College of Engineering &

Technology School of
Computing & Informatics
Department of Information Systems
Project Title : Online Ethiopian Postal Service And Customer Support System

Group Members:

Full Name ID
1. Adugna Itana………………………………………..1200138

2. Kalkidan Girma ……………………………………… 1200365

Submission Date: 2 7 -10-2015 E.C

Content page

1.1.Introduction …………………………………………………………
1.2. Background ………………………………………………………….
1.3.Statement of Problem………………………………………………..
1.4.Objective ……………………………………………………………
1.4.1.General Objective……………………………………………….
1.4.2.Specific Objective ………………………………………………
1.5. Proposed System …………………………………………………..
1.6. Literature Review and Related Work ……………………………
1.7.Scope and Limitation ………………………………………………
1.8. Methods and Tools …………………………………………………
1.8.1.Data Source and Data Collection Methods ……………………
1.8.2. System Analysis and Design Methods…………………………..
1.8.3. System Implementation Methods and How to use Methods ….
1.8.4.Development Environment and Programming Tools………….
1.9.Significance of the Project ……………………………………………
1.10.Beneficiaries of the System or Application…………………………
1.11.Feasibility Study……………………………………………………….
1.11.1. Technical Feasibility ……………………………………………..
1.11.2.Economic Feasibility……………………………………………..
1.11.3.Operational feasibility……………………………………………..
1.11.4.Legal Feasibility………………………………………………….
1.12.Project Plan……………………………………………………………
1.12.1. Time Schedule……………………………………………………
1.12.2. Budget Plan………………………………………………………..

1.1.Introduction
The origin of postal service dates back to the middle Ages and was developed from
the medieval system of royal messengers whom employed to carry government
documents from one place to another. In most countries, the postal service developed
in the 18th century when different means of transport such as mules, horses, camels
and stage-caches were used to carry mail. In some Middle-Eastern countries even
falcons were specially trained to carry written messages from one place to another.
The first railway mails were carried in Europe in 1830. The establishment of the
Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1875 is what greatly promoted international mail
services.
Prior to the establishment of the postal service in Ethiopia on March 9, 1894
following an imperial edict, correspondence was conducted through messengers.
These tough individuals travelled great distances, often on foot, overcoming rough
landscape and weathering hostile climate. They endured the pangs of hunger and
thirst and carried their letters over their heads, on cleft sticks (which later became the
symbol of the post office still today) until they reached their destination.
1.1 Background Organization and System
Ethiopian Postal Service was established nearly two decades after the birth of UPU.
The second half of the 19th century in Ethiopia was characterized by the
establishment and consolidation of the empire state under the protection of Emperor
Menelik. Menelik found in the postal service, like the telephone and the telegraph, a
vital means of exchanging information, first for political and administrative purposes
and later on for public correspondence.
The construction of the Djibouti - Addis Ababa train made it possible for
letters, parcels and merchandise, which were previously transported on camel back.
This was a crucial factor that greatly improved the pace and efficiency of the postal
service while it laid the basis for the international exchange of mail. Then Ethiopia
became a member of the Universal Postal Union in 1908.
Ethiopia has at present 1139 post offices. Out of this 746 Permanent post
offices,130 Departmental sub-post offices, 261 Sub-post offices and 2 Visiting
postmen in rural areas and over 170000 post boxes. It is estimated that one post office
is serving 79016 inhabitants while one private box serves 529 people.
In the result of opportunities and challenges, Ethiopian postal service
establishes EMS (express mail service) in 1989. The introduction of EMS has made
the Ethiopian Postal Service competitive in the express delivery market. Today
Ethiopian postal service is under the implementation of business process reenginee
ring (BPR), which had been study for 18 months. Due to this the structure become
process and customer oriented. The managers and the employees are doing their best
to accomplish the needs of their customers.
1.2 Statement of problem
In fact, Ethiopian postal service is one of the most crucial as well as backbone of the
people by giving postal related services as well as any other services which can be
transfer through postal system, still the system generally does follow or perform the
manual system or paper based system and somewhat automated to provide service to
its customers. So that using manual system has a lot of problems in many cases.
Moreover, the following are problems that are present in the current system of
postal service system in general. Because of this reason the organization faced to
many problems. The problems are
 Work load of the Employers is very high means takes much time to perform
simple tasks,
 Takes time to retrieve data,

 Difficult to update data,

 Wastage of resources,

 Needs more space to store file cabinet,

 Loss of data and poor organized and unsecured data. This also leads to
Security problem not protect the data from an unauthorized person and doesn’t
keep the organizations’ safety.
 Date or time limitation problem in which the system doesn’t keep track of
sending and receiving different materials deliver in the customers’ expected
time and date. Example, postponing the expected time or date.
N.B: The problems that raised in the above limit the organization not to give reliable
and fast service to its customers.

1.3 Objective
1.3.1 General Objective
The purpose of the Ethiopian postal service is to allow a portal for mail acceptance,
transfer deliveries and other postal services for its customers. The act of allowing
these services to take place initially started as a need for the Ethiopian people to
communicate on a nationwide scale. Ethiopian postal service was created by Law
with the view to establish and promote Postal Services based on the development.

1.3.2 Specific Objective

The specific objectives are listed below:-
 To minimize resources
 To minimize the time consumption and work load for both the
organization and customers
 To minimize the data storage space
 To encourage data security
 To design central and well-structured database management system
 To eliminate redundancy of data
 To make online with web based application through an internet
connection.
 To keep truck mails.
 Communicating branch organizations each other internationally.
1.5. Proposed System
In this proposed system we have tasks to do and needs to fulfil this project currently,
where the technological innovations and the use of computerized and mobilized
systems are highly being increasing from time to time, the knowledge of mobile and
computers and knowing how to operate with them is very much important.
We prefer to make a web based system, that will be easily accessible by every
customer and seller at any time.
1.6. Literature Review and Related Work
Based on the discussion with quality and security department of the Ethiopian postal
service department on time delivery is basically all about delivery on agreed time
which is within 48 hours after acceptance (is about punctuality instead of speed,
percentage of all deliveries on time and deliveries at the desired time windows at
acceptable cost) and completeness and accuracy of orders delivered which is all about
quality of delivery and it may include (received quantity corresponds with delivered
quantity, avoiding loosing of goods to maintain delivery obligation, very low rate of
returns due to shipment damage & shipment errors and percentage of accurate
deliveries). In addition to this on time a package is considered on time if tracking
information is recorded within 48 hours of entering the shipment confirmation.
1.7. Scope and Limitation
a. Scope
Scope of this project means the boundary that we are performing tasks in this
project. The proposed system that we will try to automate is limited and bounded on
the Ethiopian postal services. It will perform how to:-
 Track management that checks the sent messages of customers
through their user account
 Rent post box services
 Manipulate information
 Store data in data base
 Automate and make online service
 Mail management
b .Limitation
The Ethiopian postal service system provides services to its customers using manual
system and somewhat automated to provide service to its customers. Due to this
reason the systems have the following drawbacks:-
 It take much time to perform a single task
 The system cannot seek the given data
 It is no cascading sheet style but it simply implemented by frame
 The system does not performing tracking well
 Take time to retrieve data
 It need more space to store files or cabinets

1.8 Methods and Tools

1.8.1 Data Source and Data collection Methods
There are many source of Data :
 Data gathering
 Approach
Data gathering
To gather the requirement of the system we use different types of fact finding
methods those are:-
Interview
To know how the postal service system is work, we prepared questions
concerning on postal service and interviewed the counter and manager of Hossanna
town post office. The counter is person who performs managing the all transactions
inside the post office, as well as the manager is a person who controls and manages
the overall system. He also called postmaster. So from the manager we gained the
overall description of the system, and from the counter we gained how the postal
service transactions are going on.
Observation
By observing the current working environment of Hossanna post office, we collect
data which necessary for automating of Hossanna postal service system. In our
observation we have tried to observe things mentioned below
 The general system of providing service in the current system.

 How the system handles and store material’s information.

 Types of document format is there printed or non-printed

Approach
We have selected an Object Oriented Approach. Because of Object-oriented
Approach takes pride in its suitability for sustaining huge software and web
development projects. This is a far better option than using structured Approach
when you have massive code bases. The nature of object-oriented programs
allows the developer to save a lot of time and energy when developing programs
as the components of the programs are in the form of objects which can be
plugged into the program wherever they are needed.

1.8.2 System Analysis and Design Methods

 System Analysis: - requirement engineering like use case
model object model etc.
  System Design: - physical data base design like physical data
base design, design elements, design system architectures,
design component.
1.8.3 System Implementation Methods and How to use Methods
Implementation is a realization of a technical specification or algorithm as a
program, software component through programming. there are different types of tools
available to implement the system from those tools we select php to develop front
end of the system, Xamp2.5 server to develop back end of the system ,UML editor to
sketch different UML diagrams and Microsoft word 2010 to prepare the
documentation part of the project .

1.8.4 Development Environment and Programming Tools

The development method we are using to develop the proposed system is the
Waterfall approach.
Waterfall Methodology: All projects can be managed better when segmented into a
hierarchy of chunks such as phases, stages, activities, tasks and steps.
Programming Tools
The tools that we are going to use throughout our project are listed in the following
table as grouped into hardware tools & software tools.
Table a) development tools
Tools
Hardware Software
 Processor: Intel(R) core(TM).i3-  Microsoft 2010 :to write the entire documents
2120cpu@3.30GHZ  Power point 2010 :for presentation for both
 Flash Disk : at minimum 8GB phase1 and phase 2
 RAM : to the maximum of 1.90GB  Wamp server 2.5 :To run the site on the tool
 Hard Disk: to the maximum of bar
464.6GB  npp.6.5.5.Installer : To edit the entire
 CD-R : to the maximum of 700MB implementation code
 SQL database server: To store data
 Visual paradigm for UML 10.2 : to draw
UML diagrams
1.9 Significance of the project
The proposed project has many benefits. Those are listed below:-
 Speed up the system
 Perform data updating easily
 Reduce resource wastage
 Protect data/files from unauthorized users
 Reduce work load of the employee of the organization
 Enable the organization to has centralized DBMS
1.10 Beneficiaries of the System Or Application
Since our project is the Ethiopian Postal service and it is the most crucial service for
the people, it has a basic purpose that communicating the customers throughout the
world giving service by considering the following things.
 Through real and customers expected time.
 Using less amount of resource.
 Using less amount of human power.
 Through customers information based.
 By using fast and efficient technology.
 By providing how customers check their materials or any messages they have
sent and they do a truck where it reaches.
 By communicating customers with the organizations' employee through
online.
 And all branch organizations are communicating each other through online
network.

1.11 Feasibility Study

Feasibility study is a study that determines whether a proposed system is technically,
financially,
and operationally viable.
Preliminary Investigation is the first phase in any system developing life cycle. The
Feasibility Study
is a major part of this phase.
Feasibility Study means selecting the best system that meet the performance
requirement.
The feasible development of the software is going to be in terms of the following
aspects:
1.11.1 Technical Feasibility Study
The system to be developed by using technologically system development techniques
such as
asp.net, Java script,CSS and MYSQL database server without any problems and the
group
members have enough capability to develop the project. So the system will be
technically
feasible.

1.11.2 Economic Feasibility Study

The purpose of the economic feasibility assessment is to determine the positive
economic benefits to the organization that the proposed system will provide. It
includes quantification and identification of all the benefits expected. This assessment
typically involves a cost/ benefits analysis.
1.11.3 Operational Feasibility Study
Operational feasibility it measures the degree of how much the proposed system
reduce the existing system problems.
The system to be developed will provide accurate, active, secured service and
decreases labor of workers and also it is not limited to particular groups or body. And
also it is plat form independent i.e. it run’s in all operating system
1.11.4 legal Feasibility Study
The system to be developed is not conflict with any government directives, because it
gives services for the people effectively and efficiently, all the stakeholders also
agreed before the system developed. So the citizen is profitable and the system will be
politically feasible.
1.12. Project plan
A project plan defines project goals and objectives, specifies tasks and how goals will
be achieved, identifies what resources will be needed and associated budgets and
timelines for completion. A project plan defines all work in a project and identifies
who will do it
 1.12.1 Time Schedule

no task Start End Duration Nov. Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
2015 2015 2015 2015 2015 2015
Two Three Four 2 2 2
Weeks weeks weeks weeks weeks weeks

1 Information 15/03/015
gathering

2 Project 1/02/015
information and
planning

3 Project Analysis 7/02/015

4 project design 15/02/015

5 Project
Implementation
27/02/015

1.12.2 Budget Plan

no Quantity Total price(birr)

1 Computer and laptop Computer and laptop free

2 Printing 200~300

3 Ms visual studio free

4 Visio free

5 Ms office free

6 paper 100

7 MySQL database server free

8 Xamp server free

9 Notepad++ free

10 Ed-row max free

TOTAL ~400