Chapter 9 Q3: Describe and differentiate the CRM technologies used by marketing departments and sales departments.

There are three marketing operational CRM technologies:


1-List generator: compiles customer information from a variety of sources and segment the information for different marketing campaigns
2-Campaign management system – guides users through marketing campaigns
3-Cross-selling and up-selling:
-Cross-selling – selling additional products or services
-Up-selling – increasing the value of the sale

Chapter 9 Q2: Compare operational and analytical customer relationship management.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage and analysis of customer information.



Aspects of CRM

There are three aspects of CRM which can each be implemented in isolation from each other:
1-Operational CRM- automation or support of customer processes that include a company’s sales or service representative
2-Collaborative CRM- direct communication with customers that does not include a company’s sales or service representative (“self service”)
3-Analytical CRM- analysis of customer data for a broad range of purposes
META Group (acquired by Gartner in April 2005) developed this conceptual architecture in the late-1990s, and dubbed it the “CRM Ecosystem”

For the sake of this question, we will focus on the difference between Operational and Analytical CRM:

Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes, including sales, marketing and service. Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a customer's contact history, and staff can retrieve information on customers from the database as necessary.
One of the main benefits of this contact history is that customers can interact with different people or different contact “channels” in a company over time without having to repeat the history of their interaction each time.
Consequently, many call centers use some kind of CRM software to support their call centre agents.

Analytical CRM analyses customer data for a variety of purposes including:
1-design and execution of targeted marketing campaigns to optimise marketing effectiveness
2-design and execution of specific customer campaigns, including customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-selling, retention
3-analysis of customer behaviour to aid product and service decision making (e.g. pricing, new product development etc.)
3-management decisions, e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis
4-prediction of the probability of customer defection (churn).

Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of predictive analytics.
http://gleez.com/customer-relationship-management-crm

Chapter 9 Q1: What is your understanding of CRM?

Customer relationship management is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service. Once simply a label for a category of software tools, today, it generally denotes a company-wide business strategy embracing all client-facing departments and even beyond. When an implementation is effective, people, processes, and technology work in synergy to increase profitability, and reduce operational costs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management

Chapter 7-8 Q6: Define the relationship between information technology and the supply chain.

IT’s primary role is to create integrations or tight process and information linkages between functions within an organisationThe five factors driving the explosive growth of SCM include:




• Information technology – only recently have advances in IT made it possible to bring the idea of a truly integrated supply chain to life
• Visibility – More visible models of different ways to do things in the supply chain have emerged. High visibility in the supply chain is changing industries, as Wal-Mart demonstrated
• Consumer behavior – Companies must respond to demanding customers through supply chain enhancements.
• Competition – Increased competition makes any organization that is ignoring its supply chain at risk of being obsolete
• Speed – As the pace of business increases through electronic media, an organization's supply chain must respond efficiently, accurately, and quickly

The following are the SCM industry best practices:

1. Make the sale to suppliers - A large part of any SCM system extends beyond the organization to the suppliers. Since the organization has very little control over anything external to itself, these pieces are typically the most complicated. Be sure suppliers are on board with the benefits that the SCM system will provide to ease SCM implementation difficulties.
2. Wean employees off traditional business practices - If the organization cannot convince people that using the SCM software is worthwhile, the employees will probably find a way around using the software.
3. Ensure the SCM system supports the organizational goals - Be sure to select SCM software that supports organizational goals and strategies
4. Deploy in incremental phases and measure and communicate success - Designing the deployment of the SCM system in incremental phases is the most successful deployment method. The BIG BANG approach – implementing everything at once – fails 90 percent of the time
5. Be future oriented - An SCM system, like all systems, must scale to meet future demands.


http://techsci.msun.edu/wilke/BUS%20Courses/BUS%20406/Summer%2006%20Distance/Notes/chapter_ten.htm

Chapter 7-8 Q5: List and describe the five components of a typical supply chain.

Traditional SCM thinking involved “I buy from my suppliers, I sell to my customers.” Today, organizations are quickly realizing the tremendous value they can gain from having visibility throughout its supply chain. Knowing immediately what is transacting at the customer end of the supply chain, instead of waiting days or weeks for this information to flow upstream, allows the organization to react immediately. The role of SCM is evolving and it is not uncommon for suppliers to be involved in product development and for distributors to act as consultants in brand marketing.
The components of a typical supply chain include:

· Supplier’s supplier
· Supplier
· Manufacturer
· Distributor
· Retailer
· Customer
· Customer’s Customer

http://techsci.msun.edu/wilke/BUS%20Courses/BUS%20406/Summer%2006%20Distance/Notes/chapter_ten.htm

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Chapter 7-8 Q4: Explain supply chain management and its role in a business

Supply chain management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing, procurement, conversion, and logistics management. It also includes the crucial components of coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. In essence, supply chain management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies.
A supply chain, as opposed to supply chain management, is a set of organizations directly linked by one or more of the upstream and downstream flows of products, services, finances, and information from a source to a customer. Managing a supply chain is 'supply chain management'.
Supply chain business process integration involves collaborative work between buyers and suppliers, joint product development, common systems and shared information. According to Lambert and Cooper (2000), operating an integrated supply chain requires a continuous information flow. However, in many companies, management has reached the conclusion that optimizing the product flows cannot be accomplished without implementing a process approach to the business. The key supply chain processes are:

Customer relationship management

Customer service management

Demand management

Order fulfillment

Manufacturing flow management

Supplier relationship management

Product development and commercialization

Returns management
 
Kouvelis, P.; Chambers, C.; Wang, H. (2006): Supply Chain Management Research and Production and Operations Management: Review, Trends, and Opportunities. In: Production and Operations Management, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 449–469.
 
 

chapter 7-8 Q3: Describe the correlation between operations management and information technology.

Managers use IT to heavily influence OM decisions, including :


What: What resources will be needed and in what amounts?

When: When should the work be scheduled?

Where: Where will the work be performed?

How: How will the work be done?

Who: Who will perform the work?

Please follow this link to watch a video on the issue:
http://www.bnet.com/2422-19516_23-256068.html

Chapter 7-8 Q2: Explain operations management’s role in business.

In the world of business there are many essential parts to a successful operation. Some may say that marketing, production and/or sales are the most important part of any business, but after studying the process of operation management, it is found to be the backbone of any business process. Operation management embodies all aspects of the business process and unites them to create an efficient resourceful procedure. The first step to a successful operation is to develop a detailed business plan. This plan should include all aspects of the business including the operation plan. The operation part of the plan for small business processes from raw materials purchase and handling, to package and shipping, customer service and after sale follow up. Role of OM in business include:
1- Forecasting

2- Capacity planning
3- Scheduling
4- Managing inventory
5- Assuring quality
6- Motivating and training employees
7- Locating facilities

Chapter 7-8 Q1: Define the term operations management

Operations management is an area of business concerned with the production of goods and services, and involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as little resource as needed, and effective in terms of meeting customer requirements. It is concerned with managing the process that converts inputs (in the forms of materials, labour and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and services).
It is also described as the field concerned with managing and directing the physical and/or technical functions of a firm or organization, particularly those relating to development, production, and manufacturing. Operations Management involves general management, manufacturing and production systems, plant management, equipment maintenance management, production control, industrial labor relations and skilled trades supervision, strategic manufacturing policy, systems analysis, productivity analysis and cost control, and materials planning.

wikipedia

Chapter 6 Q5: Identify the advantages and disadvantage of deploying mobile technology.

ADVANTAGES:
Public and private sector enterprises are always in pursuit of ideas that can make them more efficient and flexible, qualities that have a direct effective on both profitability and performance. As wireless networking moves into the mainstream, many organizations find that the addition of mobile network components offers undeniable business benefits, both direct and indirect.
Seen directly, wireless solutions can improve the connectedness of a workforce and enhance decision-making by providing faster access to more current information. They can also be easier to maintain and configure, reducing the need for IT staff.
Indirectly, mobile solutions can improve worker satisfaction by providing easier, more flexible access options. They can even improve public perception, and introduce new, “cutting edge” mechanisms for customer interaction; through the following characteristcs:

• Elimination of duplicate data entry and transcription errors.
• Improved efficiency so agents can concentrate on sales and service, not paperwork and increased productivity through real-time.
• Improved customer service with faster customer response time.
• Better information sharing, and better management insight into agents’ activities and performance.
• Improved communications with control personnel, who can remain on the production floor without being out of reach; and tracking of the parts and labor associated with each order, with verification at the time of data entry.
• More accurate analysis of product costs,with better tracking of labor details against work orders.
• Significant reduction in parts retrieval time.
• Improved productivity through better communications.
• Efficient access to business-critical data.
• Faster product delivery times.
• Increased employee and customer satisfaction.
• Reduced connection costs.
• Improved provider working conditions with the flexibility offered by remote information access.
 
In summary the advantages include: low ongoing costs, ease of implentation, effective base-level data transfer rate, mobility, and redundancy in fututre growth.
 
DISADVANTAGES:


When considering options for wide area networks, it is appropriate to consider the few disadvantages presented by wireless technology.

1-Radio Interference. When multiple radio antennas are located close in proximity, or many strong spread spectrum sources inhabit a small geographic region, RF wireless loses some of its effectiveness. The signals may interfere with each other, causing re-transmission of signals and loss of throughput. But such sources are unusual in many rural communities.

2-Path Interference. Radio wireless technology is commonly advertised as "impervious" to weather. This means, essentially, that particles of rain, fog, smog, and dust are not large enough to block the transmission of the radio signal. In the 902-928Mhz frequency spectrum this is essentially true.

3-Weather and Accidental Damage. Because wireless connectivity uses external antennas, severe weather may damage these components. Lightning arrestors will be used to prevent damage to internal network equipment, but very high winds may still misalign or damage antennas. Also, one must allow for the possibility of accidents in which antennas are damaged.

4-Throughput. Wireless connectivity offers a better cost/performance ratio over time than leased data circuits; but not in comparison with fibre optic.

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/answer/Advantages-disadvantages-of-deploying-wireless

Please follow this link to watch a video on the issue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtGuszUwF1A
 

Chapter 6 Q4:Describe RFID and how it can be used to help make a supply chain more effective.

Manufacturers, retailers, logistics providers and government agencies are making unprecedented use of RFID technology to track, secure and manage items from the time they are raw materials through the entire life of the product.

Manufacturers can especially benefit from RFID because the technology can make internal processes more efficient and improve supply chain responsiveness—for example, early RFID adopters in the consumer goods industry reduced supply chain costs between 3 and 5 percent and grew revenue between 2 and 7 percent because of the added RFID provided, according to a study by AMR Research.
Many drivers have seen RFID in action at automatic toll collection stations used at bridges, tunnels and turnpikes.
In business, RFID will be commonly used to identify pallets,containers, vehicles, tools and other assets, monitor inventory, and route materials through production processes.
RFID can provide immediate and tangible benefits throughout the supply chain. Organizations who take the time to understand the technology’s capabilities and limitations can increase their inventory visibility while streamlining their operations.
http://epsfiles.intermec.com/eps_files/eps_wp/SupplyChainRFID_wp_web.pdf

Chapter 6 Q3: Compare LANs and WANs

There are two basic types of network, the LAN and WAN. LAN stands for local area network and WAN stands for wide area network. The differences between LANs and WANs are indeed greater than just that of size. There are differences in network topology, hardware requirements, software requirements as well as technical specifications and cost.


To begin with local area networks. They are smaller networks, usually within an office base. Connections between the workstations are physical, with cables, and all the office resources are shared and distributed between the network workstations. The most common type of LAN is that of Ethernet. This is a family of frame-based computer networking technologies for LANs.

WAN, or wide area networks, are broader geographic networks, like one city to another. They are more of a collection of interconnected LAN networks. Other WANs, provided by service providers, connect local networks to the Internet. In actual fact the Internet is more a specific Internetwork, not a straight WAN.

1-While LANs are smaller, collectively they can be linked to create the WAN. This really is done using a series of routers, and bridges, which are basically network hardware devices which enable interconnectivity between separate LANs. With the option of expanding into small-scale WANs.
2-The real contrasting features of LANs in comparison to WANs is that of their data transfer rate, need for leased lines and geographical range. LANs are faster, with 10 GB data transfer rates. Likewise, as has been mentioned, LANs encompass a smaller geographical area. WANs also rely on common carriers, while LANs do not.
3-Aside from these differences users of a LAN will more likely need password validation as it will have specific user rights. While smaller WANs might also have this, it is less likely. LAN networks will generally be more private than WAN networks, and will have some sort of networking software and probably a network administrator. Hardware resources are shared on a LAN, while with a WAN the focus is more on communications.
4-The network topology of LANs is often peer-to-peer. That is to say, each client shares is resources with other workstations in the network. WAN networks will operate on a more client-to-server basis with interconnected LANs. Really, all this means is that the resources are requested from a central server.
5-One other big difference between the networks is the cost to set up a LAN in relation to a WAN. A single LAN network will be cheaper to set up than that of a larger WAN, with more workstations and more hardware connection requirements with the need for a leased line. In essence, one big LAN in comparison to a small WAN will be the cheaper option.

http://www.helium.com/items/1066784-what-are-the-differences-between-lan-and-wan

Chapter 6 Q2: Describe the business benefits associated with VoIP.

Voice over IP (VoIP) is a rapidly growing technology that uses a company's local area network (LAN) and the Internet for phone calls, instead of traditional phone lines. As a systems integrator (SI), you can save your clients money and gain services revenue as you help them deploy and maintain their VoIP systems.


The most obvious and significant benefit from using VOIP is reduced telephony costs. More than 80% of the companies planning to deploy VOIP expect payback within the first three years. In reality, companies that have deployed the technology are experiencing complete return on investment within the first year.



If the cost savings wasn’t enough, businesses that deployed VOIP are experiencing other long-term benefits such as:


Improved individual productivity


Improved team collaboration


Faster responsiveness to customers


Better quality of service to customers


Better support for globalization efforts


But the more advanced customers -- and the more lucrative ones -- are those that look to use some of the additional benefits of VoIP such as the fact that it goes through the data network and is run on a server, VoIP can integrate with other applications. For example, in call centers, the benefits of VoIP include integrating the phones to customer relationship management (CRM) applications or providing a "click here to talk to a representative" button on your client's Web page.


VoIP can also connect with other communications media -- a combination known as unified communications. For instance, some cell phones can work in a voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) mode, saving airtime minutes. You can also combine email and VoIP, so that users can access voicemail through their email clients. Each of those additional integrations is another potential project for you.
Even without toll bypassing, larger offices may save money from VoIP every time an employee changes desks, Dewing said. With a traditional phone system, each move would mean reconfiguring the PBX -- and sometimes even having to rewire the phone closet. Dewing said that some companies reported a cost as high as $300 or $400 per move. With a VoIP system, each phone registers itself using its MAC address when it first connects to the server, so the changeover is automatic.

http://voipez.com/business/benefits.html

Chapter 7 Q1: Explain the business benefits of using wireless technology.

Wireless Technology

In today's fast moving world of technology, everyone's talking about going "wireless". But what does that mean and what are the benefits of wireless computing?
•Wireless working in company premises enables staff with notebook computers to connect to company systems, email and the internet as they move around the office. (mobility and in real time)
•Wireless working enables a wide spectrum of business applications that integrate with ‘head office’ to be used remotely – from salesforce automation, to field service engineering, to financial services. (universal access to information and applications).
•Wireless working creates a productive environment in remote locations, including satellite offices and workers’ homes, to enable staff to utilise their time effectively and to manage their work/life balance.
•Wireless working enables information to be sent and received on the move – via hotspots in airports, hotels, service stations and even coffee shops and on mobile phone networks via GPRS and 3G. (User convenience, timeliness and ability to conduct work anytime and anywhere)
http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/generic/0000003c1f

Chapter 6 Q6: Describe the roles and purposes of data warehouses and data marts in an organisation.

A data warehouse is a repository of an organization's electronically stored data, designed to facilitate reporting and analysis.

This definition of the data warehouse focuses on data storage. However, the means to retrieve and analyze data, to extract, transform and load data, and to manage the data dictionary are also considered essential components of a data warehousing system. Many references to data warehousing use this broader context. Thus, an expanded definition for data warehousing includes business intelligence tools, tools to extract, transform and load data into the repository, and tools to manage and retrieve metadata.
Data warehousing arises in an organisation's need for reliable, consolidated, unique and integrated reporting and analysis of its data, at different levels of aggregation.
The process of organizing information in such a way as to create data-based knowledge is called Data Warehousing. The software products that present this knowledge to users are sometimes called Business Intelligence Tools.


The goal of business intelligence and data warehousing - changing data into information and knowledge.
Organizations are gathering and storing more and more data. Every year the amount of data in the world is approximately doubling. This data is of little benefit unless it can be turned into useful information and knowledge.
Information by itself is an inadequate basis for business decisions because the amount of information, like the amount of data, is overwhelming. Business Intelligence Tools are designed to find what is significant - what really adds to our useful knowledge - in the piles of data and information.

Data Mart

Also Known As: Local Data Warehouse or Datamart
A database that has the same characteristics as a data warehouse, but is usually smaller and is focused on the data for one division or one workgroup within an enterprise.


There are three different (and somewhat contradictory) views of the place of the data mart in the world of data warehousing.


1. The data warehouse gathers all the information from the various legacy systems. Specialized data marts are then created with a subset of the information in the data warehouse. These data marts are easier to use because they only have the particular information the specific user group needs. The use of several data marts also allows the querying load to be spread among several different computers. This can reduce network traffic.
2. Free-standing data marts are created, independent from a data warehouse. The information for the data mart probably comes from just one legacy system. It is quicker and cheaper to build a separate data mart instead of building an enterprise-wide data warehouse with data marts derived from it. The drawback of this solution is that the company's data is not integrated (and thereby violates one of Bill Inmon's original defining characteristics of the data warehouse). If several separate data marts are built using this strategy, they will usually contain data that is duplicated and inconsistent.
3. The data mart is the prototype or the first step of a data warehousing process. An enterprise picks the division or group that would most benefit from data-based knowledge. A data mart is built with that group's data. Additional types of information are added to the data mart as time goes on until it is turned into a data warehouse.
New terminology is often created and developed for marketing purposes. The term 'data mart' probably has a marketing advantage over the term 'data warehouse'. The whole data warehousing process is about creating data-based knowledge and bringing that knowledge to people. A warehouse is a place where things are stored away. A mart is a convenient place to buy something. Most data warehousing professionals (including myself) include ready access to information as a defining characteristic of the term 'data warehouse'. I think, though, that the term 'data mart' captures this sense of data availability more effectively.

http://www.sdgcomputing.com/glossary.htm

Chapter 6 Q5: Describe the benefits of a data-driven website.

Data-driven websites:


A data-driven website is a site that can easily and quickly be updated by its managers to display requested information to the website user in the most effective way.
Customers, suppliers or anyone who uses a website that is data-driven is said to be directly interacting with the central database. The customer relies on a user-friendly database management system that is embedded with the data-driven website. For instance, a customer can click on the website’s tabs or links to acquire information used for decisions.
The benefits of a data-driven website are numerous:
The first and major benefit is that changing the content of the website can be done without specialized knowledge or expertise. Managing the website can be done with minimal training. The website administrator/master does not need to know HTML or programming in order to make any changes and updating a data-driven websites only takes a couple of clicks all in a few seconds.

The second benefit is the level of speed when the website manager makes changes. When hosting a data-driven website, changing the content is done almost in real-time.

Thirdly, data-driven websites inherently have a great deal of scalability. To this end, expanding a website is very simple which leaves plenty of room for growth. The graphics, layout or interactivity of a website can be changed anytime. This is great for companies that start out small then turn into medium size businesses and later evolve to become large corporations.

The fourth advantage includes reduced error rate. Data entry employees are bound to make mistakes when making changes. Anyone that is designated with maintaining a website can also makes lots of errors. As a result, the system will experience inconsistencies, bugs, and flaws that will slow down the interactivity of the website and possibly corrupt the integrity of the information posted on the website. Fixing all of these problems will require significant efforts and resources. Fortunately, data-driven websites solve this dilemma by making it easy to fix any issues with the system. Of course, this makes an online customer very happy when they don’t have to deal with the mistakes of the website creators.

The fifth advantage is the efficiency that is created when implementing a data-driven website. In a society that experiences frequent changes in trends and patterns, updating new information can by extensive. For this reason, companies using data-driven websites can make modifications very productively. Creating or storing the background template, layout, design, interface and structure of the website needs to only be done once. When a website administrator leaves the company, someone else can replace him without needing to search hard for another website administrator. This will increase the reliability and stability of the website along with the company’s reputation and goodwill.

Chapter 6 Q4: Define the fundamental concepts of the relational database model.

The Relational Database Model


A database can be understood as a collection of related files. How those files are related depends on the model used. Early models included the hierarchical model (where files are related in a parent/child manner, with each child file having at most one parent file), and the network model (where files are related as owners and members, similar to the network model except that each member file can have more than one owner).
The relational database model was a huge step forward, as it allowed files to be related by means of a common field. In order to relate any two files, they simply need to have a common field, which makes the model extremely flexible.
In 1970, when E.F. Codd developed the model, it was thought to be hopelessly impractical, as the machines of the time could not cope with the overhead necessary to maintain the model. Of course, hardware since then has come on in huge strides, so that today even the most basic of PC's can run sophisticated relational database management systems.

http://www.databasejournal.com/sqletc/article.php/1469521/Introduction-to-Relational-Databases.htm

Chapter 6 Q3: Describe the advantages an organisation can gain by using a database.

A "Business Intelligence" database is specifically designed to enhance management's ability to understand their business operations and make good business decisions. It is imperative to have an in depth knowledge about factors such as your customers, competitors, business partners, economic environment, and internal operations to make effective and good quality business decisions.


Relational databases minimise errors in several ways. Reduces information redundancy and increases information integrity (quality)

There's only a single storage location for any piece of information, so:
•data updates are simple with no need to change same info in 15 different files
•info is always up-to-date - there's no chance of old data remaining in some forgotten files
Numbers are numbers, and dates are dates:
•no typos like 1o, i0, l0, instead of 10
•avoid data-typing problems like the dreaded Excel "All-numbers-are-text" syndrome.
•avoid unwanted text-to-date conversions such as "MAR03" becoming 3rd March 1900
Error check data as they're entered
•data are validated on entry, to filter impossible values
•data can be cross-checked against existing information (no more pregnant males!)

Combine datasets easily and efficiently


With a database you can combine different data easily. No more error-prone cut-and-paste to force the data into a different format. Do away different with all the intermediate Excel spreadsheets that are often generated when manipulating data. (And which you often daren't delete just in case they contain important information.)
Data manipulation is performed using Queries. These use Structured Query Language, SQL, to combine, update and manage data, but often the user need not know any SQL to perform complex tasks. In Microsoft Access, for example, the visual Query Builder provides an intuitive interface that makes most queries simple


Reveal new features of the data: Increased flexibility, Increased information security and Increased scalability and performance.

A customised database can reveal new areas for investigation by presenting large quantities of data in an intuitive form.
Often patterns only become apparent by 'flicking through' the data. With a customised database this is possible in new ways: data from many different sources can be brought together and displayed quickly and easily.

http://www.sunadal.co.uk/db.php

Chapter 6 Q2:Define the relationship between a database and a database management system.

A collection of interrelated data together with a set of programs to access the data, also called database system, or simply database. The primary goal of such a system is to provide an environment that is both convenient and efficient to use in retrieving and storing information.




A database management system (DBMS) is designed to manage a large body of information. Data management involves both defining structures for storing information and providing mechanisms for manipulating the information. In addition, the database system must provide for the safety of the stored information, despite system crashes or attempts at unauthorized access. If data are to be shared among several users, the system must avoid possible anomalous results due to multiple users concurrently accessing the same data.



Examples of the use of database systems include airline reservation systems, company payroll and employee information systems, banking systems, credit card processing systems, and sales and order tracking systems.



A major purpose of a database system is to provide users with an abstract view of the data. That is, the system hides certain details of how the data are stored and maintained. Thereby, data can be stored in complex data structures that permit efficient retrieval, yet users see a simplified and easy-to-use view of the data. The lowest level of abstraction, the physical level, describes how the data are actually stored and details the data structures. The next-higher level of abstraction, the logical level, describes what data are stored, and what relationships exist among those data. The highest level of abstraction, the view level, describes parts of the database that are relevant to each user; application programs used to access a database form part of the view level.

http://www.answers.com/topic/database-management-system

Chapter 6 Q1: List, describe, and provide an example of each of the five characteristics of high quality information.

High quality information is crutial to the decision making process of any organization. The characteristics of value information include:

Accuracy: preventing data entry errors with strictly entering accurate data.

Completeness: if data is incomplete then it's useless since it wouldn't represent an accurate whole image of reality.

Consistency: crutial part of the database approach as same data will be shared through the different departments.

Uniqueness: data has to be unique and pass the data integrity test.

Timeliness: data has to be updated to consistently be reliable.