CHAPTER 7 : STORING ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION – DATABASES

LEARNING OUTCOMES

7.1 Define the fundamental concepts of the relational database model

The relational database model is a type of database that stores information in the form of logically related two-dimensional tables. For an example, web sites of student portal UiTM, when student click to student portal, then click to subjects, inside it have all the subjects that student taken. In the primary concepts of the relational database model have an entities, entity classes, attributes, keys, and relationships. An entity in the relational database model is a person, place, thing, transaction or event about which information is stored. Attributes also called fields or columns, are characteristics or properties of an entity class. Developers must identify primary keys and foreign keys in order to manage and organize various entity classes within the relational database model and use both of keys to create logical relationships. A primary key is a field (or group of fields) that uniquely identifies a given entity in a table. It are important because they provide a way of distinguishing each entity in a table. A foreign key in the relational database model is a primary key of one table that appears as an attribute in another table and acts to provide a logical relationship between the two tables.

7.2 Evaluate the advantages of the relational database model

The advantages of the relational database model are :

Ø  Increased flexibility – database provide flexibility in allowing each user to access the information in whatever way best suits his or her needs.  The distinction between logical and physical views is important in understanding flexible database user views.

Ø  Increased scalability and performance – only a database could ‘scale’ to handle the massive volumes of information and the large numbers of users required. Scalability refers to how well a system can adapt to increased demands. Performance measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction.

Ø  Reduced information redundancy – is the duplication of information or storing the same information in multiple places. Redundant information occurs because organizations frequently capture and store the same information in multiple locations.

Ø  Increased information integrity (quality) – information integrity is a measure of the quality of information. Within a database environment, integrity constraints are rules that help ensure the quality of information.

Ø  Increased information security – as systems become increasingly complex and more available over the Internet, security becomes an even bigger issue.

7.3 Compare relational integrity constraints and business-critical integrity constraints.

There are two types of integrity constraints :

Relational integrity constraints

Business-critical integrity constraints

Rules that enforce basic and fundamental information-based constraints. For an example, an operational integrity constraint would not allow someone to create an order for a nonexistent customer, provide a markup percentage that was negative or order zero pounds of raw materials from a supplier.

Enforce business rules vital to an organization’s success and often require more insight and knowledge than relational integrity constraints. Consider a supplier of fresh produce to large grocery chains. The supplier might implement a business-critical integrity constraint stating that no product returns are accepted after 15 days past delivery. That would make sense because of the chance of spoilage of the produce.

7.4 Describe the benefits of a data-driven website

Advantages of a data-driven website :

ü  Development – allows the website owner to make changes any time and all without having to rely on a developer or knowing HTML programming. A well-structured data-driven website enables updating with little or no training.

ü  Cutting production and update costs – a data-driven website can be updated and ‘published’ by any competent data-entry or administrative person. In addition to being convenient and more affordable, changes and updates will take a fraction of the time that they would with a static site. While training a competent programmer can take months or even years, training a data-entry person can be done in 30-60 minutes.

ü  More efficient – by their very nature, computers are excellent at keeping volumes of information intact. With a data-driven solution, the system keeps track of the templates, so users do not have to. Global changes to layout, navigation, or site structure would need to be programmed only once, in one place, and the site itself will take care of propagating those changes to the appropriate pages and areas. A data-driven infrastructure will improve the reliability and stability of a website, while greatly reducing the chance of ‘breaking’ some part of the site when adding new areas.

ü  Improved stability – any programmer who has to update a website from ‘static’ templates must be very organized to keep track of all the source files. If a programmer leaves unexpectedly, it could involve re-creating existing work if those source files cannot be found. Plus, if there were any changes to the templates, the new programmer must be careful to use only the latest version. With a data-driven website, there is peace of mind, knowing the content is never lost even if your programmer is.

7.4 Describe the two primary methods for integrating information across multiple databases 

An organization can choose from two integration methods which are forward and backward integration.....

Forward integration takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to all downstream systems and processes. Means the expansion of a business products or services to related areas in order to more directly to fulfill the customer's needs. An example, farmers sell his or her crops at the local market rather than to a distribution center...
Backward integration takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to all upstream systems and processes..

CHAPTER 5 : ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES THAT SUPPORT STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

IT ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

IT is a new functional area, having only been around formally around 40 years…recently IT-related strategic positions…. Some organizations had many chief officer but it depends on the number of employees….the larger the number of employees, the larger the number of chief officer….such as:-

      Chief Information Officer (CIO)

-          Oversees all uses of IT and ensures the strategic alignment of IT with business goals and objectives

-          Some reports often sent directly to the CEO

-          Possess a solid and detailed understanding of every aspect of an organization coupled with tremendous insight into the capability of IT

      Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

-          Speeds of information deliver to customers

-          Ensures efficiency of IT systems

-          Possess well-rounded knowledge of all aspects of IT include hardware, software and telecommunications

      Chief Security Officer (CSO)

-          Ensures the security of organization in IT systems and develop strategies

-          Avoids hackers from public/competitor

-          The role has been elevated in recent years because of the numbers of hackers and viruses

-          Possess detailed knowledge of networks and telecommunications

      Chief Privacy Officer (CPO)

-          Ensures the ethical and legal use of information – information of customers saved nicely

-          Its newest senior executive position in IT

-          Lawyers by training, enabling to understand the often complex legal issues surrounding the use of information

      Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)

-          Collecting, maintaining and distributing the organization’s knowledge

-          Designs programs and systems that make it easy for people to reuse knowledge

-          Create repositories of organizational documents, methodologies, tools and practices

-          Establish methods for filtering the information

-          Keep the systems up-to-date by encourage employees contributions

-          Contribute directly to the organization’s bottom line by reducing the learning curve for new employees or employees taking on new roles

USE OF FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK????i'm sure that all of you know about facebook and using facebook....facebook is a famous networking that many people use that to connect with other people......anything can be made by using facebook.....as all you know, some users use this type of networking as a platform of their business or called as a business online....so how far the efficiency and effectiveness of facebook in terms to carry on the business???some business success by using facebook because they know how to give satisfaction to their customers...nowdays people not need to walking to shopping but sit in front of the computer just click the mouse, the products will be received to them...so an organization have to use all resources in order to customer can see the products in the page of fb...so that an organization can show the products to satisfied customer by deliver the similar products that had been showed in page of fb...

MEASURING THE SUCCESS OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

Efficiency and Effectiveness IT metrics

definition of metrics....metrics is a measurement by which is efficiency, performance, progress or quality of a plan, process or product can be assessed....

Efficiency IT metrics....

measure the performance of an IT systems and many aspects of performance including throughput speed and availability of the system......its organized the way of documenting and reporting the findings of efficiency IT metrics....it is important for evaluate and improve performance of an IT system and also make sure these system is being utilized in a proper way to ensure effectiveness of business process....an example, how far a company can use resources to achieve the goals....

Effectiveness IT metrics....

measures how well a company or business is reaching its objectives and constantly questions as to a whether the right actions being taken to meet the given objectives......sometimes employer make surveys in the company to know how well their employees work together as an organization to achieve their target or goals in terms to maintain satisfaction of customers......an example, how well customers of Apple products receive the similar information or updates of new products.....

ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP)

Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP is a system that is used to combined all of the information or operations of a company into a single unit...their standard system will utilize both computer hardware and software in order to achieve this....the most important parts of the ERP system is the central database and used to store information from various modules....the goal of ERP is to unify the various functions of an institution but it also not simply limited to corporations and commonly used by non-profit organizations,government agencies and other institutions....it must meet a certain requirement in order to be recognized as an ERP....now i want to describe the summary of importance of ERP.......an ERP is important tool in our world of today...when business processes are streamlined into a single unify unit, the company will operate at a higher level and automatically lead to higher level of productivity and turn to more profits....ERP also is greater levels of information flow along with a higher quality of information and that will be able rapidly transfer information from one place to another and thus act on the data within a short period of time....

Futhermore, ERP also allows a company to effectively manage its inventory..for example, when the products are manufactured, it will be done with a higher level of precision....this technology also can make the cost more lower....the money saved by the organization can be used to invest in new products or marketing strategies..ERP also allows a company to become highly flexible...means the company able to quickly adapt to changes that occur in the market....flexibility is very important today because if an organization is not flexible, it will be difficult for them to stay competitive....besides that, the most important of ERP is the implementation of software....in dealing with software issues, ERP can also help companies integrate their operations...at the same time, it is important to realize that there are a number of challenges involved with utilizing ERP and maybe it will be costly.....ERP tools are outside the price range of many organizations.....all this are the importance of ERP.....that's all for this chapter.....tq

FUTURE TECHNOLOGY....

future technology...