Programming Proposal Paper Prg/210

Programming Proposal Paper

Be First Marketing Solutions is a relatively new and small search optimization company which currently services approximately 100 clients. The company provides online advertising and website construction for small to mid-sized companies. Client companies range anywhere from plumbers to lawyers. Clients purchase one of three available service packages, the silver, gold, or platinum package. The service provides front page placement on the major search engines. The technicians who create the websites and directory submissions are loyal employees who have been with the company from the very beginning and are example employees. The sales team is another matter altogether; the sales staff is an ever rotating sea of faces. Sales members receive paid training and after that time period the majority of their salary is based on commission. This pay structure is designed to motivate the sales team to deliver. However it can backfire sometimes and create an environment where sales members feel they have to make sales at any cost, including deceiving the customers.

When a customer is deceived about the cost, effectiveness, or time it will take to receive results from our services it can often result in the customer demanding a refund. This refund is known as a chargeback. The merchant account used by Be First Marketing Solutions allows no more than a 2% chargeback ratio. As of last month the current chargeback ratio skyrocketed to 18% which caused the merchant account company to place a freeze on the account which no longer allowed Be First Marketing Solutions to bill customers and also prevented money from being transferred from the merchant account into the business bank account to cover operating expenses. This meant that paychecks were not issued on time and company bills such as rent were late as well.

In order to prevent this situation from becoming such a problem in the future software that lists all sales members and tracks their sales and whether that sale becomes a chargeback should be implemented. This will create a form of accountability if there is an accurate way to track the number of charge backs as a result of a certain employee. Upon reaching a predetermined level an alert should be made so that the appropriate discipline can take place. For example if a sales member reached three charge backs a notice will automatically print out and they will receive a formal warning, and once the sales member reaches charge backs another alert will print and they will be terminated.

In order to solve this problem the company will need to hire a programmer and the in-house web designer will also join the project which is to be led by the company's CEO. The CEO will simply approve the budget and timeline as well as ensure the project stays on target. The programmer will create the new charge back tracking