User:Sup3rd

I am a student of Valerie Taylor's CIS 50 course. I am interesting in information systems because it is all around us. Information is stored on our cellphones, laptops, and various other technology so it would be nice to understand how they work.

Lifecycle - Requirements

Users will need access to computer systems and network. Those who receive direct deposit simply need access to a computer with internet connection to view their deposits. However, Originating banks and receiving banks will need a central network to automated clearing houses to process the payments and deposits. These automatic clearing houses will need to store a lot of a data from different financial institutions to ensure effective transactions.

Design Specifications

What - Conveniences users to have instant access to deposited funds from organizations or have payments deducted from their accounts without effort.

How - Users sign up for automatic deposits into their accounts. Originating company sends funds to the originator's financial institution, which is sent to an ACH operator, and then the ACH operator then sends the funds to the user's bank account allowing immediate access to funds.

Development Overview

There are several businesses that will take care of setting up a direct deposit system for employees to pay their employees with. This is a widely used function and many businesses already implement it. In the world of business, time is money and although there may be fees in outsourcing payroll functions there is the benefit of ease. Time spent building an ACH deposit system will cost a lot of time and resources to provide a simple service. Delays will negatively impact employees who expect to receive their compensation in a timely matter. If I were to make such a system I would be going against large companies that specialize for large corporations. I can find a competitive advantage at focusing small business owners who cannot afford to pay the fees that larger companies charge such as ADP. I will not make as much money, but I will have a larger untapped market to provide my service to.

Integration and Testing

My project will begin by designing a network between the originator, originator's financial institution, the ACH operator, receiver's financial institution, and finally to the receiver. Here is a diagram of how the system works.

http://www.thepaymentsauthority.org/AM/Images/ACHParticipantFlowChart.jpg

This is how "direct deposits" and "automatic payments" are done. As you can see from the diagram, there are five parties involved with the ACH operator acting as the bridge between the financial institutions and their clients. To ensure that funds are being transferred to the proper place, we can do test payments and see if it made it to the other end. ACH deposits are not only used for domestic businesses, but it can be an international matter as well. People conducting transactions over the internet will have to go through the same process as with those conducting international wire transfers as well. Some countries and certain acts are prohibited from conducting these types of transactions. For example, the United States has the Anti-money laundering act in order to prevent money laundering and possible terrorist financing. It is also very necessary to be cautious for fraud and all five parties should keep a look out.

Deployment and Acceptance

In choosing an information system I will need a trial period before fully committing to a single software. The system must be user friendly so that it will not require several days to learn the basics of it. I noticed on salesforce that they use terms that are very easy to understand and I like that. Since my project is on ACH deposits, I will need everyone to use the new systems at the same time in order to allow all transactions to be handled properly. I will be training my staff before hand during the trial period of the software to ensure that everyone has a good understanding of it before implementation. Problems that arise will need to be handled on an ad-hoc basis because the nature of my lifecycle project is very straight forward which is putting money where it is suppose to go.

Production

Things become automated once the system has been implemented and in use. People simply sign up and designate where their funds will be sent or received. Needed upgrades will be security measures in order to deter fraud. This system is pretty straight forward so there may not be too many updates. However, the security measures may also be needed to be upgraded to detect suspicious activity as well.

Retirement and Rollover

My system is very straightforward. We act as the mediator between originating banks to the ending banks for our customers to have access to their funds. As time goes on our system may become obsolete. There may be new technology that can be performed faster and prevents less fraud. An abrupt and sudden change will have a negative effect on everyone using our system. Instead, we will slowly phase in the new system. Perhaps we can phase in sections of it at a time until it is completely established. This will make it the smoothest implementation possible.