Examples of administration system
- Staff development – on the job training, learning new skills trough experience at work. Of the job training trough attending outside courses
- Promotional events – advertising, branding, sales promotion, public relation etc.
- Stocktaking – physically counting the actual number of items in stock. Annual stocking only one a year, very time consuming. Many organisations practise continuous stocktaking and computerised stocktaking.
- Production – the transformation of resources into goods or services. It’s the process of organising resources in order to meet customer requirements.
- Manufacturing – production is the whole process from:
- Obtaining raw materials to goods inspection
- To production process
- To assembly and finishing
- To delivering
Core features of an administrative system intended to support a defined business function in selected business
Medium of storage – you can store your records in varies ways, such as paper based or electronic storage e.g. vertical filing cabinet (strips or labels on the top of edge of each), lateral filing cabinet (file are suspended laterally with their strips or labels vertically on the front. You can also use a computer- based filing system as it will condense the space occupied by the documents e.g. replace paper. The importance of having a medium of storage is that you can arrange for checking accuracy.
Medium of communication – you should be able to communicate well and effectively to both internal and external customers by using:
- Email
- Letter
- Fax
- Telephone
- Memorandum
- Face-to-face
- Meeting etc.
Inclusion, Accountability and Authorisation - reporting to specified levels of management, agreed inclusion on arrangements and circulation of minutes.
Security and confidentiality – appropriate confidential and discrete use of email, awareness of instant and world wide audience mail. Use of firewalls and secure storage. Use of passwords and ID cards. Making of minutes and memorandum accordingly. One problem which might result from greater reliance on electronic communication systems is the risk of information ‘leaks’. If the systems of different business organisation are linked together, the scope for computer hackers or break into systems and obtain access to confidential or penetrate systems used by financial institutions.
System review – to review your system, build an opportunity for continuous checking and improvement, suggest improvements consistent with overall purpose/design of system, planned and structured review and evaluation, suggesting improvements clearly and constructively, troubleshooting and addressing the recurring problems/issues.
Production – the production department is arguably the most important of all. It is responsible for making a product or supplying a service. In production department, a wide range of administrative systems might be used. Such as:
- An internal ordering system for materials and components so that production is not interrupted
- A monitoring system to control quality
- A recording system in flow production to tell the next shift the current position.
Marketing – the marketing function has become increasingly important in recent year. Examples of marketing activities include market research, advertising, packaging, promotion, distribution and pricing. All of these activities use administration systems in some way. Such as:
- Transferring market research data to a data base
- Recording how consumers have heard about a product
- Updating and distributing price lists
- Preparing and publishing user instructions.
Finance – a finance department is largely responsible for controlling the flow of money into and out of a business. In a finance department, ‘tight’ administrative systems are needed to monitor and record all movements of money. In large business organisations, some employees are able to spend money which does not belong to them. It is therefore important to control and record all money spent. Administration systems are designed to do this.
Identifying and describing the administrative requirements for Sainsbury’s events
It is essential for Sainsbury to use administrative system when planning a business event. There are two types of events: routine and non-routine event. Examples of events are – meetings, exhibition, receptions, and trade fair stands etc. System builder has been developed to make it easier then before to systematise your business. It makes it easier for you (Sainsbury) to create systems, easy to train your team to use systems and easy to add value to your business through systems. The use of administration in a particular event will help you because it makes the day-to-day tasks of your business work perfectly. In order for your event to be successful these are the things you should consider: Equipment, venue, location and catering. Plan ahead and reserve the facilities that you might use e.g. typical programmes for routine events, limits of own role in organisation etc.
There can be alternative arrangements for this event e.g. distribution of preparatory and supporting documents. For instance, agenda, effective consultation and planning, time required for advance notice or bookings, need for clear and accurate communication, informing of alternations and changes, organisation appropriate venues, familiarising delegates with venue emergency procedures and provision of appropriate materials and refreshments. All these types of administrative preparation are extremely essential for the success of not only your business but all businesses.
This is a database created in Microsoft Access. It has all the details of what customers have ordered for their upcoming events.
This is the second database that I made with all the amendments in it. I have made changes in this database according to customers wants and needs for their events.
Purpose of Database
The term or expression database originated within the computer industry. Although its meaning has been broadened by popular use, even to include non-electronic databases, this article takes a more technical perspective towards the topic. A possible definition is that database is structured collection of records or data which is stored in a computer so that a program can consult it answer queries. The records retrieved in answer to queries become information that can be used to make decisions. The computer program used to manage and query a database is known as database management system (DBMS). The central concept of database is that of a collection of records, or pieces of knowledge. Typically, for a given database, there s a structural description of the type of facts held in that database; this description is known as a schema. The schema describes the objects that are represented in the database, and the relationship among them. Many professionals would consider a collection of data to constitute a database only if it ahs certain properties: for example, if the data is managed to ensure its integrity and quality, if it allows shared access by a community of users, if it has a schema, or if it supports a query language.
Various techniques are used to model data structure. Most database systems are built around one particular data model, although it is increasingly common for products to offer support for more than one model.
Flat model – the flat model consists of a single, two dimensional arrays of data elements, where all members of a given column are assumed to be similar values, and all members of a row are assumed to be related to one another. For example, columns for name and password that might be used as a part of a system security database.
Hierarchical model – data is organised into a tree-like structure, implying a single upward link in each record to describe the nesting, and a sort field to keep the records in a particular order in each same-level list. Hierarchical structures were widely used in the early mainframe database management systems, such as the Information Management System (IMS) by IBM, and now describe the structure of XML documents.
Network model – organises data using two fundamental constructs, called record and sets. Records contain fields (which may be organised hierarchically, as in the programming language. The operations of the network model are navigational in style: a program maintains a current position, and navigates from one record to another by following the relationships in which the record participates. Records can also be located by supplying key values.
Relational model – three key terms are used extensively in relation database models: relations, attributes, and domains. A relation is a table with columns and rows. The named columns of the relation are called attributes, and the domain is the set of values the attributes are allowed to take. The basic data structure of the relational model is the table, where information about a particular entity (e.g. an employee is represented in columns and rows (also called tuples).
Dimensional model – the dimensional model is a specialised adaptation of the relational model used to represent data in data warehouse in a way that data can be easily summarised using OLAP queries. In this model the database consists of a single large table of facts that are described using dimensions and measures. A dimension provides the context of a fact (such as who participated, when and where it happened, and its type) and is used in queries to group related facts together.
M1
I used Microsoft Access to prepare my database and I will explain the administrative system. Using Microsoft Access was the most effective way to prepare your database as it was very easy to use the program. While making my database it was very easy to follow the instructions. Many companies such as Tesco would actually have a backup copy of their work so if the computer crashes or it’s been hacked then you would have a copy on a disk to be on the safe side.
The reason that I made a database and kept them safe, is to be more organised with the upcoming events of companies and to be able to provide them with the right service they ordered to keep them satisfied and to attract more customers with good customer service. If some companies want to make changes in their event then they would just let you know and you can just do amendments in your database and save it again so you are updated, e.g. change in arriving time etc. It is fairly straight forward to make the amends; all you do is open the file that you have saved for that particular company and change things according to their needs. The most important thing would be to save everything you have done at the end onto your computer and perhaps also on a disk as well so you have a backup copy when needed.
However, there will be serious consequences if you don’t know how to make such databases or if you lose some database. In order to prevent this you must make sure that the staff you appoint are I.T literate and particularly know how to use Microsoft Access. Once this is covered you would need to make sure that your computer is safe and in good condition before you start keeping a record of your entire database on it, moreover make sure you have installed the right tools in order to protect your database in terms of confidentiality and security.
D1
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. This will only happen if you do not have a firewall installed on your computer which is a security device and protects your computer from being infected by virus and stopping hackers from hacking into your computer. In order to prevent this there are number of various antivirus programs that you can buy or download such as Macafee Inc. By having this installed onto your computer it stops viruses from entering your computer because it will be blocked by firewall or at least warn you about a particular virus so you can take action against it, well in time.
Once your computer has been affected by virus it can do all sorts of things e.g. delete some of your documents, upload more viruses, move your documents in a different folder etc. Likewise, if your computer has been hacked by someone, they can do same things and even worse read all your confidential documents which in the worst case scenario put any company in a critical stage. This will cost a lot of money to repair the computer by specialists, so like they say prevention is better than cure! This is why it is highly important to make sure that your computer has a firewall installed and you make copies of every database that you create and save it as a backup file as well in different folders.
For instance, a company like Electronic Arts (EA) would need such a programme to keep all hackers/viruses out of their system. If EA doest have an anti-virus programme installed on their computers than hackers/viruses can find their way in to their documents very easily, and for a company who doesn’t need anything such as unwanted documents are shredded or deleted as soon as possible so their confidential details don’t leak outside the company, therefore in the worst case scenario if the hacker has entered into your documents then they can read all your ideas for the upcoming games and tell your competitors about it or do something to destroy those ideas etc. Therefore installing anti-virus software will be very effective and provide you with a standard security for your confidential documents.