Chapter 6 Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management

SUMMARY Chapter 6

Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management 

6.1 Organizing Data in a Traditional File Environment 

Data management is so essential because an effective information system provides users with accurate, timely, and relevant information. However, many businesses don’t have timely, accurate, or relevant information because the data in their information systems have been poorly organized and maintained.

A.     File Organization Terms and Concepts  

o   Bit is  represents the smallest unit of data a computer can handle

o   Byte is a group of bits, represents a single character, which can be a letter, a number, or another symbol

o   Field is a grouping of characters into a word, a group of words, or a complete number

o   Record is a group of related fields, such as a student's identification number, the course taken, the date, and the grade

o   File is a group of records of the same type

o   Database is a group of related files

B.        Problems with the Traditional File Environment  

o   Data Redundancy and Inconsistency

o   Program-Data Dependence

o   Lack of Flexibility

o   Poor Security

o   Lack of Data Sharing and Availability

6.2  The Database Approach to Data Management  

Database is a collection of data organized to serve many applications efficiently by centralizing the data and controlling redundant data. Rather than storing data in separate files for each application, data appears to users as being stored in only one location.

A.     Database Management System (DBMS) is software that permits an organization to centralize data, manage them efficiently, and provide access to the stored data by application programs.

B.     Capabilities of Database Management Systems

o   Data definition to specify the structure of the content of the database.

o   Data dictionary is an automated or manual file that stores definitions of data elements and their characteristics.

o   Data manipulation language is used to add, change, delete, and retrieve the data in the database

C.     Designing Databases 

To create a database, you must understand the relationships among the data, the type of data that will be maintained in the database, how the data will be used, and how the organization will need to change to manage data from a company-wide perspective.

6.3  Using Databases to Improve Business Performance and Decision Making 

Businesses use their databases to keep track of basic transactions, such as paying suppliers, processing orders, keeping track of customers, and paying employees. But they also need databases to provide information that will help the company run the business more efficiently, and help managers and employees make better decisions.

A.     The Challenge of Big Data 

o   There is an explosion of data ;  may be unstructured or semi-structured, not suitable for relational database

o   Big data doesn't designate any specific quantity

o   Big data are produced in much larger quantities and much more rapidly than traditional data

B.     Business Intelligence Infrastructure 

o   Data Warehouses, a database that stores current and historical data of potential interest to decision makers throughout the company and Data Marts which a subset of a data warehouse in which a summarized or highly focused portion of the organization’s data is placed in a separate database for a specific population of users.

o   Hadoop, an open-source software framework the Apache Software Foundation manages thatenables distributed parallel processing of huge amounts of data across inexpensive computers. for handling unstructured and semi-structured data in vast quantities, as well as structured data,

o   In- Memory computing , the storage of information in the main random access memory (RAM) of dedicated servers rather than in complicated relational databases operating on comparatively slow disk drives. 

o   Analytic Platforms, which Commercial database vendors have developed specialized high-speed  analytic platforms using both relational and non-relational technology that are optimized for analyzing large datasets.

6.4  Managing Data Resources

A. Establishing an Information Policy that specifies the organization’s rules for sharing,  disseminating, acquiring, standardizing, classifying, and inventorying  information.

B.     Ensuring Data Quality begins with a data quality audit, which is a structured survey of the accuracy and level of completeness of the data in an information system. Then, data cleansing, also known as data scrubbing, consists of activities for detecting and correcting data in a database that are incorrect, incomplete, improperly formatted, or redundant.

Reference :

Laudon, Kenneth C. & Jane P. Laudo. (2014) Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, 13th Edition. England: Pearson.

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