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MS Access - Midterm Report

MS Access - Basic Implementation Plan for Medium Business

The following report shows the main specifications of the Client Contact Management

database. It controls and stores the flow of the contact from a client in an end-to-end monitoring,

from the date when the client contacts the company to the delivery of the product. For that

matter, the database will store crucial information for both the client and the company, allowing

them to trace all the stages of any purchase. Such an organization will allow the company to

maintain an organized agenda, as well as improve the clients’ experience within the contact with

the organization.

Methodology - Entities and purpose

→ Calls - This table representation stores important information regarding the calls received

from and made to clients. It contains a unique identification number, the date and time in

which the call started, the name of the caller, additional notes (if any), and the case ID to

which the call is connected.

→ Calls (ID, Call Time, Caller, Notes, Case)

→ Cases - All the cases and their relevant information are stored in this entity. They are

identified by a unique identification number and possess a title. As a crucial part of the

information, the entity identifies the employee to whom the case is assigned, who opened
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the case and when, and carries the customer ID who needed the case to be opened. Other

relevant information that classifies the case are the status (e.g. active, inactive, concluded,

canceled), the category and priority of the case, a brief description, due and resolution dates,

additional comments (if any), related cases (if any), the knowledge base number, and

attachments (if any).

→ Cases (ID, Title, Assigned To, Opened By, Opened Date, Customer, Status, Category,

Priority, Description, Due Date, Comments, Resolved Date, Related Cases, KB, Attachments)

→ Customers - This entity stores all the relevant information about the organization’s

customers, identifying them by a unique number, the company to which they belong, job

title, their last and first names, contact forms like email address, business, home, and mobile

phones, fax number, full address (including city, state, country/region and postal code),

webpage and any additional comments and attachments.

→ Customers (ID, Company, Last Name, First Name, E-mail Address, Job Title,

Business Phone, Home Phone, Mobile Phone, Fax Number, Address, City, State/Province,

Zip/Postal Code, Country/Region, Web Page, Notes, Attachments)

→ Employees - Intending to accurately store the history of the cases and calls, the database

has a register of all the relevant information from the employees, including an identification

number, the company to which they work, fist and last names, contact forms (email,

business, home, and mobile phones, and fax number), their job title, full address, as in the

Customers entity, and any needed additional notes or attachments.

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→ Employees (ID, Company, Last Name, First Name, E-mail Address, Job Title,

Business Phone, Home Phone, Mobile Phone, Fax Number, Address, City, State/Province,

Zip/Postal Code, Country/Region, Web Page, Notes, Attachments)

→ Knowledge Base - This crucial entity stores the knowledge base information, which will

be available for the employees consultation and to the customers who require written

information to resolve their issues. Each article or rule has a unique identification number,

the title, a url where the text can be found, additional notes (if any), and the tags related to

the article or rule.

→ Knowledge Base (ID, Title, URL, Notes, Tags)

Relationships

→ Cases to Calls - one-to-many - Each case can have many calls, but each call belong to a

unique case.

→ Customers to Cases - one-to-many - Each customer can open many cases, but each case

belongs to only one customer.

→ Cases to Cases_1 - one-to-many - This self-relationship refers to a parent case that may

have a list of 0 or many cases related to it.

→ Employees to Cases - one-to-many - One employee may have zero or many cases

assigned to resolve. However, each case can be assigned to only one employee.

→ Employees_1 to Cases - one-to-many - Only one employee can be responsible for

opening a case, but the same employee can open several different cases.
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→ Knowledge Base to Cases - one-to-many - Each item of the Knowledge Base can be used

for zero or many different cases. However, each case can have only one Knowledge Base

item to assist it.

Suggestions and conclusion

The suggestions include a selection of the active cases by time segment, dividing the

active cases from the past week, month, over a month, overdue, shows for how many days the

cases have been active and some basic information about each case. Regarding cases overdue, it

is possible to analyze the reasons for the delay and understand, from the responsible employee,

the overall situation.

Considering the actual situation of the company, the lack of proper response and the

accurate information is caused by the unavailability to search the system in efficient manners.

The proposed database will assist the agents and responsible employees to keep an up-to-date

record of the cases’ steps and will provide the clients with faster solutions. Each of the suggested

forms and reports will be used to specific functionalities and results applied to improve customer

experience and to have a better analysis of the employees’ performance.

Features, benefits and disadvantages of MS Access

Microsoft has developed a whole range of products to manage data. Every product in the

suite has its purpose. Because Access is so popular, MS Access can be easily integrated with

other products in the Microsoft suite. In addition, Microsoft has integrated products throughout

the suite, making it possible to switch from one data management product to another.

Microsoft Access works in the same way as other relational databases, storing related

information and permitting connections (so-called relationships) between different entities. In

MS Access the relationships and data import from different environments, like Excel or an SQL
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text file, can be simply implemented. The database provides useful, easy-to-use, efficient, and

convenient tools for individuals, departments, and small and medium enterprises (Learnit

Admin). There are no additional software or system resources required by an IT professional to

help install components of other database management systems. Such a database tool permits

developers to get the current database up and running in half the time it takes to set up the same

system on another platform, which means scalability and reduced costs (Consultants).

It is easy to install and use. It does not require complicated programming and can be used

by the average computer user to use the information collected in the database. The installation of

the application takes only about one minute. In return, the user receives a database that is fully

functional (Gaille).

In a multi-user environment, however, MS Access was not designed to provide essential

information, such as the users currently accessing the database. The lack of information provokes

an enormous difficulty for the DB administrators to determine who can access the system and to

disconnect unwanted or unauthorized users (Gaille). This matter also prejudices the backup

processes, as users can forget their systems open by the end of the day, disabling the application

to reliably create a backup. Even though there are tools to come through this issue, they are not

built-in features, incurring in an additional installation and configuration of the database.

All data is stored in a single file. The files are close to the maximum size that Microsoft

allows in a file format, which slows down the performance of the database. The large amount of

data users have in Microsoft Access can cause limitations in other databases and programs that

do not have file size restrictions (Gaille).

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Additionally, database corruption is common when MS Access encounters an unexpected

internal error or a critical connection matter. Such a situation implies data loss, which can lead to

business disruption in some cases.

Importance of a Customer Relationship Database

Customers are important to a company because they pay bills and salaries. They relocate,

go out of business or move to a rival company. For these reasons, 34% of customers expect

losses, while the remaining 66% leave the company for some reason because they feel ignored or

rarely interact with the company (Grønsleth). A customer database increases the value of the

work of filling it with data. Business cards are more important than collecting customer data.

Businesses that do not have a customer strategy that is important for cooperation tend to fail in

the mid-term.

A customer information database is an organized collection of comprehensive

information about individual customers and prospective customers. This information is updated,

accessible and actionable. It can be used for marketing activities such as lead generation, lead

qualification, sales promotion and customer relationship maintenance (Darshan).

Companies want to connect, retain and build long-term and loyal relationships with new

customers. Database technology can track relationships with unlimited customers, which was

previously impossible (Kokemuller). Databases enable companies to collect customer profile

data, track their purchase activities and use them for targeted marketing and advertising

campaigns.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software has become an almost

indispensable tool for companies of all sizes. CRM software is a central, organized hub that

enables consistent communication between customers and organizations. It offers companies

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several advantages by organizing contacts and automating key tasks. This is particularly

important as more and more organisations switch to remote working.

For a company to be successful, customer relationship management must be

implemented. At the heart of every business, whether large or small, is the customer, and

customers are considered the king of marketing because they are the customers the business

works with, and you are able to pay salaries and bonuses to your employees.
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Works Cited

Consultants, ThesisTech. "Benefits Of Using Microsoft Access In Business". Thesistech, 2021,

https://thesistech.com/benefits-of-using-microsoft-access-in-business.php.

Darshan, Naga. "Importance Of Customer Information Database And How To Use It

Effectively". Crmneeds.Com, http://crmneeds.com/importance-customer-information-

database/.

Gaille, Brandon. "13 Pros And Cons Of Microsoft Access". Brandongaille.Com, 2016,

https://brandongaille.com/13-pros-and-cons-of-microsoft-access/.

Grønsleth, Has Christian. "CRM System: 4 Reasons Why It's Your Most Valuable Asset!".

Superoffice.Com, 2021, https://www.superoffice.com/blog/4-reasons-why-your-crm-

system-is-your-most-valuable-asset/.

Kokemuller, Neil. "Why CRM Is Important". Small Business - Chron.Com, 2020,

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/crm-important-80163.html.

Learnit Admin. "Know The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Microsoft Access - Learnit

Anytime". Learnit Anytime, 2018, https://learnitanytime.com/4031/know-the-advantages-

and-disadvantages-of-microsoft-access-2/.