INFORMATION SYSTEM USED BY FEDEX

NAME: - Abhimanyu choudhary. ROLL NO: - SMBA10001

FEDEX EXPRESS Its a cargo airline based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. It is the world's largest airline in terms of freight tons flown and the world's second largest in terms of fleet size. It is a subsidiary of FedEx Corporation, delivering packages and freight to more than 375 destinations in nearly every country each day. BACKGROUND The company started overnight operations on April 17, 1973 with fourteen Dassault Falcon 20s that connected twenty-five cities in the United States. Services included both overnight and twoday package and envelope delivery services, as well as Courier Pak. Federal Express began to market itself as "the freight service company with 550-mile-per-hour delivery trucks". However, the company began to experience financial difficulties losing up to a million USD a month. While waiting for a flight home to Memphis from Chicago after being turned down for capital by General Dynamics, Smith impulsively hopped a flight to Las Vegas, where he won $27,000 playing blackjack. The $27,000 wasnt decisive, but it was an omen that things would get better, Smith says. Returning to his quest for funds, he raised another $11 million. Federal Express installed its first drop box in 1975 which allowed customers to drop off packages without going to a company local branch. In 1976, the company became profitable with an average volume of 19,000 parcels per day.

GROWTH The 1977 Airline Deregulation Act removed restrictions on the routes operated by all-cargo airlines, and enabled Federal Express to purchase its first large aircraft: seven Boeing 727-100s. In 1978, the company went public and was listed on The New York Stock Exchange. The following year it became the first shipping company to use a computer to manage packages when it launched COSMOS (Customers, Operations and Services Master Online System), a centralized computer system to manage people, packages, vehicles and weather scenarios in real

time. In 1980 the company implemented DADS (Digitally Assisted Dispatch System) to coordinate on-call pickups for customers; this system allows customers to schedule pickups for the same day. In 1980, Federal Express began service to a further 90 cities in the United States. The following year the company introduced its overnight letter to compete with the US Postal Service's Express Mail, and allowed document shipping for the first time. Later in 1981 it started international operations with service to Canada, and officially opened its SuperHub at the Memphis International Airport. Federal Express' sales topped $1 billion for the first time in 1983. In the same year the company introduced ZapMail, a fax service that guaranteed the delivery of up to five pages in less than two hours for $35. ZapMail would later become a huge failure for the company, costing it hundreds of millions of dollars. In 1986, the company introduced the SuperTracker, a hand-held bar code scanner which brought parcel tracking to the shipping industry for the first time. CURRENT ASPECT The FedEx Express used zeroCode, a browser-based development environment that automatically builds Web-based applications from database schemas, provided by internet solutions company Ampersand. It was used by FedEx to develop a tracking system, saving the company 94 percent of its development time. With its help FedEx was able to integrate all its information with ORACLE and refined the graphical HTML front-end

ZEROCODE
zeroCode is a software development framework that delivers tremendous savings in time and effort. It takes software development from a manual process to a highly scalable, automated model that offers infinite opportunities for custom work. Projects using zeroCode have shown productivity in the range of 80 to 100 FP (function points ) per person-month (tools-based development normally delivers 30 to 50 FP, hand-coding about 22 to 25). And productivity increases with project size. There are two overarching benefits that zeroCode brings for complex applications, apart from the attendant features listed in the previous paragraph.

They are:

You can build an application fast You can build a fast application.

You can build an application fast because:

zeroCode leverages the knowledge in the database schema tremendously, using it to build the basic "plumbing" for applications.

Many commonly used business functions - security, sorting, searching, foreign-key dereferencing and relators, to name a few - are built into the environment, so that the effort needed to design or construct them reduces.

Constructing even complex visual renditions is merely a matter of running the data model through a suitable "meta-template" in a few browser clicks. Most other products need significant time for each screen/page to be created.

Constructing input and editing forms has an even bigger payoff, since they are automatically built up front. Most other products offer little in this aspect.

Filters and action sequences provide reusable abstractions at a much higher level than the Java object - much closer to a domain expert's level of thinking.

Automatic computation of dependencies between transaction sections saves a great deal of time and effort on the part of the designer.

Data ports offer easy aggregation of multiple data sources within one rendition.

The application you build runs fast because:

The zeroCode engine is based on sound architectural choices and a conscious effort to adhere to the principles of efficient algorithm design. For example:

Data structures are precomputed and are not recomputed unless likely to have changed. Global and object-level configuration details are computed when first needed and maintained in memory through the application's run.

"Lazy evaluation" is used to maximum benefit, thus providing a "pay-as-you-go" effect. For example, the data structures for a resource/transaction are only computed if the resource is accessed.

Time-varying data are cached as necessary (in line with default policies and designer choice), saving significant time for database access. The caching philosophy conforms to the reality that memory is cheap but time is not.

Faster but more complicated internal algorithms are preferred over simpler, easier-toimplement variants.

Most internal business objects are immutable, i.e., once created, they do not maintain internal state between method calls. This makes them inherently thread-safe. It also greatly reduces the need for synchronizing threads, thus minimizing lock bottlenecks and exploiting inherent parallelism.

The design minimizes sharing state between threads: the only such shared state involves configuration data and very low-level locks for connection pool control. This choice also mitigates the need to synchronize threads.

An "optimized SQL" feature maximizes the number of needed attributes retrieved from each database access. This greatly reduces the number of database accesses, thus enhancing performance.

The engine uses infrastructure components such as connection pooling, transaction control and threading to full effect. It can exploit an available application server, or use its own components for the same purpose.

Input In Information System fundamentals, input is the activity of gathering and capturing raw data. In producing delivery orders, for example, the number of parcels to be delivered to a particular destination will be calculated or printed. In a university grading system, student grades must be obtained from instructors before a summary of grades for the semester or quarter can be compiled and sent to students. Input can take many forms. In an information system designed to produce paychecks, employee time cards might be the initial input. In a 911 emergency telephone system, an incoming call would be considered an input. Input to a marketing system might include customer survey responses. Notice that regardless of the system involved, the type of input is determined by the desired output of the system. Input can be a manual process or it may be automated. A scanner at a grocery store that reads bar codes and enters the grocery item and price into a computerized cash register is a type of automated input process. Regardless of the input method, accurate input is critical to achieve the desired output.

Process In information systems, processing involves converting or transforming data into useful outputs. Processing can involve making calculations, making comparisons and taking alternative actions, and sorting data for future use. Processing can be done manually or with the assistance of computers. In payroll, the number of hours each employee worked must be converted into net pay. The required processing can first involve multiplying the number of hours worked are greater than 40hours, overtime pay may also be determined. Then deductions are subtracted from gross pay to get net pay. For instance,

federal and state taxes can be withheld or subtracted from gross pay; many employees have health and life insurance, savings plans and other deductions that must also be subtracted from gross pay to arrive at net pay.

Output In information systems, output involves producing useful information, usually in the form of documents and reports. Outputs can include paychecks for employees, reports for managers and information supplied to stockholders, banks government agencies, and other groups. In some cases, output from one system can become an input for another. For example, output from a system that processes sales orders can be used as an input to control other systems or devices. For instance, office furniture manufacturing is complicated and contains many variables. A salesperson, customer and furniture designer often go through several design iterations to meet the customer's needs. Special computer software and hardware is used to create the original design and rapidly revise it. Once the last design mock-up is approved, the design software creates a bill of materials that goes to manufacturing to produce the order. Output can be produced in a variety of ways. For a computer, monitors and printers are common output devices. Output can also be a manual process involving handwritten reports and documents.

Feedback In information systems, feedback is output that is used to make changes to input or processing activities. For example, errors or problems might make it necessary to correct input data or change a process. Consider a payroll example. Perhaps the number of hours an employee worked was entered into a computer as 400 hours instead of 40hours. Most information systems check to make sure that data falls within certain predetermined ranges. For number of hours worked m the range might be from 0 to 100 hours. It is unlikely that an employee would work more than 100 hours for any given week. In this case, the information system would determine that 400hours a week is out of range and provide feedback such as an error report. The feedback is used to check

and correct the input on the number of hours worked to 40. If undetected, this error would result in a high net pay printed on the paycheck. In some information systems of course the most ideal thing to do is to install an algorithm that would prompt the user if the predefined range was breached. This algorithm could be in a form of an error message done through error trapping during the development stage of the information system.

BENEFITS High application lifetime: zeroCode-built applications last much longer than hand-coded applications in an Enterprise setting. It is estimated that businesses spend an average of 67% of the total cost of a software solution in its maintenance, over 6 to 8 years. The code built by zeroCode is industrystandard, modular, easily customized and integrable with other applications, making for long-term usability.

Quick time to market: zDE, the zeroCode Design Environment, can help you build fully functional web applications, including complex navigation and access to multiple data sources, in just a few clicks within a browser. The zDE slashes development time and coding effort by anywhere from 30% to 70%, thus ensuring faster delivery and quicker time to market.

Near-infinite extensibility: The zeroCode architecture is ideally suited to being extended in ways that are unthought-of at the time an application is built. The structure is modular and highly decoupled, with a focus on integrating various types of data sources and logic engines, apart from other business applications like ERP and infrastructure platforms like app servers and messaging servers. The strong reliance on server based technologies further

enhances extensibility.

Reliable code: The code in zeroCode-built applications is robust and highly reliable, since its templates are pre-tested in numerous web applications. The code is based on mathematical, patent-pending Graph Theory, algorithms that are very robust in production environments. These objects can also be integrated into app server environments from vendors like IBM and BEA, for further execution-time scalability and reliability.

Easy to use: The standard user Interface for the zDE works within a regular browser is easily learned. Besides extensive documentation, the zeroCode website includes an active helpdesk that is absolutely free to use. We also provide separate, short training courses and support that help enhance the productivity of the application designer.

High designer productivity: zeroCode helps applications designers automatically build code for high-performance, database-backed web applications, requiring minimal programming effort. zeroCode-built applications combine the best features of automatic generation - reliability, ease of use, and rapidity of creation - with the unlimited customizability and extensibility of hand-crafted sites.

Accessible anywhere: To access any part of zeroCode, all you need is a browser. This eliminates the bother of downloads or complex installations. Since the access is browser-based, there are very few issues of malconfiguration and user-level support. Further, distributed teams can work on the same application effectively, simultaneously.

Risk-free access: zeroCode offers you a Try and Buy program, absolutely riskfree. You can sign up for a free account during which you have access to all of zeroCode. The free account is valid for an unlimited time. During the free use period, all the power of the platform is available, in addition to regular support. But there are restrictions on how many applications, you can host concurrently. And once you sign up, your work during the free account period is not lost you can access it and download it as you see fit.

PK4 presented an enhanced version of their CRM solution: Impel as the best-fit solution for our customer's needs. The Impel base product (Corporate Edition) covered all of the customer's needs for sales force, marketing and customer support. It also provided the framework for access in a browser, authentication, authorization, integration, reporting, scalability, etc. PK4 implemented specific product extensions for the customer to support custom work-flows and enhancements in the existing functionality. The normal license-to-customization costs ratio of 30:70 was completely upended by the use of zeroCode, bringing a large amount of custom functionality to the user. Net effect, the customer users gained a complete CRM mechanism that fits their needs fully and, in addition, had access to integrated contact, calendar and opportunity management. PK4's implementation of Impel covered sales force automation, marketing, customer support and some custom operational workflows.