Week 11: Clear - Solutions to Some of the Problems in Paradise

Data Asset - Data and Information

Every business today faces the expense and other issues associated with analyzing information and  collecting, storing, and retrieving data.  As a result of incompatible systems, transaction processing systems and live operational data, even the information itself possess problems for every business, website, call center, etc. 

This week's material discussed solutions used to handle the issues mentioned above:

Gallaugher.  Information Systems, Chapter 11, Figure 11.2*

                        

 

1. Data Warehouse - a set of databases designed to support decision making in organizations as it stores current and historical data. 
2. Data Mart - a single database or databases focused solely on addressing the concerns of a specific problem, question or business unit. 
3. Data Mining - using computers to identify hidden patterns in, and to build models from, large data sets.  To use this process to look for trends and patterns the data must be accurate, organized and consistent. 
4. Business Intelligence (BI) - combining data exploration, ad hoc queries, aspects of reporting and sophisticated data modeling and analysis.  As a result, users have access to various reports:

Gallaugher. Information Systems, Chapter 11, Figure 11.3*

• Reports are no longer just "canned" - easy to use and all parameters are predetermined by the programmers, but users have access to 
•  "ad hoc" reports - puts users in control as users create their own reports as needed.  This type of report is harder to use as knowledge of the system and the information is necessary. 
• "Dashboards" - another BI tool, gives an at-a-glance view of critical indicators that allow managers to get graphical performance metrics more quickly. 
• "OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)" - this is one of the most valuable BI tools and is a method of querying and reporting that takes data from standard relational databases, calculates and summarizes it and then stores it in a special database called a data cube (a special database used to store data in OLAP reporting).  

Data and Information are mong the most valuable assests available and there will always be the need for solutions to store and handle it properly.  Without data and information, businesses cannot make the proper analysis necessary to forecast and prepare for future trends and patterns.  

Turning data into useful information which can be used to answer questions, to solve problems and to help reveal innovative ways firms can improve, is the key benefit.  This benefit is the reason firms are willing to weather the storm to continue the quest for more effective and cost efficient solutions.




*Wrtten consent for reused with attribution granted in front cover of textbook.

Access Project - More Power and Functionality Brings Complexity

Hawiane Tidwell, 2012.

Microsoft ACCESS - Serious Business Tool, Much More Powerful Than Excel But Not As User-Friendly...

Microsoft Access can do so much more than Excel, as Access provides more power and functionality.  There is one small drawback though, and that is that this attribute in and of itself, makes Access less user-friendly and much more difficult to learn.  However, the benefits businesses gain from utilizing Access far outweigh the high level of difficulty Access's learning curve can present. 

Hawiane Tidwell, 2012.

This past week Access was the project assigned for ISM 3004.  Time only allowed for limited hands on experience but the project requirements weren't overly easy.  Even though we only touched the peak of the iceberg this project was still challenging and I'm very thankful Dr. Olson had mercy on us as this could have been a very, very difficult project. 

Over the past week I have created databases, imported data into Access (data from Excel files and from CSV text files), created tables, queries, forms, and reports.  As I stated before, this is only the tip of the iceberg of what Access can do, however, with these limited skills, I still possess the knowledge and ability necessary to facilitate the needs of most businesses. 

Also, with the additional information provided in Dr. Olson's "Access Skill Track", I was able to enhance the functionality of the database that I created by using features in Access that increases the integrity of the data or increased productivity: 

Hawiane Tidwell, 2012

• After I created (per the project specifications) the "Members" table and the "New Members Entry Form", I cut down the potential for errors by adding validation rules to the "gender" and "membership type" fields. 
• After I created (per the project specifications) the "New Members Form", I added an informative text label and I changed the "tab order" of the form so that Access would not tab through the "ID" field and only tabbed through the fields provided to enter new member's information.
• After I created (per the project specifications) the "Recently Departed Individual Members" report, to make all pages of the report more informative I moved the "report header" to the "page header" section and I changed the formatting so that "section headings" repeated.   

To further enhance the functionality of this database, it could be used to house and analyze the results of a survey designed to determine how services currently being provided could be improved to increase membership and retention rates.  Survey would be provided to current and past members.  The database would also be used to retrieve the contact information for previous members.

Hawiane Tidwell, 2012

Access is so extensive each time I'm exposed to it I never remember everything I learn to meet the requirements for a class assignment or even to get through a project for work.  I can however say that the number of my core skills (skills I consistently remember) increases each time.  So who knows, I might just become an Access Expert e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y...