How useful are databases for businesses today?

Jemma Crouch 10Bx Business Studies Coursework

How useful are Databases for Businesses to day?

I am going to plan an investigation into how useful databases are for a company in the 21st century. Firstly I am going to explain what a database is. A database is a collection of data that can be used as information. It is understandable as information because of the headings and structure used in the database file.

-A FILE is the information given in a subject e.g. Patients records.

-A RECORD is a set of information about one given thing e.g. one patients record would contain just information about that person.

-A FILE is one piece of information in a record; it also gives meaning to a list of, otherwise meaningless, information e.g. the field heading ‘First name’ gives meaning to a list of words such as ‘Emma’, ‘Joe’, ‘Frank’ and ‘Tom’.

-A QUERY is a search of the database for a certain piece of information that could be useful to you, e.g. if you want to sell a platinum credit card then you could do a search for people living in a certain area and then send the information to those people using a mail merge. Alternatively, if you worked in a doctors surgery you could do a search of people who needed a booster jab.

-A MAIL MERGE is a letter containing the results of the query sent to certain people who would possibly be interested in that certain information.

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-A MAIL MERGE is a letter containing the results of the query sent to certain people who would possibly be interested in that certain information.

The type of information that a business might want to put into a database is, if they were a supermarket or something that needed stock regularly, something that would use a database to show how many of each item and if the stocks of it are getting low and orders them when it needs to be reordered, companies like Sainsbury’s have a database that is set to re-order stock when it gets to a certain level. This allows Sainsbury’s to use Just in Time. But the products on the shelves still need to be checked regularly because the database will be wrong if items have been stolen. Sainsbury’s have security guards around the store just doing manual stock take- this is not the quickest job in the world but it needs doing. A business like Sainsbury’s would hold personal details of customers in their database like their address and things they have previously bought so they can send them information about products or sell the information on to a third party. Databases also say what products are selling well and making a good profit and products that are maybe losing profit and they should probably stop selling it. This would be a good way for the company to save money because they would be able to stop selling a certain brand of something if there was not enough of them being sold likewise they could order more of things that are more popular. Businesses like Reckless Records use a database to keep track of which records that they have. If someone comes into their store and ask if they have a certain record, a query can be put into the database about the record which would bring up a file, (the shop assistants know by heart which band or solo artist is allocated which number) which would say if they had any in stock. British airways use a database to keep track of the baggage people have and to make sure they get the baggage onto the right plane and make sure that the weight isn’t too much for the plane to carry. If a bag is put on to a plane and the owner does not get onto the plane then the baggage has to be collected before the plane is allowed to leave. The bags are given a barcode which when scanned would bring up its file and tell them where about on the plane the bag is so that it can be removed as quickly as possible so that the plane does not get too much of a delay.

Some smaller businesses might find it too expensive or time consuming to use databases. A small corner shop may not be able to afford buying the computer and software to be able to use a database but it probably wouldn’t really be necessary to use a database if the store is small and doesn’t have much stock or get very busy so it would be a waste of money and time to use a database anyway. However it would be effective if they sold newspapers and especially if they had a delivery service.

It takes a lot of time and money to set up a database so in conclusion I think that databases are really useful but sometimes it can be a real waste of time and money to the users.

Peer Reviews

Here's what a star student thought of this essay

danielbeal

1st of Mar 2012

Quality of writing

The list of technical terms explained at the start of the report, such as 'File' and 'Record' is quite good. This list, highlights the term explained and the student clearly shows that there understand what is meant by that term.

Level of analysis

The student has desribed how a real company, such as Sainsbury's might need to use a database for their stock levels. This is quite good, however the haven't properly explained how the database could be in-correct. The report could include 'The database may be in-correct, as the manual stock take could have been taken a number of hours ago, and their stock take may have reduced since then. Or the manual stock take could have been in-correct, as the employee may have mus-counted'.

Response to question

In summary, the report is quite good. The report gives a detailed description of a number of technical terms and describes what a database is used for. In addition, the student does give a number of examples using real companies. However the report could be more in-depth, which could discuss the benefits/drawbacks of each aspect. The student uses the example of an company known as 'Reckless Records', this example is very good. This shows a clear understanding of how database can be used to find a certain product using a database, by placing an query into the database. Although, it might be useful if the student broke this down, to explain this a little more, for the examiner that may not fully understand. The report could include 'In other word,s the employee could query the database, which is almost like searching the database to see if the product is in-store'.

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