DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN AUTOMATED STAFF MAILING SYSTEM

1.1 Introduction

A mailing system is a critical business tool and an essential part of organizational communication. Many organizations have experienced negative impacts from email and have responded by electronically monitoring and restricting email system use. However, electronic monitoring of email can be contentious. Staff can react to these controls by dissent, protest and potentially transformative action. Mobile email access also increases the pressure on the organization to maintain and improve the reliability of the core email system infrastructure (Graff and Grey, 2002).

The more organizations rely on email, the more reliable it must be, because the risk of business interruption increases dramatically (Graff and Grey, 2002). Organizations must secure, expand and manage this communication medium effectively to meet new challenges (Graff and Grey, 2002; Weber, 2004). Mailing systems are some of the most admired Internet-based applications today. They enable users to send and receive E-mail messages between each other both from inside and outside the local area network. The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a transportation protocol used to transfer E- mail messages over the Internet.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Mailing systems are widely used communication tool with their convenience and efficiency. In spite of their usefulness, they are difficult to control in that e-mails are easily used as outflow path of confidential documents in an organization. Mail is a term for postcards, letters, and a system for physically delivering documents and other small packages. Email and e-mail since are the most popular terms for electronic mail, which is a way for writers to send digital messages to one or more recipients. Email in the modern era functions over the Internet and other computer networks. Similar to instant messaging, certain early email systems demanded that the sender and the recipient be online simultaneously.

Email is an essential component in all implementations of electronic business platforms. However, as electronic business activity increases, ad-hoc implementation, prolonged management neglect and user abuse generate negative effects. Organizations have responded by electronically monitoring email activities. Email systems have become a primary utility resource and the foundation for most other applications in Web and Internet computing. Moreover, email systems have become an essential component in all implementations of electronic business platforms (Graff and Grey, 2001).

The store-and-forward concept is the foundation of modern email systems. Email servers receive, transfer, store, and forward messages. Users only need to connect momentarily, usually to a mail server, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages. Neither the users nor their computers need to be online at the same time. Any electronic document transmission was previously referred to as Electronic Mail. For instance, the phrase was used by a number of authors to refer to fax document transmission in the early 1970s.

Email systems introduce a new set of threats and legal issues (Attaran, 2000) and email borne viruses and deliberate abuse of email have become major concerns for organizations (PriceWaterHouseCoopers, 2002). There is also a growing realization that most information systems security breaches are caused by individuals internal to the organization (Schulman, 2001).

Jackson et al., (2000) suggest that the primary driver of email monitoring is the ability to monitor its progress by capturing communication metrics which can then be used to formulate an email policy, provide education to try and reduce system abuses, improve employee productivity, and generally improve communication practices.

This mailing system is intended to give users of the organization a way to communicate with one another and improve team performance when carrying out organizational tasks in the corporate sector. It does this by creating a channel for information exchange between users. Users can reach each other through this mailing system.

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1.3 Statement of Problem

Investigation revealed that personnel working in the institution’s departments are served manually under the current system. When employees need specific information, they must visit the departments. Staff members in the department occasionally exchange information manually. Information will be passed slowly through this manual method, which can occasionally result in data loss and file damage. Thus, staff time was also lost. Thus, it is time-consuming, insecure, and expensive to use the current system.

Email borne viruses and intentional email abuse have become major concerns for organizations (PriceWaterHouseCoopers, 2002). Mailing systems also bring new legal issues and threats (Attaran, 2000). Another emerging insight is that the majority of information systems security breaches are the result of actions taken by people who work for the company (Schulman, 2001).

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to Design and Implement an Automated Staff Mailing System using Federal Polytechnic Nekede Mail Room as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to design and develop an application software that will:

1. Provide the staff – lecturer in computer science department the means to send information to their HOD and other lecturers;
2. Bridge the gap of communication between themselves in the department and keeps log of mail sent to each of the staff dial;
3. Send scanned document to the email box of the staff; and
4. Send notification to the department lecturer’s phone from the HOD’s desk, telling them they have message on their mailbox so as to make life easier by not coming to the department notice board to check for any information.

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1.5 Significance of Study

The significance of this study when implemented will assist computer science department by:

1. Saving unnecessary time and energy of the lecturer in the department.
2. Controlling mail sent and received within the department.
3. Keeping track of mail sent and received.
4. Making the means of communication in the department effective and efficient.

The proposed system will ensure the efficient and effective set-up of a functioning system that can send thousands of mails remotely to Staffs at once, without remotely sending the emails conventionally. This study will be of immense benefit to Tertiary Institutions (Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education) and academic researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.6 Scope of the Study

The scope of this research is focused on the Design and Implementation of an Automated Staff Mailing System using Federal Polytechnic Nekede Mail Room as a case study. The system will be coded with PHP as the scripting language linking HTML interface to MySQL database.

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1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, there were some problems encountered which stood as limitations to the research work. Some of the limitations include:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

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1.8 Definition of Terms

Internet:

The Internet is a global wide area network that connects computer systems across the world.

Business:

A business is defined as an organization or enterprising entity engaged in commercial, industrial, or professional activities.

Automated:

A system that is capable of operating without external control or intervention.

Database:

A systematically arranged collection of computer data, structured so that it can be automatically retrieved or manipulated. It is also called databank.

Email:

It is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients.

Document:

An original or official paper relied upon as the basis, proof or support of anything else, including any writing, book or other instrument conveying information pertinent to such proof or support.