With a robust relational database management system -- such as one powered by Microsoft Office Access -- it is possible, and, in many instances, ideal to accomplish a majority of your organization's information management tasks from within one customized system. With this type of information system, you can:
- Store, query, analyze, graph, and report organizational data to virtually any degree necessary.
- Perform everyday business tasks, including word-processing, spreadsheet analyses, slides presentations, mail merge form letters, and web-based applications.
- Facilitate collaborative networked-computing, enabling workers at all organizational levels to access, manage, and share data for the benefit of the organization as a whole.
- Manage all types of decision-support needs, including those decisions for strategic planning, sales and marketing, customer relationship management, project management, collaboration management, advising and forecasting, and the like.
What few organizations realize is that it's possible to accomplish all these tasks, and many more, from within a single customized application, with little or no need for importing, exporting, or linking to data.
Examples of information systems powered with Relational Database Management Technology: Asset Tracking, Business Accounts Ledger, Call Tracker, Contact Management, Customer Service, Event Management, Expense Reporting, Inventory Management, Issues Database, Lending Library, Marketing Projects, Orders Management, Personal Address Book, Projects, Resource Scheduling, Sales Pipeline, Service Call Management, Tasks (Project Management), Time And Billing, and Time Card Management.
Let me quickly say that it is not always practical, of course, to force every one of your organization's data applications into one "Do-All" system. Each application has its own strengths and purposes: one for word processing, one for slides and graphics presentations, one for financial analysis, one for customer relationship management, one for project management, and so on. The possibility of "single-system-management" exists, and, in many instances, your organization should be exploiting it. (I will explain more of this later.)
To be effective, and to accomplish your mission on a day-to-day basis, your organization's information systems must manage and share data relationally. This is what makes it a "system."
At a minimum, most organizations can certainly expand the use of this powerful, practical technology. That's the message of this first assessment, The Information Systems "Report Card".
To be effective, and to accomplish your mission on a day-to-day basis, your organization's information systems must manage and share data relationally. That's what makes it a "system."
The "Report Card" will assess how well your organization is unleashing the power of RDMT.
At the end of this article is a worksheet to help you summarize your assessment scores. Use the worksheets just like a "report card":
1. Assign each subject area a letter grade of "A", "B", "C", "D", or "F" based on the total number of boxes that you have checked as accurately describing your organization's assessed information system(s).
2. Calculate your organization's cumulative grade average by averaging all areas together.
3. Analyze the findings in each area, and take corrective actions.
ASSESSMENT
1. Basic End-User Applications
Our organization's primary information systems allow workers to quickly and easily enter, store, control, query, analyze, and report organizational data.
Specifically, systems allow workers to:
- Enter and store a variety of disparate data important to the success and mission of the organization. Systems allow workers to routinely back up or replicate stored data to other secure locations. (Data Entry and Storage)
- Control and manipulate organizational data. Systems employ customized forms as switchboards to open other forms or reports, and as custom dialoging boxes to accept
user input and then carry out actions based on that input. (Data Control)
- Query organizational data. Systems allow workers to quickly view, change, and analyze data in different ways, and can generate queries that bring together or perform actions on data from more than one data source. (Data Querying)
- Identify important trends and patterns that emerge within organizational data, and gain new and important perspectives on that data. (Data Analysis)
- Slice and dice organizational data, and quickly report that data in a variety of sophisticated, practical printed formats. Systems allow workers to control the size and appearance of everything on reports, and display the information the way they want to see it. (Data Reporting)
Letter Grade: _______
2. Atypical End-User Applications
When expedient, our organization's primary information systems allow workers to accomplish routine office management tasks -- such as word processing, spreadsheet analysis, slides and graphics presentations, project management, and other day-to-day tasks -- from within those systems.
Specifically, systems allow workers to:
- Create, edit, and print documents. Systems are capable of many of the same features in standard word processors, such as Microsoft Wordä. (Word Processing)
- Analyze numerical data, and produce technical reports and graphs based on that data. Systems support many of the same "numbers crunching" features in typical spreadsheet applications, such as Microsoft Excelä. (Spreadsheet Applications)
- Create visual slide and graphics presentations similar to those created in Microsoft PowerPointä. Presentations tap into organizational data, and present that data in "real-time". (Business Graphics Presentations)
- Manage projects. Comparable to Microsoft's Projectä or Visioä, systems are used to create calendars, To-Do lists, flow charts, action plans, resource allocation and tracking, and other project management tools. (Project Management)
- Manage customer relations. Comparable to Microsoft Dynamic'sä or Pivotal'sä CRM systems, systems are used to manage prospective and existing customers, sales and marketing effectiveness, contact management, service scheduling, and customer support. (Customer Relationship Management)
- Integrate organizational data with special types of Web pages designed for viewing and working with data from an Internet or intranet. Comparable to Microsoft's Accessä PivotTables, these special web pages can 1) consolidate, group, and publish summaries of the data, 2) view, add, and edit data, and 3) include tables, charts, and spreadsheets that let users analyze data in different ways. (Web Applications)
Note: Software specially designed for specific end-user applications -- such as the suite of Microsoft Officeä products -- are, of course, the more appropriate solutions for these types of tasks.
There may be times, however, when it is more beneficial and convenient to perform daily tasks entirely from within your organization's primary system. One important reason is that data can be accessed and worked with in "real-time", and with little or need for importing, exporting, or linking to data sources. Another important reason is that doing so reduces the chance of having redundant, duplicate, and, consequently, outdated data stored in separate applications scattered across your organization.
Letter Grade: _______
3. Collaborative, Networked Computing
Our organization's primary information systems facilitate networked computing, enabling workers at all levels to tap into the mass of data collected and stored by the organization. Workers then easily share this data, and work it collaboratively for the benefit of the entire organization.
Specifically, systems allow workers to:
- Work collaboratively. Systems integrate into the organization's networked architectures -- across inter- and intranets -- facilitating joint intellectual and business efforts. (Collaborative Computing)
- Work with groups of colleagues connected to local-area networks -- sometimes referred to as "groupware" -- to work collaboratively and share ideas. (Workgroup Productivity)
- Integrate data from a variety of data sources and formats -- such as Extensible Markup Language (XML), OLE, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and Windows SharePoint Services -- allowing workers to access and integrate information from other
networked servers, databases, and spreadsheets. (Data Integration)
- Connect front-end applications running on PCs and workstations to back-end database servers on mainframes, mini-computers, or local area networks, enabling workers to access the diverse resources of the surrounding network. ("Middleware" Applications)
- Access "backend" data sources, such as a Microsoft SQL Server database, through commonly used network architectures, such as an OLE DB component. (Client/Server Applications)
Letter Grade: _______
4. Systems Development and Administration
Our organization's primary information systems allow workers to develop and deploy customized database applications. These applications are secure, sophisticated, robust, and easy-to-use.
Specifically, systems allow workers to:
- Build custom, user-friendly "font-end" applications, giving end-users the ability to enter and retrieve information as easy as it is to flip through the pages of a book or to get help from a helpful human expert. (Customized Solutions)
- Build collaborative server-based, integrated solutions. Systems integrate with 1) data from other systems and data sources located throughout the organization, and 2) into the end user's workplace environment software. (Integrated Solutions)
- Test, deploy, package, and distribute the solutions they have built. Systems come with special tools to 1) document system designs, 2) analyze and test systems, and 3) license, distribute, and deploy systems. (Development and Deployment)
- Maintain data consistency throughout the organization. Systems employ data entry aids -- such as well-designed forms, drop down tables, and data validation rules -- to enforce data consistency, simplify data entry, and reduce data entry errors. (Data Integrity)
- Protect organizational data from damage (intentional or accidental), theft, espionage, and malicious intents. User-level and systems-level security schemes, database encryption, data backups, offsite data storage, and other methods are employed to keep systems and the data they contain safe and secure. (Systems Security)
Whatever information systems your organization employs in the years ahead, one thing must remain true: Those systems should allow all information workers to perform data-management tasks on their own -- they should not require the time and expertise of professional programmers nor database administrators.
Letter Grade: _______
5. Managerial- and Executive-level Applications
Our organization's primary information systems allow workers to manage contact relationships, manage projects, plan strategies, advise and forecast, and other types of typical managerial- and executive-level decision support.
Specifically, systems allow workers to:
- Manage the organization's most important information. Systems help executives to make timely, accurate decisions, 2) provide managers with tools for organizing, evaluating, and efficiently running their departments, and 3) enable the information technology (IT) department to run efficiently. (Management Information Systems (MIS))
- Manage and organize company, customer, and partner communications, sales and marketing data, customer-service operations, schedules, contact information, and other "relationship management" data. Organizational workers, from executives to entry-level employees, can feed, access, and analyze customer relationship data to any degree deemed appropriate. (Customer Relationship Management (CRM))
- Focus, filter, and organize organizational data, allowing executives and key decision-makers to make effective use of that information. Systems, and all associated applications, reduce the amount of organizational data bombarding decision makers, helping them to keep on top of critical issues and the status of key projects within their organizations. (Executive Information Systems (EIS))
- Make decisions based on data culled from a variety of sources, not just from data stored within the organization. Systems collect and analyze data -- both internal and external -- and then present that data in ways that help workers make more intelligent, fact-based decisions. (Decision Support Systems)
- Perform tasks otherwise accomplished by human experts. Systems make financial forecasts, schedule routes for delivery vehicles, or replace or supplement the need for professional consultants. Systems quickly and accurately manage the massive amount of information required by these systems. (Expert Systems)
Letter Grade: _______
Cumulative Grade Average: _______ (The average of areas 1 -- 5 above.)
Summary
This article, hopefully, helped you and your coworkers assess your organization's ability to unleash the power of relational database management technology in these five areas:
1. Basic End-User Applications
2. Atypical End-User Applications
3. Collaborative, Networked Computing
4. Systems Development and Administration
5. Managerial- and Executive-level Applications
Make sure your organization takes the time to analyze its findings in these areas, and to think through what these findings may imply.
One thing you may have discovered is a need for your organization to move increasingly toward a more robust, more fully integrated, more multi-functioned primary information management system. As John Senor says in his article, Middleware: Laying the Foundation for Open, Distributed Computing, organizations must progress toward a "single data management system that offers seamless access to programs and data, regardless of hardware platform, operating system, database type, or networking protocol."
Unfortunately, and all too often, many organizations discover that all types of technologies other than RDMT are driving their primary information systems. To complicate matters further, they learn that the information needed by these important systems is stored in departmentalized databases, which compartmentalize and fragment information in such ways as to render it unusable for corporate (collaborative) benefits.
Unfortunately, and all too often, many organizations discover that all types of technologies other than relational database management technologies are driving their primary information systems.
Microsoft Office Access, with its integration with Windows SharePoint Services, makes a great collaboration tool. While these products are not yet the ideal solution to "seamless access to all programs and data", Microsoft has always directed its primary efforts toward that vision, and with each new version of their products, they come closer to achieving it.
This continues to be good news for them, and for your organization.
Worksheet for Article 1
The Information Systems "Report Card"
1. Basic End-User Applications Grade
Data Entry and Storage
Data Control
Data Querying
Data Analysis
Data Reporting
2. Atypical End-User Applications
Word Processing
Spreadsheet Applications
Business Graphics Presentation
Project Management
Web Applications
3. Collaborative, Networked Computing
Collaborative Computing
Workgroup Productivity
Data Integration
"Middleware" Applications
Client/Server Applications
4. Systems Developer and Administrator Applications
Customized Solutions
Integrated Solutions
Development and Deployment
Data Integrity
Systems Security
5. Managerial- and Executive-level Applications
Management Information Systems
Relationship Management
Executive Information Systems
Decision Support Systems
Expert Systems
Final Grade Average:
David Wise is a software applications specialist for Weidenhammer Systems Corp., a diversified information technology firm headquartered in Wyomissing, Pa. David also serves key IT roles with the Pennsylvania Air National Guard.
