MGT 300 - Chapter 7

STORING ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

What is Information ?


⧭ Information is everywhere is an organization
⧭ Information is stored in databases :

• DATABASES - maintains information about various of objects (inventory), events (transactions), people (employees), and places (warehouses)

⧭ Database models include :

• HIERARCHICAL DATABASE MODEL - information is organized into a tree-like structure using parents/child relationships) in such a way that it cannot have too many relationships.
• NETWORK DATABASE MODEL - a flexible way of representing objects and their relationships.
• RELATIONAL DATABASE MODEL - stores information in the form of logically related two-dimensional tables.

ENTITIES AND ATTRIBUTES

Entity - a person, place, thing, transaction, or event about which information is stored

Attributes (fields, columns)  - characteristics or properties of an entity class

KEYS AND RELATIONSHIPS

💜 Primary keys and foreign keys identify the various entity classes (tables) in the database

• PRIMARY KEYS - a field (or group of fields) that uniquely identifies a given entity in a table
• FOREIGN KEYS - a primary key of one table that appear an attribute in another table and acts to provide a logical relationship among the two tables

RELATIONAL DATABASE ADVANTAGES

💕 Database advantages from a business perspectives include

• Increased flexibility 
• Increased scalability and performance
• Reduced information redundancy
• Increased information integrity (quality)
• Increased information security

INCREASED FLEXIBILITY

- A well-designed database should:

 Handle changes quickly and easily
 Provide users with different views
 Have only one physical views

• physical view - deals with the physical storage of information on a storage device

have mutiple logical views

• logical view - focuses on how users logically access information

INCREASED SCALABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

➤ A database must scale to meet increased demand, while maintaining acceptable performance levels

• Scalability - refers to how well a system can adapt to increased demands
• Performances - measures how quickly a system perform a certain process or transaction

REDUCE INFORMATION REDUNDANCY

➤ Databases reduce information redundancy

• Redundancy - the duplication of information or storing the same information in multiple places

➤ Inconsistency is one of the primary problems with redundant information

 

INCREASE INFORMATION INTEGRITY (QUALITY)

➤ Information Integrity - measures the quality of information

➤ Integrity Constraint - rules that help ensure the quality of information

 

INCREASE INFORMATION SECURITY

➤ Information is an organizational asset and must be protected

➤ Databases offer several security features including :

• password - provides authentication of the user
• access level - determines who has access to the different types of information
• access control - determines types of user access, such as read-only access

Data-Driven Web Site Business Advantages

• Development
• Content Management
• Future Expandability
• Minimizing Human Error
• Cutting Production and Update Costs
• More efficient
• Improved Stability

Integration Information among Multiple Databases

➤Integration - allows separate systems to communicate directly with each other

• Forward Integration - takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to all downstream systems and processes
• Backward Integration -  takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to all upstream systems and processes