Evolution of Information System Models

The development in information system models is inextricably linked to developments in Information

Technology, particularly in computer hardware capabilities, which allow for more robust and more
sophisticated computing implementations. In turn, the users’ clamor for functionalities that were then
unavailable drive the developments in Computing Hardware.
Developments in software on the other hand depend on the user
requirements and are limited by the capabilities that the hardware
infrastructure imposes on software. Shown on the picture are
operators working on the computer Colossus. The Colossus was
the first electronic programmable computer developed by
Tommy Flowers and was first demonstrated in
December 1943. The Colossus was created to help the British
codebreakers reading cryptic German messages during World
War II.

TOPICS
■ IS Evolution Timeline
We will look at the different models arranged in an evolution timeline. In each evolution state, we will
discuss the defining feature or characteristic of the information system, the advantages and or
disadvantages and how they relate to the developments in information technology and computers.
■ Manual or Traditional Model which evidently was adopted first by the French particularly the
partnership of Giovanni Farolfi and Company a merchant partnership based in nimes France.
■ Flat-file or Legacy Model characterized by the absence of structures for indexing or recognizing
relationships between records.
■ Relational Database which is the antithesis of the flat=file model.
■ REA and ERP or Resources, Events and Agents conceptual accounting model and the Enterprise
Resource Planning model combined to deliver solutions to integrated management of mission critical
business processes often in real time.
■ Example REA / ERP Implementation
■ How does the Accountant fit? Or the role of the accountant related to information systems such as the
AIS.

In the 21st century, early accounting information systems were designed for payroll functions in
the 1970s. Presently AIS are designed to support all accounting functions and activities including auditing,
financial accounting and reporting, managerial/management, accounting and tax.

The most widely adopted accounting information systems are auditing and financial reporting
modules. Today, accounting information systems are more commonly sold as prebuilt software packages
from large vendors such as Microsoft, Sage group, SAP AG| SAP and Oracle Corporation|Oracle where it is
configured and customized to match the organization's business processes. Small businesses often use
accounting lower-cost spreadsheets such as Ms. Excel. Software packages such as MYOB and Quickbooks
are also purchased by small and medium-sized companies for the extra control over data. Large
organizations would often choose enterprise resource planning or ERP systems. Today, Cloud-based
accounting information systems are increasingly popular for both SMEs and large organizations for lower
costs. With adoption of accounting information systems, many businesses have removed low skills,
transactional and operational accounting roles.

THE INFORMATION SYSTEM EVOLUTION TIMELINE

 The timeline is drawn with an arrow indicating evolution. The timeline arrow is also inclined upward
indicating general improvements in functionalities or capabilities of the information system. The arrowhead
indicates that there are still unknown technology inventions in the future that will disrupt the present. The
years indicated are not to be understood as the inception of evolution, but the general period when such
evolution has attained general acceptance and has been assimilated into business applications. It must also
be noted that each of these evolution stages are still in use at present and the hardware and software
technology that supports them still exists and are operational in many organizations, including the National
Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA).

1. Manual or Traditional Model

This early model of information system is synonymous to what you are learning in the classrooms
today. Recording transactions manually in physical journals and ledgers, performing month-end tasks using
a multiple column worksheet from which the financial statements take the data and manually prepare the
formal financial statements from the worksheet. This model is already eight centuries-old. As early as the
13th century evidence of business bookkeeping reinforced by the invention of the double entry system that
evolved over time and religiously adapted by Amatino Manucci. Manucci gave us the earlier extant record
of accounting using the double entry system. He kept the accounts for Giovanni Farolfi & Company, a
merchant partnership based in Nîmes, France. Manucci was a partner for the salon France branch. The
writing, entirely in Manucci's hand, is neat, legible, and mostly well preserved. Financial records from 1299
—1300 survive that he kept for the firm's branch in Salon, Provence. Although these records are incomplete,
they show enough detail to be identified as double-entry bookkeeping. These details include the use of
debits and credits and duality of entries. "No more is known of Amatino Manucci than this ledger that he
kept." Manucci didn't invent the double entry system, that was a 100-year process (perhaps a 9,000 year
process). If he didn't finish the process himself, it didn't occur long before because it was clearly finished by
the time he kept the books for his company.

Later in 1494, an Italian Mathematician, Franciscan Friar Luca Pacioli describe the double entry
system in his book Summa de arithmetica, geometria, Proportioni et proportionalita, published in Venice in
1494. It was the textbook for use in the schools of Northern Italy. With regards to this book,
Foxbusiness.com published an article entitled Luca Pacioli's 1494 book on business, accounting could fetch
$1.5M at auction. Although Pacioli was not the first to publish a book describing the manual method, he was
second to Benedetto Cotrugli. He was referred to as the Father of Accounting And bookkeeping in Europe

Other extant documents from the 13th Century include:

One Bank Ledger fragments from 1211 in Florence, France, Ledgers of Reinieri Fini & Brothers (1296-
1305), and Ledger of Giovanni Farolfi and Co. (1299-1300)

Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United
States, in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going
from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, the
increasing use of steam power and water power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the
mechanized factory system. The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every
aspect of daily life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to
exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists have said the most important effect of the
Industrial Revolution was that the standard of living for the general population in the Western world began
to increase consistently for the first time in history, although others have said that it did not begin to
meaningfully improve until the late 19th and 20th centuries. While the revolution gave birth to the
corporations, the managers, cost accounting and auditing, there was no notable development in how the
businesses manage the explosion of data caused by the increase in the volume of business transactions,
number of employees and workers, sales and service volumes and the need to track the cost of production
and service. Businesses were still recording the transactions in physical journals and ledgers and are
preparing financial statements including the consolidated financial statements of corporations, manually.

Values of Learning the Manual Accounting System

1. Learning the manual system links classroom theories and the IT accounting courses. The knowledge
gained in the manual system enables students to understand the concepts in the IT courses, including AIS.

2. It enables students to understand the IT “Black Box”. This indicates that whatever happens inside of
a computer when you click a button will not be a mystery anymore. Students can relate the computer tasks
with the manual tasks they were accustomed to. For example, when you click a button, say “prepare FS” and
the output is displayed on the monitor or printed on paper. The student knows the inputs to the process and
the manipulations the computer performed over the input to come out with the output.

3. It enables better business process design. Accountancy students are exposed to business cycle
transactions and various internal controls implemented to ensure the integrity of information in the journal,
protection of the actual assets and the conformity of the financial statements to financial reporting standards.
Where controls are inadequate, the accountant can be counted on to assess the design and recommend
improvements to it.

2. Flat-File or Legacy Model

The second stage in the evolution of information systems is the adoption of the flat file model. This
approach is most often associated with so-called legacy systems, which are large mainframe systems such as
the IBM701 and IBM system 360 implemented in the late 1960s through the 1980s. “In the 1990s. I saw
one of these IBM monoliths in my work in PhilAm Plans Inc. It occupied half of the sixth floor of our office
building.”
Organizations today still use these systems extensively and accountants must continue to deal with
legacy system technologies. This model describes an environment in which individual files are not related to
other files. End users own their data files rather than share them with other users. When multiple users need
the same data for different purposes, they must obtain separate data sets structured to their specific need.
Thus stand-alone applications rather than integrated systems perform data processing separate from each
other. A list of names, addresses, and phone numbers written by hand on a sheet of paper is a flat-file
database. This can also be done with any typewriter or word processor. A spreadsheet or text editor program
may be used to implement a flat-file database, which may then be printed or used online for improved search
capabilities.
 In Excel, a workbook with a single sheet is a
flat-file. In other words, a table with data is also a flat-
file. The figure on the side illustrates how customer
sales data might be presented to different users of a
Service Company. The accounting function needs
customers' sales data organized by account number and
structure to show outstanding balances. This is used for
customer billing, maintenance and financial statement
preparation. Marketing needs customer sales history data
organized by demographic keys. They use this for targeting new product promotions and for selling product
upgrades. The Product Services Group need customer sales data organized by products and structure to show
scheduled service dates. Such information is used for making after sales contacts with customers to schedule
preventive maintenance and to solicit sales of service agreements. The Customer Care also needs the
customer data for accessing history of call-ins and call-outs for customer inquiries and complaints. The data
redundancy demonstrated in this example contributes to three significant problems in the flat-file
environment.

Problems with the flat file model

The obvious problems stemming from the flat file model’s data redundancy are
1. Data storage – because the databases are not related nor shared with each other, each department
keeps their own database, in contrast an efficient information system captures and stores data only
once and makes this source available to all users who need it. In this model this is not possible, to
meet the private data needs of users, organization must incur the costs of both multiple collection and
multiple storage procedures. Some commonly used data may be duplicated dozens hundreds or even
thousands of times. MORE THAN NECESSARY.
2. Data Updating – organizations have a great deal of data stored in files that require periodic updating
to reflect changes for example a change to a customer’s name or address must be reflected in the
appropriate master files. When users keep separate files all changes must be made separately for each
group of users this adds significantly to the task and the cost of data management. DUPLICATE
INSTANCES ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION.
3. Currency of Information – In contrast to the problem of performing multiple updates is the
problem of failing to update all the user files affected by a change in status. If update information is
not properly disseminated, the change will not be reflected in some user’s data resulting in decisions
based on outdated information. MULTIPLE UPDATES TAKES TIME AND MAY NOT
COMPLETELY UPDATE ALL INSTANCES.
4. Task Data Dependency – user’s inability to obtain additional information as his or needs change is
a big challenge. The user's information set is constrained by the data that he or she possesses and
controls. Users act interdependently rather than members of a user community, in such environment
it is very difficult to establish a mechanism for the formal sharing of data therefore new information
needs tend to be satisfied by procuring new data files. This takes time inhibits performance adds to
data redundancy and drive state of management cost even higher.
5. Data Integration - Flat files limit data integration, the flat file approach is a single view model. Files
are structured, formatted and arranged to suit the specific needs of the owner or primary user of the
data, such structuring however may exclude data attributes that are useful to other users thus
preventing successful integration of data across the organization. For example, because the
accounting function is the primary user of accounting data these data are often captured, formatted
and stored to accommodate financial reporting and generally accepted accounting principles or
GAAP, this structure however may be useless to the organisations other non-accounting users of
accounting data such as the marketing, finance, production and engineering functions. These users
are presented with three options:
1. do not use accounting data to support decisions
 2. manipulate and massage the existing data structure to suit their unique needs
3. obtain additional private sets of the data and incur the costs and operational problems
associated with data redundancy.

ELECTRONIC DATA IN BUSINESS

The flat file arrow was uncontestably dominated by the tech company international business machines or
IBM. IBM nicknamed Big Blue is an American multinational technology company headquartered in
Armonk, New York with operations in over 170 countries the company began in 1911 founded in
Endicott NY as the computing tabulating recording company CTR was renamed International Business
Machine in 1924. By 1937 IBM was still using the tabulating equipment using punch cards as input and
data storage medium, the punch card may be considered the first computerized flat file database as it
presumably included no cards indexing other cards or otherwise relating the individual records that is the
individual cards to one another.
The punch card technology enabled organizations to process huge amounts of data. IBM’s clients
included the US government during its first effort to maintain the employment records for 26 million
people pursuant to the Social Security Act and Hitler’s Third Reich for the tracking of Jews and other
persecuted groups largely through the German subsidiary Dehomag. The Social Security related business
gave an 81 increase in revenue from 1935 to 1939.
By the 1940s IBM had no computers they were only selling business machines and data management
services Using the punch card technology led by its first president Thomas Watson senior IBM was not
eager to jump into the enormously costly development of computers until the company was threatened
into it by its customers who were fed up by bulky punch cards, they threatened to cancel their IBM
contracts just as soon as they learned how to do data management using magnetic tapes because their
IBM data in punch cards which stores the customer accounts data were occupying whole floors in their
buildings.
So in 1952 IBM announced to the public its first commercial scientific computer and its first series
production mainframe computer the IBM 701 electronic data processing machine, it was responsible for
bringing electronic computing to the world and for IBM's dominance in the mainframe computer market
during the 1960s and 1970s that continues today. The series were IBM's high-end computers until the
arrival of the IBM system 360 in 1964, these machines are now referred to as part of the legacy systems.
In computing, a legacy system refers to an old method, technology computer system or application
program of relating to or being previous or outdated computer system yet still in use. Often referencing a
system as legacy means that it paved the way for the standards that would follow it, this can also imply
that the system is out of date or in need of replacement, the first use of the term legacy to describe
computer systems probably occurred in the 1970s when the relational database proposed by Edgar Frank
Codd started to saturate the computer market. By the 1980s it was commonly used to refer to existing
computer systems to distinguish them from the design and implementation of new systems legacy was
often heard during a conversion process for example when moving data from the legacy system to a new
database.
LEGACY STILL IN USE BECAUSE
In spite of these inherent limitations many large organizations still use the flat files for their general
ledger and other financial systems, most members of the data processing community assumed that the
end of the century would see the end of legacy systems instead corporate America invested billions of
dollars making these systems year 2000 y2k compliant.
 Legacy Systems continue to exist because they add value for their users and they will not be replaced
until they cease to add value. Students who may have to work with these systems in practice should be
aware of their key features while legacy is a term that may indicate that some engineers may feel that a
system is out of date. A legacy system can continue to be used for variety of reasons, it may be the
system still provides for the user's needs as can be seen on the slide. In 2011, MS-DOS was still used in
some enterprises to run legacy applications, such as this US Navy food service management system.
Another Example is an ATM being ran by a windows xp operating system software.
In addition, the decision to keep an old system may be influenced by economic reasons such as:
 Return on investment challenges or vendor lock in
 The inherent challenges of change management or a variety of other reasons than
functionality
 Organizations can have other compelling reasons for keeping a legacy system such as
restraining on new system would be costly in lost time and money compared to the
anticipated appreciable benefits of replacing it which may be zero.
 The system requires near constant availability so it cannot be taken out of service and the cost
of designing a new system with a similar availability level is high. Examples include systems
to handle customers’ accounts in banks computer reservation systems, air traffic control,
energy distribution, power grids, nuclear power plants and military defense installations.
 The way that the system works is not well understood such as situation can occur when the
designer of the system have left the organization and the system has either had not been fully
documented or documentation has been lost.
 The user expects that the system can easily be replaced when this becomes necessary
 Newer systems perform undesirable especially for individual or non-institutional users’
secondary functions such as:
A. tracking and reporting of user activity and or
B. Automatic updating that creates backdoor security vulnerabilities and leaves end
users dependent on the good faith and honesty of the vendor providing the updates. This
problem is especially acute when these secondary functions of a newer system cannot be
disabled
 Backward Compatibility such as the ability of a newer systems to handle legacy file formats
and character encodings is a goal that software developers often include in their work. (For a
more recent and updated study on the present use of legacy systems you may read the article
entitled Legacy Systems continue to have a place in the enterprise at computerweekly.com)
Software related problems with the flat file model
Flat-files associated with legacy systems are also considered to be potentially problematic by software
engineers for several reasons
1. If legacy software runs on only anticipated hardware, the cost of maintaining the system may
eventually outweigh the cost of replacing both the software and the hardware unless some form of
emulation or backward compatibility allows the software to run on new hardware.
2. These systems can be hard to maintain, improve and expand because there is a general lack of
understanding of the system. The staff who were experts on it have retired or forgotten what they
knew about it and staff who entered the field after it became legacy never learned about it in the first
place, this can be worsened by lack or loss of documentation, com air airline company fired its ceo in
2004 due to the failure of an antiquated legacy crew scheduling system that ran into a limitation not
known to anyone in the company
3. legacy systems may have vulnerabilities in older operating systems or applications due to lack of
security patches being available or applied. There can also be production configurations that cause
 security problems, these issues can put the legacy system at risk of being compromised by attackers
or knowledgeable insiders.
4. Integration with newer system may also be difficult because new software may use completely
different technologies. Integrations across technology is quite common in computing but integration
between newer technologies and substantially older ones is not common. There may not be sufficient
demand for integration technology to be developed. Some of this glue code is occasionally
developed by vendors and enthusiasts of particular legacy technologies.
5. Budgetary constraints often lead corporations to not address the need of replacement or migration
of a legacy system however companies often don’t consider the increasing support ability costs
people, software and hardware all mentioned above and do not take into consideration the enormous
loss of capability or business continuity if the legacy system were to fail. Once these considerations
are well understood then base on the proven ROI of a new more secure updated technology stack
platform is not as costly as the alternative and the budget is found.
6. Due to the fact that most legacy programmers are entering retirement age and the number of young

engineers replacing them is very small there is an alarming shortage of available workforce, this in
turn results in difficulty in maintaining legacy systems as well as an increase in costs of procuring
experienced programmers

1980 --- present DATABASE MODEL

The relational database model, a relational database is a digital database based on the relational model of
data as proposed by E.F Codd of IBM San Jose Research Laboratory in 1970. A software system used to
maintain relational database is a Relational Database Management System or RDBMS. Many Relational
Database Management Systems have an option of using the SQL/ Structured Query Language for querying
and maintaining the database, the term relational database was invented by Codd. Codd introduced the term
in his research paper, a relational model of data for large shared data banks, in this paper and later papers he
defined what he meant by relational one well-known definition of what constitutes a relational database
system is composed of Codd’s 12 rules however no commercial implementation of the relational model
conform to all of Codd’s rules so the term has gradually come to describe a broader class of database
systems which at a minimum conforms to these two standard:
1. present the data to the user as relations, a presentation in tabular form that is as a collection of tables
with each table consisting of a set of rows and columns and
2. Provide relational operators to manipulate the data in tabular form.
SLIDE 15
MARKET SHARE
According to DB-engines.com in January 2021 the most widely used system were Oracle, MYSQL(a
free software sequel server), Postgreql, Open source( a continuation development after Angra), IBM, DB2,
SQLite (a free software microsoft access), MariaDB ( a free software), SAP, Teradata, Microsoft Azure
SQL database, Apache Hive (a free software specialized for data warehouses). According to research
company Gartner in 2011, the five leading proprietary software relational database vendors by revenue
were;
● Oracle 48.8 %
● IBM 20.2%
● Microsoft 17.0%
● SAP( with Sybase) 4.6%
● Teradata 3.7%

SQL TERM RELATIONAL DESCRIPTION

DATABASE TERM
ROW Tuple or Record A data representing a single item
COLUMN Attribute or Field A labeled element of a tuple eg.
“address” or “ date of birth”
TABLE Relation or Base Relvar A set of tuples sharing the same
attributes; a set of columns and rows
VIEW OR RESULT SET Derived relvar Any set of tuples; a data report from
the RDBMS in response to a query

The table on the slide summarizes some of the most important relational database terms and the
corresponding SQL term. In 1974, IBM began developing SYSTEM R : a research project to develop a
prototype RDBMS. The first system sold as a RDBMS was a multix relational data store . June 1976 Oracle
was released in 1979 by relational software. Now Oracle Corporation, Angra and IBM-BS 12 followed other
examples of RDBMS include DB2, SAP CYBASE ASE, and INFORMIX.
In 1984, the first RDBMS for Macintosh began being developed codenamed SILVERSURFER it was
later released in 1987 as fourth dimension and known today as 4D . The most definition of an RDBMS is a
product that presents a view of data as a collection of rows and columns even if it is not based strictly upon
relational theory. By this definition, RDBMS products typically implement some but not all CODD’S 12
rules. A relational database has become the predominant type of database. As of 2009 , most commercial
relational DBMSS employ SQL as their query language
 Features of the relational database model
The problem associated with the flat file model is overcome by implementing
the database model to data management. The figure on the slide shows how this
approach centralizes the organization’s data into a common database that is
shared by multiple users from different functional groups. With the organization’s
data in a central location , all users have access to the data they need to achieve
their respective operational objectives. Access to the data resources is controlled
by a database management system or DBMS, which we have discussed in
Chapter 1. This additional element in the structure is programmable to know
which data element each user is authorized to access . If the user requests data
that he or she is not authorized to access the request is denied. Thus, in this
model the organization’s procedure for assigning user authority are an important
control issue for auditors to consider.

DATABASE MODEL;
● Centralizes all data into a COMMON database
● Controls access to data using DBMS
● Enables SHARING of data
The most striking difference between the database model and the flat file model is
the pooling of data into a common database that all organizational users share. With
access to the full domain of entity data changes in user information needs can be
satisfied without obtaining additional private data sets . Users are constrained only by
the limitations of the data available to the entity and the legitimacy of their need to
access it. The policy and parameters of which are integrated into the DBMS

Through data sharing the following traditional problems associated with the flat
file approach may be overcome:
1. ELIMINATION OF DATA REDUNDANCY- each data element is stored
only once, thereby eliminating data redundancy and reducing data collection
and storage costs. For example, Customer data exists only once but is shared
by accounting, marketing and product services users. To accomplish this the
data are stored in generic format that supports multiple users
2. SINGLE UPDATE- Because each data element exists in only one place, it
requires a single update procedure . This reduces the time and cost keeping
the database current
3. CURRENT VALUES- a single change to a database attribute such in a
change in status or address is automatically made available to all users of the
attribute .Immediately reflected in the various user views

The relational database model or RDBMS made true integration possible. This
flexible database approach permits the design of integrated system applications,
capable of supporting the information needs of multiple users from a common set of
integrated database tables. It should be noted however, that RDBMS models merely
permits integration to occur. Integration is not guaranteed. Poor system designs can
occur on any model . In fact, most organizations today that employ RDBMS’s run
applications that are traditional in design and do not make full use of relational
technology.
The two remaining related models to be discussed REA and ERP employ
relational database technology more effectively.

THE REA MODEL

Resources, events or agents (REA) is a model of how an accounting system can
be re-engineered for the computer age. REA was originally proposed in 1982 by
William E. McCarthy as a generalized accounting framework and contained the
concepts of resources, events and agents. Advances in database technology have
focused renewed attention on REA as a practical alternative to the classic accounting
framework
REA is a popular model in teaching accounting information systems but it is rare
in business practice. Most companies cannot easily dismantle their legacy data
warehouse systems or are unwilling to do so. Workday incorporated, IBM scale-able
architecture for financial reporting , REA technology and ISO-15944-4 ARE
EXCEPTIONS
Richard L. Fallon and Simon Polovina have however shown how REA can also
add value when modeling current ERP business processes by providing a tool which
increases the understanding of the implementation and underlying data model .
Description of the model , the REA gets rid of many accounting objects that are not
necessary in the computer age , most visible of these are debits and credits
Double-entry bookkeeping disappears in an REA system . Many general ledger
accounts also disappear at least as persistent objects . For example; accounts
receivable or accounts payable , the computer can generate these accounts in real time
using source document records . REA treats the accounting system as a virtual
representation of the actual business. In other words, it creates computer objects that
directly represent real-world business objects. In computer science terms, REA is an
ontology. The real objects included in the REA are; goods, services or money that are
RESOURCES , business transactions or agreements that affect the resources that are
EVENTS, people or other human agencies , other companies, etc that are AGENTS .
These objects contrast with conventional accounting terms such as asset or liability
which are less directly tied to real-world objects. For example; a conventional
accounting asset such as Goodwill is not an REA resource, there is a separate REA
model for each business process in the company. A business process roughly
corresponds to a functional department or a function in a Michel Porter’s value chain.
Examples of business processes would be sales, purchases, conversion or
manufacturing ,human resources and financing. At the heart of each REA model there
is usually a pair of events linked by an exchange relationship typically referred to as
the DUALITY RELATION. One of these events usually represents a resource being
given away or lost while the other represents a resource being received or gained .
For example;in the sales process, one event would be sales where goods are given
up and the other would be cash is received. These two events are linked a cash receipt
occurs in exchange for a sale and vice versa. The duality relationship can be more
complex . For example; in the manufacturing process it would often involve more
than two events. REA systems have usually been modeled as relational databases with
entity relationship diagrams, though this is not compulsory. REA is a continuing
influence on the electronic commerce standard EBXML with McCarthy effectively
involved in the standards committee. The competing XBR, XBRLGL standard
however is at odds with the REA concept as it closely mimics double entry
bookkeeping . REA is now recognized by the Open Group (OG) within the TOGAF
standard (an industry standard enterprise framework as one dof the modeling tools
which is useful for modeling business processes

THE ERP MODEL

As the need for connectivity and consolidation between other business systems
increased, accounting information systems were merged with larger and more
centralized systems known as Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP. Before, with
separate applications to manage different business functions, organizations had to
develop complex interfaces for the systems to communicate with each other. ERP
systems such as accounting information systems are built as a module integrated into
a suite of applications that can include manufacturing supply chain, human resources
and a lot more. These modules are integrated together and are able to access the same
data and execute complex business processes.
ERP is the integrated management of main business processes often in real time
and mediated by software and technology . It is usually referred to as a category of
business management software, typically a suite of integrated applications that an
organization can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business
activities. It provides an integrated and continuously updated view of core business
processes using common databases maintained by a database management system
ERP systems track business resources, cash, raw materials, production capacity
and the status of business commitments such as orders, purchase orders and payroll.
The applications that make up the system share data across various departments ,
manufacturing, purchasing, sales, accounting etc, that provides the data . It facilitates
information flow between all business functions and manages connections to outside
stakeholders. Enterprise System Software is a multi-billion dollar that produces
components supporting a variety of business functions. IT investments have as of
2011 become one of the largest categories of capital expenditure in United States-
based businesses . Though early ERP systems focused on large enterprises , smaller
enterprises increasingly use ERP systems
The ERP system integrates a varied organizational system and facilitates error-
free transactions and production , thereby enhancing the organization’s efficiency.
However, developing an ERP system differs from the traditional system development.
ERP systems run on a variety of computer hardware and network configurations ,
typically using a database as an information repository.

SLIDE 23 (MRP-MRP II – ERP –ERP II)

ORIGIN: The Gartner Group first used the acronym ERP in the 1990s, to include the
capabilities of material requirements planning, MRP and the later manufacturing
resource planning MRP II, as well as computer integrated manufacturing. Without
replacing these terms, ERP came to represent a larger hole that reflected the evolution
of application integration beyond manufacturing. Not all ERP packages are developed
from a manufacturing core. ERP vendors variously began assembling their packages
with finance and accounting and maintenance and human resource components.

By the mid-1990s ERP systems addressed all core enterprise functions.

Governments and non-profit organizations also began to use ERP systems

SLIDE 24
EXPANSION: ERP systems experienced rapid growth in the 1990s, because of the
year 2000 problem, many companies took the opportunity to replace their old systems
with ERP.

ERP systems initially focused on automating back office functions that did not
directly affect customers and the public. Front office functions, such as Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) dealt directly with customers or e-business systems
such as e-commerce, e-government, e-telecom and e-finance.

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) became integrated later when the

internet simplified communicating with external parties. ERP II was coined in 2000 in
an article by Gartner Publications entitled “ERP is dead, Long live ERP II”

it describes web-based software that provides real-time access to ERP systems to

employees and partners, such as suppliers and customers. The ERP II role expands
traditional ERP resource optimization and transaction processing rather than just
manage, buying, selling, etc. ERP II leverages information in the resources under its
management to help the enterprise collaborate with other enterprises. ERP II is more
flexible than the first generation ERP, rather than confine ERP systems capabilities
within the organization, it goes beyond the corporate walls to interact with other
systems. Enterprise application suite is an alternate name for such systems.

ERPII systems are typically used to enable collaborative initiatives, such as

Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and
Business Intelligence (BI) among business partner organizations through the use of
various e-business technologies, developers now make more effort to integrate mobile
devices with the ERP systems. ERP vendors are extending ERP to these devices along
with other business applications. Technical stakes of modern ERP concern integration
hardware, applications, networking, supply chains. ERP now covers more functions
and roles including decision-making, stakeholder relationships, standardization,
transparency, globalization, etc.

SLIDE 25

CHARACTERISTICS: ERP systems typically include the ff characteristics:

1. integrated system

2. Operates in (or near) real time

3. Common Database supporting all apps

4. Consistent look and feel across modules

5. Installation of system with elaborate application/data integration by the Information

Technology (IT) department (provided the implementation is not done in small steps)

6. Deployment options include: on-premises, cloud hosted, or Software as a Service

(SaaS)

SLIDE 26

FUNCTIONAL AREAS: An ERP system covers the following common functional

areas. In many ERP systems, these are called and grouped together as ERP modules.

1. Financial Accounting (General Ledger, Fixed Assets, Payables including

vouchering, matching and payment receivables and collections cash management,
financial consolidation)

2. Management Accounting (Budgeting, Costing, Cost Management, Activity-based

Costing)

3. Human Resources (Recruiting, Training, Rostering, Payroll, Benefits, Retirement

and Pension plans, Diversity Management, Retirement Separation)

4. Manufacturing (Engineering, Bill of Materials, Work Orders, Scheduling, Capacity,

Workflow Management, Quality Control, Manufacturing Process, Manufacturing
Projects, Manufacturing Flow, Product Life Cycle Management)

5. Order Processing (Order To Cash, Order Entry, Credit Checking, Pricing, Available
To Promise, Inventory, Shipping, Sales Analysis And Reporting, Sales
Commissioning)

6. Supply Chain Management (Supply Chain Planning, Supplier Scheduling, Product

Configurator, Order To Cash, Purchasing, Inventory, Claim Processing, Warehousing,
Receiving Put Away, Picking And Packing,)

7. Project Management (Project Planning, Resource Planning, Project Costing, Work

Breakdown Structure, Billing Time And Expense, Performance Units, Activity
Management)

8. Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales And Marketing, Commissions,

Service, Customer Contact, Call Center Support) CRM systems are not always
considered part of the ERP systems but Rather Business Support Systems (BSS)
9. Data Services (various self-service interfaces for customers, suppliers
and/employees)

10. Management of School and Educational Institutes

SLIDE 27

BEST PRACTICES: Most ERP systems incorporate best practices, this means the
software reflects the vendor’s interpretation of the most effective way to perform each
business process. Systems vary in how conveniently the customer can modify these
practices, in addition, best practices reduced risk by 71% compared to other software
implementations. Use of best practices eases compliance with requirements such as
IFRS, Sarbanes-oxley or basel II, they can also help comply with de facto industry
standards such as electronic funds transfer. This is because the procedure can be
readily codified within the ERP software and replicated with confidence across
multiple businesses that share that business requirement. The following are some best
practices in an ERP Implementation:

1. Connectivity to plant floor information. ERP systems connect to real-time date and
transaction data in a variety of ways, these systems are typically configured by
systems integrators who bring unique knowledge on process, equipment and vendor
solutions.

2. Direct Integration. ERP systems have connectivity, communications to plant floor

equipment as part of their product offering. This requires that the vendors offer
specific support for the plant floor equipment their customers operate.

3. Database Integration. ERP systems connect to plant floor data sources through
staging tables in a database. Plant floor systems deposit the necessary information into
the database. The ERP system reads the information in the table. The benefit of
staging is that ERP vendors do not need to master the complexities of equipment
integration. Connectivity becomes the responsibility of the system’s integrator.

4. Enterprise Appliance Transaction Module (EATMs)/ These devices communicate

directly with plant floor equipment and with the ERP system via method supported by
the ERP system. EATMs can employ a staging table web services or system specific
program interfaces or APIs. EATMs offer the benefit of being an off-the-shelf
solution.

5. Custom Integration Solution. Many systems integrators offer custom solutions,

these systems tend to have the highest level of initial integration cost and can have a
higher long-term maintenance and reliability costs. Long term costs can be minimized
through careful system testing, and through documentation. Custom Integrated
Solution typically run on workstation or server class computers.
SLIDE 28

BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT (BEST PROCESS MGT)

Implementing ERP typically requires changes in existing business processes.

Poor understanding of needed process changes prior to starting implementation is the
main reason for project failure. The difficulties could be related to the system business
process infrastructure training or lack of motivation. It is therefore crucial that
organizations thoroughly analyze business processes before they deploy an ERP
software. Analysis can identify opportunities for process modernization, it also
enables an assessment of the alignment of current processes with those provided by
the ERP system.

Research indicated that risk of business process mismatch is decreased by:

1. Linking current processes to the organization’s strategy.

2. Analyzing the effectiveness of each process.

3. Understanding existing automated solutions.

SLIDE 29

ADVANTAGES of ERP

1. Integration of Business processes. The most fundamental advantage of ERP, saves

time and expense. Management can make decisions faster and with fewer errors. Data
becomes visible across the organization.

Tasks that benefit from this integration include a) Sales Forecasting which
allows inventory optimization chronological history of every transaction through
relevant data compilation in every area of operation. B) Order Tracking from
acceptance through fulfilment. C) Revenue Tracking from invoice through cash
receipts. Matching Purchase Orders (what was ordered) inventory received (what
arrived) and Costing (what the vendor invoiced)

ERP systems centralized business data which eliminates the need to

synchronize changes between multiple systems consolidation of finance marketing
sales, human resource and manufacturing applications brings legitimacy and
transparency to each bit of statistical data. Facilitates standard product naming/coding
provides a comprehensive enterprise view on islands of information, making real-time
information available to management anywhere, anytime to make proper decisions.
Protect sensitive data by consolidating multiple security systems into a single
structure.

2. Makes organization more agile. ERP creates a more agile company that adapts
better to change. It also makes a company more flexible and less rigidly structured, so
organization components operate more cohesively enhancing the business internally
and externally.

3. Improvement of Data Security. ERP can improve data security in a closed

environment. A common control system such as the kind offered by ERP systems
allows organizations the ability to more easily ensure key company data is not
compromised. This changes however with a more open environment requiring further
scrutiny of ERP security features and internal company policies regarding security.

4. Provides increased opportunities for collaboration. Data takes many forms in the
modern enterprise including documents, files, forms, audio and video, and emails.
Often each data medium has its own mechanism for allowing collaboration. ERP
provides a collaborative platform that lets employees spend more time collaborating
on content rather than mastering the learning curve of communicating in various
formats across distributed systems. ERP offers many benefits such as standardization
of common processes, one integrated system standardized reporting improved key
performance indicators (KPI) and access to common data. One of the key benefits of
ERP, the concept of an integrated system is often misinterpreted by the business.

ERP is a centralized system that provides tight integration with all major
enterprise functions be it HR planning, procurement sales, customer relations, finance
or analytics, as well as to other connected applications functions. In that sense, ERP
could be described as centralized integrated enterprise system (CIES)

*1st video continuation (start: 30th slide)

DISADVANTAGES
● Customization can be problematic
o Compared to the best of breed approach, ERP can be as meeting an
organization’s lowest common denominator needs, forcing the
organization to find workarounds to meet unique demands
● Re-engineering business processes (BPs) may damage competitiveness or
divert focus from other critical activities
● ERP can cost more than less integrated or less comprehensive solutions
(but equally effective solutions)
● High ERP switching cost can increase the ERP vendor’s negotiating
power which may increase support, maintenance and upgrade expenses
● Overcoming resistance to sharing sensitive information between
departments can divert management attention
 ● Integration of truly independent businesses can create unnecessary
independencies
● Extensive training requirements take resources from daily operations
● Harmonization of ERP system can be a mammoth task, especially, for big
companies and requires a lot of time planning and money
Example of implementation of the REA concept and ERP:
In the order processing business based on the business model of Lazada and
Shopee. The resources that are affected in the order process are cash and inventory,
the third resource which may be called order. To enable the tracking of orders that has
not been fulfilled, the events that affect this resource are listed under the events
column. There are eight events triggered by the five agents that cause an addition or
update to the databases. For example if a customer makes an order online and checks
out the item, the order and inventory resources get updated, flagging the order as
confirmed and the inventory item as reserved. When the courier delivers the item, the
order is flagged as delivered and the inventory item as sold. Lastly, when the
customer pays, the order resources are flagged as paid in the cash resource as
received.
These examples emphasize the duality of effect concepts, much like the debit
and credit concept in the traditional accounting framework.

How does the accountant fit?

Accountants are primarily involved in three ways, as system users, designers and
auditors.
As users. In most organizations, the accounting function is the single largest user of
IT. All systems that process financial transactions impact the accounting function in
some way. As end users, accountants must provide a clear picture of their needs (the
rules, techniques, internal control requirements, and algorithms) to the professionals
who design their systems. The accountant’s participation in system development
should be active rather than passive. The principal cause of design errors that result in
system failure is the absence in their involvement.
As System Designers. In appreciation of the accountant’s responsibility for system
designs, requires a historic perspective that predates the computer as a business
information tool. Traditionally, under the manual model accountants have been
responsible for the key aspects of then formation system including assessing the
information needs of users defining the contents and format of output reports
specifying sources of data selecting the appropriate accounting rules and determining
the controls necessary to preserve the integrity and efficiency of the information
system. These traditional systems are physical, observable and unambiguous. The
procedure for processing information was manual and the medium for
transmitting and storing data was paper. With the arrival of a computer, computer
programs replaced manual procedures and paper records were stored digitally. The
role accountant would play in this new era became the subject of much controversy.
Lacking computer skills, accountants were generally uncertain about their status and
unwilling to explore this emerging technology.
Many accountants relinquished their traditional responsibilities to the new
generation of computer professionals who were emerging in their organizations.
Computer programmers with no accounting or business training assumed full
responsibility for the design of AIS, as a result, many systems violated accounting
principles and lacked necessary controls, large system failures and computer frauds.
Marked this period in accounting history by the mid1970s in response to these
problems the accounting profession began to reassess the accountant’s professional
and legal responsibilities for computer-based information systems.
Today, we recognize that the responsibility for system design is divided
between accountants and IT professionals. As follows, the accounting function is
responsible over the conceptual system and the IT function is responsible for the
physical system. To illustrate the distinction between conceptual and physical
systems, consider the following examples.
The credit department of a retail business requires information about
delinquent accounts from the AR department. This information supports decisions
made by the credit manager regarding the credit worthiness of a customer. The design
of the conceptual system involves specifying the criteria for identifying delinquent
customers and the information that needs to be reported. The accountant determines
the nature of the information required, its sources, its destination, and the accounting
rules that need to be applied. The physical system is the medium and method for
capturing and presenting the information. The computer professionals determine the
most economical and effective technology for accomplishing the task.
Hence, system design should be a collaborative effort. Because of the
uniqueness of each system and the susceptibility of systems to serious error and even
fraud. The accountant’s involvement in system design should be pervasive. As
students of accounting, you are exposed early on to the processes of the different
business cycles and to the controls that should be integrated in to the manual
processes, better yet into the automated systems when you enter the workforce, you
are already equipped with much competencies, and are already well qualified to be
part of information system projects as system analysts who design the systems to be
programmed by software engineers.
As Information System Auditors. Auditing is a form of independent attention
performed by the expert, the auditor, who expresses an opinion about the fairness of a
company’s financial statements. This function requires that auditors also evaluate and
test the company’s internal controls, which may be manual or built into the
information system. Public confidence in the reliability of internally produced
financial statements rests directly on their being validated by an independent expert
auditor. This service is often referred to as the attest function. Auditors based their
opinion based on a systematic process following a set of auditing standards. As
auditors of the information systems that generate the financial statements.
Accountants are concerned about the general and application controls that are built
into the system, which affect the general assertion of existence or occurrence,
completeness, rights and obligations, valuation or allocation and presentation and
disclosure. It should be noted that the audit procedure in an IS audit, auditing through
the computer is significantly different from the traditional audit, which only employs
auditing around the computer. In your fourth year level, you will actually learn how to
audit information systems.

RELATIONAL DATABASE RELATIONSHIP (one to one, one to many, many

to many)
In understanding relational database relationships, we will use the movie rental
database schema that contains all three types of relationship.
Firstly is driver’s licence (contains: Driver ID, first name, last name, address,
postcode, date of birth, expiry date, license class, driver image), we’ve got all the
details about a person’s driver’s detail and this is being used here in logic to verify a
member’s details so we can see that they are authentic (that’s the justification for
using the entity, just using it here to illustrate one of the actual relationships).
Secondly is the member, we’re going to be justifying their details with their driver’s
license and you got all their details so that they can be referred to as by the system and
be eligible to rent movies from the system.
We’ve got rental allowing actual members to be recorded on the system every time
they rent a movie.
And finally, we’ve got movie details, the movie they are renting from the system.
So these are the four entities we’re going to be using here to illustrate the three
different types of relationships of the one to one, one to many, and many to many.
Firstly, We're going to look for the primary key (PK) and foreign key (FK) in order
to establish our relationships.
The first one is the one to one relationship between member and driver’s license.
Every member has one driver’s license that they are going to use to verify themselves
and one driver’s license is only going to be used to validate one member. So, it is one
to one, the records between each other only correlate with one another between those
two entities.
Next is the member and rent and that is a one to many relationship. One member
can make many rentals but every rental only relates to only one member.
And finally is between movies and rentals, this is a many to many relationship. And
in order to do that, once again, we need a junction. A junction two foreign keys
within it, which are both primary keys of each entity involved. Here, they are many to
many relationships, as one movie can refer to multiple rentals and every rental can
refer to multiple movies in order to establish that relationship. We’ve said that the
relationship we’ve shown in a schematic design but let’s have a look at what those
relationships actually look like when we’re referring to records because these are all
based on records referring to each other.
RELATIONAL DATABASE RELATIONSHIP
1. One to One Relationship
A single record in one entity is only referencing a single record in another entity, and
that same record within the other entity is only referencing that same single record.
Let’s go back to the relationship between the driver's license and the member.
So member ID2 is only referencing Driver ID2 (and vice versa) and member ID6 is
only referencing the driver ID6 (and vice versa).
One record only relates to one other record in the opposite entity, and vice versa.

2. One to Many / Many to One Relationship

Next is the one-to-many relationship of the many-to-one relationship, where a
single record in a one entity may reference multiple records in another entity though
within the other entity the records may only reference a single record in the initial
entity.
So as we’ve already stated member to rentals, it is a one-to-many relationship, so
one member, member ID2 makes multiple rentals so rental ID2 and rental ID6 might
both refer to member ID2. One person has made two separate rentals, another
example is member ID3 they might have done the rental ID3 and rental ID4 and rental
ID5, so those three records refer to that one specific member but one the flip side of
that when going rentals back to members, we know that rental ID2 only refers to
member ID2, it doesn’t refer to any other member because only one rental can be
made by one member and it’s the same with rental ID2, it only represents member
ID2, so that justification, it can only represent one record in that entity but member
entity can reference multiple records in the rental entity, so that’s what we’ve got to
understand with one-to-many relationship.
3. Many to many relationship
Records in both entities may reference multiple records in each other’s entity. Though
an intermediate entity is required known as a junction to compile the multiple records.
Finally we have the many-to-many relationship and as we’ve already said movies to
rentals was our many-to-may relationship, so movie ID2 might use in rental ID2 and
rental ID6, and movie ID3 may be using rental ID3 and rental ID4 and rental ID5, so
it is going from the movies to the rentals one-to-many but we said it’s exactly the
same one the flip side, in rental ID’s the movie and this is why we had to have the
junction so going back the exact opposite way rental ID2 might have involved movie
ID2 and movie ID3 both those movies were rented during that rental and rental ID3
could reference movie ID2 and movie ID3 as well exactly the same but also movie
ID4 and movie ID5, so both entities can reference multiple records in the other entity
thus establishing their many-to-many relationship.
IT INFRASTRUCTURE EVOLUTION

IT Infrastructure
- Combination of hardware, software and all other kinds of information
technology components that work together to monitor, control and support
your IT services
Most of the 1900s, the full extent of most businesses IT was based in accounting or
tabulating machines. These machines were typically quite large. The size of an
upright piano and have very limited function. They were a combination of calculator
and the printer and mostly completed tasks such as filing payroll information and
tracking billing information.
● On 1930s report on the tabulating machine made for Columbia University was
the first time the term supercomputing was used. The tabulating machines had
a long lifespan but as technology improved, it was overshadowed by a new
player in business, the mainframe. The mainframes were really big, very
powerful, and had way more functions than just payroll and billings. It could
also process huge piles of data that would have previously been impossible to
do or painstaking to do by hand. The famous mainframe IBM system/360 did
make an appearance in the episode of the TV show Mad Man called the
monolith. Mainframes weren’t really useful for everyday use due to their size
and price.
● In the early 80s, it evolved into an introduction of the personal computer. One
of the biggest differences between the PC and its predecessors is that multiple
people could be working off the same mainframe all at once. Personal
computers were also programmable. In the early 80s, the client server was
developed. This is used with major computer functions such as email,
accessing the world wide web and wirelessly printing documents. The client-
server model operates so that multiple individual PCs can connect to central
servers. Servers hold multiple functions services and resources that the PCs
can tap into at any point and utilize
● 1992, the enterprise computing was developed and became critical for
businesses' IT infrastructure. Enterprise computing assists with streamlining
processes by selling an entire platform to a company that can be accessed by
all members of the business. Analytics reports and databases are able to be
accessed from anyone connected to the system.
● In 2002, personal computers became a staple piece of equipment in almost all
workplaces. IT infrastructure technology really boomed after this point. The
introductions of networks and servers helps increase the productivity and
efficacy of how computers could operate in the workplace.
● Cloud computing is the recent addition to It infrastructure that introduced
early 90s or 2000s. It is grown important because it is the only one that does
 not require a personal computer. Cloud computing uses a network of remote
servers that are hosted on the Internet to process, store and manage data. All
cloud computers have their information stored in the internet for people to
access immediately and remotely. Programs such as Indrive, Dropbox and
iCloud utilize cloud computing.

THE LOGICAL ORGANIZATION OF A FLAT DATABASE

A flat file database is a database that consists of a single table and works as an
individual element on its own. As a whole, the database is stored as one large file and
from here can be broken down into smaller part.
● So the largest file that the database can be in its organization is that of a file
(the entire database stored as a file on a systems hard drive), which is the
whole database encapsulated, and when open, it gives all the fields record and
characters or combined and structured together giving me meaningful
information.
● Record: A complete single entry into a database. For example, if a database
was about car details, a single record would be the details of one car- car
model, manufacturer, year made, etc.
● Field: one a particular category of data within a database. Once again with the
car details database, the manufacturer would be an example of a field.
● Character: The symbols that would make up the data and the smallest unit of a
database. In the case of words, it would be each individual letter classified as a
character, as well as all other keyboard symbols. E.g. a, B, 2 +, @

RELATIONAL DATABASE RELATIONSHIP

ILLUSTRATION:
In understanding relational database relationships, we will use the following Movie
Rental database schema that contains all three types of relationship.
First is the Driver’s License, and it shows all the person’s driver details and this is
being used as a logic to verify a member’s details.
Second, the Member , it is used to justify the driver’s license and get all their details
so that it can be referred to by the system and be eligible.
Third is the rental, allowing the actual members rent to be recorded on the system
everytime they rent
Lastly, movie details, details of the one that they rent.

One-to-one relationship between members and driver’s license. Every member has
one driver’s license that will be use to verify themselves, and one driver’s license will
be used to validate one member. One-to-one between each other only correlates with
another between the two entities.
One-to-many relationship: One member can make many rentals but every rentals
only relates to one member
Many-to-many relationship: In order to do so we need the junction with two foreign
keys within it, which are both primary keys of each entity involved. One movie can
refer to multiple rentals and every rentals can refer to multiple movies in order to
establish a relationship

One-to-One Relationship: A single record in one entity is only referring to a single

record in another entity, and that same record within the other entity is only
referencing that same single record.
One to Many Relationship/ Many to One Relationship: A single record in one entity
may reference multiple records in another entity, though within the other entity the
records may only reference a single record of the initial entity.
Many to Many Relationship: Records in both entities may reference multiple records
in each other’s entities. Though an intermediate entity is required known as a junction
to compile the multiple record.

FLAT FILE VS. RELATIONAL DATABASE MODELS

FLAT FILE DATABASE RELATIONAL DATABASE

● A database consisting of a single Table ● A database comprised of multiple
● Represent using a Data Dictionary Entity
● Contains files, record, fields and ● Represented using a Schema, such as
characters an Entity Relationship Diagram or
● Advantages: Simple to create, easy to an ARD (list the entities attributes and
use, inexpensive the attributes are usually in the table
● Disadvantages: Increased data and then the relationship between the
redundancy and inconsistency entity)
● Contains entity’s attributes and
relationship
● Advantages: Reduced data
redundancy, consistency, shared data,
centralized security
● Disadvantages: Takes time to set up

DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (DBMS)

A DBMS makes it possible for end users to create, read, update and delete
data in a database. The DBMS essentially serves as an interface between the database
and end users or application programs, ensuring that data is consistently organized
and remains easily accessible. The DBMS is software that allows the database to be
accessed by the user. The database itself is a separate entity to the database
management system.
The DBMS is perhaps most useful for providing a centralized view of data
that can be accessed by multiple users, from multiple locations, in a controlled
manner. A DBMS can limit what data a user sees, as well, as how that user can view
the data, providing many views of a single database, such as form, table, query, and
reporting views, Users and software programs are free from having to no understand
where the data is physically located or on what type of storage media it resides
because the DBMS handles all the request. DBMS for every new record assigns an id
number and it always got to have primary key which automatically set a specific
number for to have a unique number for each individual record

Example of the DBMS in the form of Microsoft Access which is great starting point
for getting to understand and using Databases:
So what we’re looking at here is my
first view and this is known as a
TABLE VIEW and you can see I’ve
got a whole variety of different
things here open on my left. The
table view gives an overview of all
the records in a specific database
that have been stored on DBMS. So
the DBMS automatically every time
enters a new record, it assigns an ID
number and it always says you've
got to have a primary key which
automatically sets a specific number
for because remember that’s got to
be your unique number for each
individual record. Ot doesn’t always have to be specifically a number either.
See the power of the DBMS:
If you go create, there will be a quite few options that come up, there's queries, forms
and reports. They all help in different ways, especially when wanting to view specific
data.
First, look at the form and you can see the pre-made ones that are already on the left
side . If you go to the form view, you can actually view a specific record of its own
and it is an eye pleasing manner.
Forms are great for viewing an individual record but what we really want to do with
forms as well is to enter in a new data. And when you get to the end of record, it
already got the license ID highlighted because it automatically assigns a primary key
for that in that number, and can enter a new record , and can give space to add in large
amounts of information particularly in the address field where it might be going
multi-line. The form view is optimal.
The next view is the query view. And when you run a query view, it will be based on
surnames that start for example C, and return three of the records. SO if you go to the
nuts and bolts of the query, and go into the design view, you can see it had a query by
examples setup where for example the letter C and use the wildcard asterisk and that's
what actually returned if you click on run where you will go again to the three records
that starts with the surname C. Now, when you do a query of a database, you usually
want to do something with that data that you got queried and got back.
The final view is the report view. Based on the data acquired, you can print that off
and then actually look into all the last names.
All of this is set up by the DBMS, so you can actually see that data through table view
and through form view, which create and edit the records. And can also use queries to
search the records, and also can use records to output the records, which can be
printed off to use it for outside the DBMS
Form view: Actually view a specific record on its own, create and edit the record
Query view: To search the records and to reports the output record
Final view: Also known as report view and can see the made report based on the data
acquired