Chapter 5

Data Resource Management

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2010 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Learning Objectives

 Explain the business value of implementing

data resource management processes and
technologies in an organization
 Outline the advantages of a database
management approach to managing the data
resources of a business, compared with a file
processing approach
 Explain how database management software
helps business professionals and supports the
operations and management of a business
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 Learning Objectives

 Provide examples to illustrate the following

concepts
– Major types of databases
– Data warehouses and data mining
– Logical data elements
– Fundamental database structures
– Database development

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 Case 1: Cogent Communications, Intel, Others

 IT integration and adoption issues can make or break

merger and acquisition activities
 Companies will feel the full impact of the
merger/acquisition frenzy in their data centers
 Companies with employees who hold all the knowledge
suffer greatly when those people are let go
 It is important to document the knowledge from those
people and to figure out how to work with small crews
 Companies should know what goes on in the data
center, in terms of systems and how they interact with
each other and the business
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 Case Study Questions

 Place yourself in the role of a manager at a

company undergoing a merge or acquisition
– What would be the most important things
customers would expect from you while
still in that process?
– What role would IT play in meeting those
expectations?
 Provide at least three examples

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 Case Study Questions

 Focus on what Andi Mann in the case calls

“tribal knowledge”
– What do you think he means by that, and
why is it so important to this process?
– What strategies would you suggest for
companies that are faced with the extensive
presence of this issue in an acquired
organization?

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 Case Study Questions

 Most of the discussion on the case focused

on hardware and software issues. However,
these are essentially enablers for underlying
business processes developed by each of
the companies involved
– What alternatives do companies have for
merging their business processes, and what
role would IT play in supporting those
activities?
– Pay particular attention to data management
and governance issues

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Logical Data Elements

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 Logical Data Elements

Field
Character Record
(data item)

• A single • Represents an • Grouping of all

alphabetic, attribute (quality the fields used to
numeric, or other or characteristic) describe the
symbol of some entity attributes of an
(object, person, entity
place, event)
• Example… payroll
• Examples… records with name,
salary, job title SSN, pay rate

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 Logical Data Elements

File
Database
(table, flat file)

• Group of related • Integrated

records collection of
logically related
data elements

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Electric Utility Database

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Common Database Structures: Hierarchical

– Early DBMS structure

– Records arranged in tree-like structure
– Relationships are one-to-many

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Common Database Structures: Network

– Used in some mainframe DBMS packages

– Many-to-many relationships
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 Common Database Structures: Relational

 Most widely used structure

– Data elements are stored in tables
– Row represents a record; column is a field
– Can relate data in one file with data in another,
if both files share a common data element
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 Common Database Structures: Multidimensional

 Variation of relational model

– Uses multidimensional structures to
organize data
– Data elements are viewed as being in cubes
– Popular for analytical databases that support
Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)

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Multidimensional Model

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Common Database Structures: Object-Oriented

Source: Adapted from Ivar Jacobsen, Maria Ericsson, and Ageneta Jacobsen, The Object Advantage: Business Process
Reengineering with Object Technology (New York: ACM Press, 1995), p. 65.
Copyright @ 1995, Association for Computing Machinery. By permission.

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 Evaluation of Database Structures

Hierarchical Network Relational

Works for More flexible Easily responds

structured, than hierarchical to ad hoc
routine requests
Unable to handle
transactions ad hoc requests
Can’t handle Easier to work
many-to-many with & maintain
relationship
Not as efficient
or quick as
hierarchical or
network

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 Database Development

Database Administrator (DBA)

In charge of enterprise-wide database development

Improves integrity and security of organizational databases

Uses Data Definition Language (DDL) to develop and

specify data content, relationships, and structure

Stores these specifications in a data dictionary

or metadata repository

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 Data Dictionary

Data Contains data about data (metadata)

Dictionary
Relies on specialized software component
to manage a database of data definitions

Can be active or passive

Names and descriptions of all types of data

records and their interrelationships
Requirements for end users’ access and
use of applications
Contains Database maintenance
information
on… Security

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Database Development

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Entity Relationship Diagram

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Logical and Physical Database Views

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 Data Resource Management

 Data resource management is a managerial

activity
– Uses data management, data warehousing,
and other IS technologies
– Manages data resources to meet the
information needs of business stakeholders

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Case 2: Applebee’s, Travelocity, and Others

 Applebee’s
– Uses data for basic business decisions, such as
replenishing food supplies based on how much
finished product was sold daily
– Developing more sophisticated analyses that look
at how well items are selling
 This will help the company make better decisions about
what to order and what products to promote
 Today, organizations extensively aggregate and
mine their data to make better decisions
– Travelocity mined 600,000 comments so it could
better monitor and respond to customer issues

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 Case Study Questions

 What are the business benefits of taking the time

and effort required to create and operate data
warehouses such as those described in the case?
– Do you see any disadvantages?
– Is there any reason why all companies shouldn’t
use data warehousing technology?
 Applebee’s noted some of the unexpected insights
obtained from analyzing data about “back-of-house”
performance
– Using your knowledge of how a restaurant works,
what other interesting questions would you suggest
to the company?
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 Case Study Questions

 Data mining and warehousing technologies use

data about past events to inform better decision-
making in the future
– Do you believe this stifles innovative thinking,
causing companies to become too constrained
by the data they are already collecting to think
about unexplored opportunities?

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Types of Databases

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 Operational Databases

Stores detailed data needed to support

businesses and operations

Also called subject area databases (SADB),

transaction databases, and
production databases

Database examples:
customer, human resource, inventory

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 Distributed Databases

Distributed databases are copies or parts of

databases stored on servers at multiple locations

Protection of valuable data

Data can be distributed
into smaller databases
Each location has control
of its local data
All locations can access
any data, anywhere
Improved database Maintaining data
performance at worksites accuracy

Advantages Disadvantages

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 Distributed Databases

Replication

Look at each distributed database and find changes

Apply changes to each distributed database
Very complex

Duplication

One database is master

Duplicate the master after hours, in all locations
Easier to accomplish
Requires extra computing power & bandwidth
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 External Databases

Databases available for Hypermedia databases

a fee from the Web,
or from commercial
online services Statistical databases

Bibliographic and
full-text databases

Search engines like Google or Yahoo

are external databases

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 Components of Web-Based System

 A hypermedia database contains

– Hyperlinked pages of multimedia
– Interrelated hypermedia page elements,
rather than interrelated data records
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 Data Warehouses

Stores static data that has been extracted from

other databases in an organization
Central source of data that has been cleaned,
transformed, and cataloged
Data is used for data mining, analytical processing,
analysis, research, decision support

Data warehouses may be divided into data marts

Subsets of data that focus on specific aspects of a
company (department or process)

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Data Warehouse Components

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Applications and Data Marts

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Data Mining

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 Traditional File Processing

Data are organized, stored, and processed

in independent files

Each business application uses specialized data

files containing specific types of data records

Problems

Data redundancy
Lack of data integration

Data dependence (files, storage devices, software)

Lack of data integrity or standardization

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Traditional File Processing - Banks

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 Database Management Approach

The foundation of modern methods

of managing organizational data

A database
Consolidates Data can be management
data records, accessed by system (DBMS)
formerly in many different is the software
separate files, application interface
into databases programs between users
and databases

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Database Management Approach

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 Database Management System

In mainframe and server computer systems,

database management software is used to…

Create new databases

and database applications

Maintain the quality of the data

in an organization’s databases

Use the databases of an organization to

provide the information needed by end users

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Common DBMS Software Components

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 Database Management System

 Database Development
– Defining and organizing the content, relationships,
and structure of the data needed to build a database

 Database Application Development

– Using DBMS to create prototypes of queries, forms,
reports, Web pages

 Database Maintenance
– Using transaction processing systems and other
tools to add, delete, update, and correct data

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DBMS Major Functions

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 Database Interrogation

End User Query

Report Generator
Makes DBMS Language
Query
Immediate Quickly specify
No programming response to ad hoc a format for
required data requests information you
want to present
as a report

Response is a video display

or a printed report

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 Database Interrogation

 SQL Queries
– Structured, international standard query
language found in many DBMS packages
– Query form is SELECT…FROM…WHERE…
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 Database Interrogation

 Boolean Logic
– Developed by George Boole in the mid-1800s
– Used to refine searches to specific information
– Has three logical operators: AND, OR, NOT

 Example
– Cats OR felines AND NOT dogs OR Broadway

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 Database Interrogation

Graphical and Natural Queries

It is difficult to correctly phrase SQL and

other database language search queries

Most DBMS packages offer easier-to-use

point-and-click methods

Translates queries into SQL commands

Natural language query statements are

similar to conversational English

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Microsoft Query Wizard

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 Database Maintenance

 Accomplished by transaction processing

systems and other applications, with the
support of the DBMS
– Done to reflect new business transactions
and other events
– Updating and correcting data, such as
customer addresses

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 Application Development

Use DBMS software development tools

to develop custom application programs

Not necessary to develop detailed data-

handling procedures using conventional
programming languages

Can include data manipulation language

(DML) statements that call on the DBMS to
perform necessary data handling

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 Case 3: Amazon, eBay, and Google

 Amazon’s data vault

– Product descriptions
– Prices 10 years
& $1 billion
– Sales rankings to build

– Customer reviews
– Inventory figures
– Countless other layers of content

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 Case 3: Amazon, eBay, and Google

 Amazon opened its data vault in 2002

– 65,000 developers, businesses, and
entrepreneurs have tapped into it
– Many have become business partners

 eBay opened its $3 billion databases in 2003

– 15,000 developers and others have registered
to use it and to access software features
– 1,000 new applications have appeared
– 41 percent of eBay’s listings are uploaded to
the site using these resources
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 Case 3: Amazon, eBay, and Google

 Google recently unlocked access to its

desktop and paid-search products
– Dozens of Google-driven services cropped up
– Developers can grab 1,000 search results a
day for free; anything more requires
permission
– In 2005, the Ad-Words paid-search service
was opened to outside applications

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 Case Study Questions

 What are the business benefits to Amazon

and eBay of opening up some of their
databases to developers and entrepreneurs?

– Do you agree with this strategy?

 What business factors are causing Google

to move slowly in opening up its databases?
– Do you agree with its go-slow strategy?

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 Case Study Questions

 Should other companies follow Amazon’s

and eBay’s lead and open up some of their
databases to developers and others?
– Defend your position with an example of
the risks and benefits to an actual company

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