DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT COMPUTERIZED THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT COMPUTERIZED THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION

1.0     Introduction

This chapter is usually the introductory part of a research project. It describes the theoretical background, statement of the problem, objective of the study, significance of the study, scope and organization of the study. The rest of the report is tied to the information supplied. Theoretical background entails relevant theory or theories that best unfold the knowledge behind the research work and also state its areas of contributions. Statement of the problem describes the problem a researcher is trying to solve and the need for the research on the problem. The next which is objectives of the study states relevant areas needed to work on. They are clearly listed by the researcher. Significance of the study is about the contribution(s) that the research work would make to the case study, other relevant bodies or institutions. Scope of the study implies the areas that the research covers and what it does not cover is stated clearly to avoid ambiguity. Organization of the study as the name implies, gives a brief overview of the research on how the chapters are organized. And finally on chapter one, is definition of terms where a researcher defines keywords used in the study.

1.1     Background of the Study 

As one of the organizations engaged in community service, the church has a wide range of activities and transactions to accommodate the needs of the congregation, both in terms of ecclesiastical activities and financial transactions of the church. The church would also have a considerable amount of data in a large and fairly high complexity. Under these conditions, the church should have integrated and centralized data storage to facilitate the storage, management, and presentation of data.

Bajdor and Grabara described the information system is formed by the information itself [1]. It means that the diversity and multiplicity of occurrence of information contributed to the need for them together to categorize, which automatically led to a certain, separate groups of information which are formed into information systems. And the development of information system can be drawn as a part of implementation of information with technology through analysis, design, implementation and support.

The system can be defined as a set of interrelated components that work together to achieve the desired results. Information technology is a combination between computer technology (hardware & software) with telecommunications technology (network data, images, sounds). Thus, the definition of Whitten & Bentley [2] concluded that the information system is an arrangement of people, data, processes, and information technology that interact to collect, process, store, and provide the information needed to support the organization.

An information system according to O’Brien & Marakas [3] is an organized combination consisting of people, hardware, software, network communications, data sources, rules and procedures that store, acquire, transform, and distribute information in an organization.

But the current problems are recording and storage of data on the Apostolic Church, Ibiakpan Ikot Inam, Ikot Ekpene. The church is still manually operating by utilizing the resources of different applications such as paper or a program such as Word and Excel. This weakness resulted in data storage separated and not centered and complicate the administration of the church employees in acquiring and managing information that requires a long time to present a specific report. This weakness also increases the risk of data loss, either intentionally or unintentionally.

With the implementation of data storage in DBMS (Database management systems) is expected to help the church to eliminate data redundancy and produce consistent data, and generated a centralized data repository and can be equipped with integrated security and data access.

The purpose of this study is to analyze and understand the businesses of the day that are taking place in the church, Ibiakpan Ikot Inam to find weaknesses that would be the definition of the church needs, and designing information systems that support the activities in the church.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

Apostolic Church was established in 1931 and ever since then, the number of members is increasing annually and results in increase of workload of committee members in managing information which is currently a manual system.

The major problems faced by the current manual system of Apostolic Church, Ibiakpan, Ikot Inam are: misplaced and loss of documents frequently occur, tedious and time consuming for members to fill forms frequently for similar information, the information of the members is not updated, and hence the information is not accurate, difficulty in sorting and searching information which cause the members having to fill form frequently in order to provide the required information, high levels of redundant work as members have to provide the same information on request through filling the related forms, insufficient physical space to keep all the documents, it takes a lot of time to search for the required information as the documents are not categorized systematically, lack of manpower in handling and managing all the files, records and documents and difficult to scrutinize the numbers of job assignment to the members as improper keeping of information.

They don’t assign identification numbers to pastors and members of the church to enable them easily retrieve each information without having to search through huge number of files.

1.3              Aims/Objectives of the Study