a visit to the City of Cape Town, it would be made apparent that the services provided by the Cape Town Partnership have a great and positive influence on the city’s well-being.

Cape Town Partnership Information

(Company Registration Number: 99/09660/08)
Physical Address
10th Floor
The Terraces
34 Bree Street
Cape Town
8001
Postal Address:
PO Box 1997
Cape Town
8000
Telephone:
+27(0)21 419 1881
Fax:
+27(0)21 419 0894
Email: info@capetownpartnership.co.za or info@capetowncid.co.za Bibliography

1. www.capetownpartnership.co.za

2. Communicating Software design graphically – Author Sinan Si Alhir Textbook label – O’ Reilly.

3. (William E. McCarthy, The Accounting Review (July 1982) pg. 554-78).

4. The Department of Computer and information science – Finland by Timo Poranen , Erkki Makinen and Jyrki Nummenmma – How to draw UML diagrams.

5. What they learn at Harvard – Michael Porter.

6. Systems Analysis and Design in a changing world (fifth edition) – John Satzinger, Robert Jackson and Stephen Burd.

7. Business Management in a value chain approach 8th edition