CHAPTER SIX

Databases
and
Information
Management

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment

File organization terms and concepts

• Bit: Smallest unit of data; binary digit (0,1)
• Byte: Group of bits that represents a single
character
• Field: Group of words or a complete number
• Record: Group of related fields
• File: Group of records of same type

Continued …
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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment

File Organization Concepts (continued)

• Database: Group of related files
• Entity: Person, place, thing, event about which
information is maintained
• Attribute: Description of a particular entity
• Key field: Identifier field used to retrieve,
update, sort a record

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment

Problems with the traditional file environment

• Data redundancy and inconsistency
• Program-data dependence
• Lack of flexibility
• Poor security
• Lack of data sharing and availability

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment

Problems with the Traditional File

Environment
• Data Redundancy and Inconsistency:
• Data redundancy: The presence of
duplicate data in multiple data files so that
the same data are stored in more than one
place or location
• Data inconsistency: The same attribute may
have different values.

Continued …
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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment

Problems with the Traditional File

Environment (continued)
• Program-Data Dependence:
• The coupling of data stored in files and the specific
programs required to update and maintain those
files such that changes in programs require
changes to the data

Continued …
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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment

Problems with the Traditional File

Environment (continued)
• Lack of Flexibility
• A traditional file system can deliver routine
scheduled reports after extensive programming
efforts, but it cannot deliver ad-hoc reports or
respond to unanticipated information requirements
in a timely fashion

Continued …
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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment

Problems with the Traditional File

Environment (continued)
• Poor security
• Management may have no knowledge of who is
accessing or making changes to the organization’s
data
• Lack of data sharing and availability:
• Information cannot flow freely across different
functional areas or different parts of the
organization.

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

Database management systems

• How a DBMS solves the problems of the traditional
file environment
• Relational DBMS
• Operations of a relational DBMS
• Hierarchical and network DBMS
• Object-oriented DBMS

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

Relational DBMS
• Represents data as two-dimensional tables
called relations
• Relates data across tables based on
common data element
• Examples: Access, DB2, Oracle, MS SQL
Server

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

Operations of a Relational DBMS

• Select: Creates subset of rows that meet
specific criteria
• Join: Combines relational tables to provide
users with information
• Project: Enables users to create new tables
containing only relevant information

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

Object-oriented DBMS
• Stores data and procedures as objects that
can be retrieved and shared automatically
• Provides capabilities of both object-oriented
and relational DBMS
Hybrid OODBMS:
• combine benefits of relational and object-
oriented DBMS

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

Capabilities of Database Management

Systems

• Data Definition Language

• Data Dictionary
• Querying and Reporting

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

Designing Databases
• Conceptual design: Abstract model of database from
a business perspective
• Physical design: Detailed description of business
information needs
• Entity-relationship diagram: Methodology for
documenting databases illustrating relationships
between database entities
• Normalization: Process of creating small stable data
structures from complex groups of data

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

The Database Approach to Data Management

Distributed database:
• A database that is stored in more than one physical
location
• Reduce the vulnerability of a single, massive central
site
• Increase service and responsiveness to local users
• Can often run on smaller, less expensive computers
• Depend on high-quality telecommunications lines

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making

Data warehouse
• Stores current and historical data from many core operational
transaction systems
• Consolidates and standardizes information for use across
enterprise, but data cannot be altered
• Data warehouse system will provide query, analysis, and
reporting tools
Data marts
• Subset of data warehouse
• Summarized or highly focused portion of firm’s data for use by
specific population of users
• Typically focuses on single subject or line of business

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making

Tools for Business Intelligence

• Tools for consolidating, analyzing, and providing
access to vast amounts of data to help users make
better business decisions
• Example of Best Western building customer
relationships with CRM
• Principle tools include:
• Software for database query and reporting
• Online analytical processing (OLAP)
• Data mining

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making

Online analytical processing (OLAP)

• Supports multidimensional data analysis
• Viewing data using multiple dimensions
• Each aspect of information (product, pricing,
cost, region, time period) is different dimension
• E.g., how many washers sold in East in June
compared with other regions?
• OLAP enables rapid, online answers to ad hoc
queries

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making

Data Mining
• Tools for analyzing large pools of data
• Find hidden patterns and infer rules to
predict trends
– Associations
– Sequences
– Classifications
– Clusters
– Forecasts

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making

Text Mining
• Extracts key elements from large
unstructured data sets (e.g., stored e-mails)

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making

Web Mining
• Discovery and analysis of useful patterns and
information from WWW
• Techniques
– Web content mining
• Knowledge extracted from content of Web
pages
– Web structure mining
• E.g., links to and from Web page
– Web usage mining
• User interaction data recorded by Web
server

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Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Managing Data Resources

Establishing an information policy

• Specifies the organization’s rules for sharing,
disseminating, acquiring, standardizing, classifying,
and inventorying information
• Data administration is responsible for specific
policies and procedures through which data is
managed
• Data governance
• Database administration

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 Management Information Systems
Chapter 6 Databases and Information Management

Managing Data Resources

Ensuring Data Quality

• Data Quality Audit
– Structured survey of the accuracy and
completeness of data in an information system
• Data cleansing
– consists of activities for detecting and correcting
data in an information system

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