DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A WEB BASED E-POST MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

A courier service is an organization which offers special deliveries of packages, money, documents or information. Courier services usually boast faster delivery times than any alternative method of transporting documents, and many services in the modern world rely on it. The idea of couriers and a courier service has been around almost as long as civilization, with rulers in antiquity using couriers as a means to make new laws and edicts known throughout their lands. In the modern age of international business, the courier service has become a keystone of enterprise, even as emerging technologies such as the fax machine and Internet have rendered them less useful in some areas.

The largest courier service in the world is the United Parcel Service UPS, which delivers more than 12 million packages globally each day. UPS had its roots as a courier service in the beginning of the 20th century, when it was known as the American Messenger Company. UPS survived the depression and the World Wars, and went on to thrive in the global age. Throughout the years it acquired other courier services, including the Motorcycle Messengers and a number of smaller European companies. Federal Express FedEx and Dalsey Hillblom Lynn, now Deutsche post AG DHL are other wellknown global examples of the courier service, both with their roots in the early 1970s.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

Keeping record of parcels in a courier service company and their delivery information is carried out manually. A lot of files are opened for daily record of parcels received or delivered. This litters the office with much paper documents. Most often records are misplaced and when a client comes to collect his parcel, heshe spend some hours waiting for confirmation of the parcel. Hence delay is bound to occur while delivering parcel to customers. Also, customers must visit the post office before they can purchase stamps or any other item.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

The objectives of this project are as follows.

Analyzing global trends in ecommerce and why it is important for economic developments.

Identifying benefits of the adoption of epost management system by courier Service Company

1.4 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

The scope of this project covers all details of a typical epost application, with emphasis on the frontend portal but excludes the gateway application implementations and technologies. The gateway end which is a very secure epayment environment is often times built using SSL protocol, which can be procured from the gateways companies and integrated to the ecommerce site to support online, onsite payment management. However we have chosen to incorporate a demo copy of the gateway end to showcase its activities for the audience to appreciate such integration.

1.5 PROJECT JUSTIFICATION

The advantages of ecommerce for business entities can be summarized thus: ecommerce can increase sales and decrease costs. A firm can use ecommerce to reach narrow market segments that are widely scattered geographically. The internet and the web are particularly useful in creating virtual communities that become ideal target markets.