International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-2163 Issue 5, Volume 2 (May 2015) www.ijirae.com ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ © 2014-15, IJIRAE- All Rights Reserved Page -66 Design and Development of a Sales Management System for SMEs in Northern Ghana D.S. Laar * J.K. Konjaang B. A. Tankia Department of Computer Science, Department of liberal Studies, Department of Computer Science University for Development Studies, Bolgatanga Polytechnic, University for Development Studies Ghana. Ghana Ghana Abstract— Sales management is a key function which helps small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in monitoring and tracking stock and co-ordinating transaction processing. The efficiency of sales management dependends on effective tools and facilities, especially mordern information and communication technologies. Despite this, majority of businesses in developing countries, especially those in remote areas do not take full advantage of these technologies due to challenges related to the design of these technologies. This paper presents the design and development of a tailor-made computerized sales management system for SMEs in Northern Ghana.The object-oriented methodology is employed with UML, VB.NET and Microsoft Access Database for the design and development of the system which is flexible and tailor-made for SMEs in the region. Index Terms— SME, ICT, Sales management system, Northern Ghana, Point of Sale. I. INTRODUCTION SMEs form a major part of the Ghanaian economy, covering a wide range of business circles. They include wholesalers, retailers, distributors and some serving as agents for bigger companies and organizations. Every economy puts limits to what size and scope of business can be described as a small or medium scale enterprise. The Ghana statistical services (GSS) defines a small scale enterprise as a business firm employing not more than nine (9) persons, while medium and large scale enterprises comprise firms employing ten (10) or more persons[1]. Another definition for a small scale enterprise is given by the National Board for Small Scale Industries as a firm employing not more than ten persons and the value of whose fixed assets are not more than ten million cedis[2]. In this paper, we consider an SME as a business entity employing not more than ten persons, whose scope does not go beyond a given locality (Town, village or region) and its data processing may not require more than four computer systems. Majority of the SMEs in northern Ghana use the traditional daily sales books for their business transactions. Only a few of them have formalized sales tracking systems which are mostly accounting software or spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft excel, Microsoft Access or very uncommonly oracle and other proprietary software applications. While a few of the SMEs find the existing sales management systems (SMS) to be problem-free and a key to their continuous growth, most of them quit using these systems after a while for various reasons. The opinion of those who discontinued the computerized systems is either that, the systems were slowing down their daily sales or that they were too complex and expensive to use. The case is opposite for those who continue to use the systems. It is important that the wide spread of information and communication technologies (ICT) should enable every willing business to find an appropriate solution to its particular problems among the various solutions provided. However, it is not uncommon to overlook some of the challenges SMEs in developing countries still grapple with when it comes to sales management. While some businesses have had their problems solved by using computerized systems, others have to bear high cost if they wish to meet their sales target with the systems they wish to or are currently implementing. The common challenges faced by the SMEs include misrepresentation of sales, loss of goods and profit, high cost of sales tracking, customer dissatisfaction, difficulty implementing marketing strategies, and high cost of acquiring software licenses. Though some of the challenges listed above have been tackled by various computer applications and sales management systems, many SMEs are still confronted with them. One for this problem is that most of the existing solutions have not been created to provide the information that most of the SMEs need to keep their businesses going. In summary, the challenges with the existing systems include high cost of acquiring full software packages, special hardware requirements of some functions, systems not satisfying unique goals of SMEs, requirement for understanding some accounting principles, and the cost of paying for extra functions that are not needed. he purpose of this work therefore was to design and develop a directed sales management system for SMEs in northern Ghana. The specific objectives of the work were to: design an easy to learn and use sales management system suitable for SMEs; build a prototype which can be used as a model for future projects; reduce cost of employing ICT in SMEs; expose SMEs to the usefulness of ICT to their business processes; make ICT more adaptable and appealing to entrepreneurs of SMEs within the region; help SMEs introduce more formalized sales transaction procedures into their businesses; and help SMEs maximize profits through a more effective sales and stock tracking system.