Chapter 5: Database Processing

Database: A self-describing collection of integrated records

- Storing information or data in one centralized place.

 Single theme - Store in a spreadsheet (Excel)

o Ex. Student Grades
 Multiple themes - Use a Relational Database

Purpose of Database:
1. Store Data
2. To keep track of info  To be able to extract info from the database
afterwards

Elements of a Database:
- Byte: Character of a database (a, b, c, 2, 7)
- Combing bytes make up a Column (Field)
- A collection of Columns make up Rows (Records)
- A collection of Rows make up a Table
- Every Table has a Theme  Describes the Table (Student Name, ID)
- Each table has a Primary Key and Foreign Keys
o When the PK and the FK are found in different tables  RELATIONAL
DATABASE
- Cardinality: The relationship between tables
Metadata: Data that describes data  Makes databases
much more useful as it can tell us exactly what a database
contains  Used to locate data within the Database

Why an Organization Needs a Database:

1. To run operations
2. To control performance
3. To make decisions
4. To predict behavior

 To eliminate errors when inserting, deleting, and modifying data.

Database Management System (DBMS): Software program used to create, process,

and administer a database.
 Almost no organization develops its own  License products from vendors
such as oracle, Microsoft (MySQL server)
Used to create tables/relationships/other structures in the database

Steps of Database Development:

1. Creating the Database & its Structures

To create a new table: The user can simply just fill the new tables metadata into the
form.
To modify an existing table (Adding a new column): The developer opens the
metadata form of that table and adds a new row of metadata.

2. Processing the Database

DBMS provides applications for 4 processing operations: to read, insert, modify, or
delete data.
 When user enters new or changed data, a computer program behind the form
calls the DBMS to make the necessary database changes.

SQL (Structured Query Language) is an international standard language for

processing a database.

3. Administering the Database

 Set up a security system: username, passwords, permissions, and limits for

processing database.
 Backing up database data
 Adding structures to improve performance
 Removing data that are no longer wanted/needed

Responsibilities Involve:
1. Development  Validate data model
2. Operation  Improve performance
3. Backup & Recovery  Monitor backup procedures, conduct training
4. Adaptation  Ability to change to new requirements

Database Application: A collection of forms, reports, queries, and application

programs
 Serves as an intermediary between the user & the database data
 They reformat database table data to make them more informative + more
easily adapted.

Forms- view data, insert new, update existing, and delete existing data.
Reports- structured presentation of data using sorting, grouping, filtering, etc..
Queries- search based upon data values provided by the user.
Application Programs- provides security data consistency, and special-purpose
processing (ex. handle out-of-stock situations)

Traditional Database:
 Traditional Database: Thick applications that need to be installed on the
users’ computer + written in object-oriented language ex. Visual Basic
 Today: Transitioned to thin-client applications
Browser-Based Database Applications:
 Databases in thin-client applications are almost always shared among many
users
 Run in a browser (shared b/w users and the server) Do not need to be
preinstalled on the users’ computer
Most traditional applications run within a corporate network that is protected from
threats common on the Internet.
 Browser-based applications are normally open to the public over the
Internet and are therefore more vulnerable.
 Like traditional database application programs, they need to provide data
consistency + handle special conditions well.

Multiuser Processing
Most traditional + thin-client applications involve multiple users processing the
same database  This is common but can lead to the Lost-Update Problem
 Can be prevented through Locking Stops another user/process from
opening a record being used by another user/process
Example:

Chapter 8: Social Media Information Systems

Social Media: The use of IT to support the sharing of

content among networks of users
 Enables people to form communities by
grouping them based on common interests

Social Media Information System: An IS that supports the sharing of content

among network of users.
 Social Media Providers (Ex. FB)
 Users (ex. you, me, organizations)
 Communities: Collection of users with common interests
o Viral Hook: Use it to make you want to join communities

5 SMIS Components:
How SMIS Advances Org. Strategies:
(Strategy determines value chains, which determine business processes, which
determine IS)

SM has a dynamic nature (always changing)  Its flow cannot be designed or

diagrammed

SM in Value-Chain Activities:

Sales and Marketing Activity

 Focus: Outward to prospects.
 Dynamic Process: Social CRM or Peer-to-peer sales.
 Risks: Loss of Credibility and PR

Customer Service
 Focus: Outward prospects to customers.
 Dynamic Process: Peer-to-peer support
 Risks: Loss of Control

Inbound logistics:
 Focus: Upstream supply-chain providers
 Dynamic process: Problem solving
 Risk: Privacy

Outbound Logistics:
Focus: Downstream supply-chain suppliers
Dynamic process: Problem solving.
Risk: Privacy

Manufacturing Operations
Focus: Outward for user design, inward to operations and manufacturing.
Dynamic Process: User-guided design, industry relationships, and operational
efficiencies.
Risks: Efficiency/ effectiveness

 Crowdsourcing: Employing users to participate in product design/re-design

o "There's no better group of advisers than our customers"
 SM has been widely used in business-to-customer relationships  To better
market products to end users
 Using SM to become industry leaders  promoting brand awareness + generates
new Business-to-Business (B2B) leads to retailers

Human Resources
• Employee Communications: Using internal-personnel sites
Ex: MySite and MyProfile in SharePoint
 • Finding employee prospects, recruiting candidates, candidate evaluation
• Place for employees to post their expertise
• Risks: Forming erroneous conclusions about employees

How do SMIS increase Social Capital?

How much you invest in people around you.
• Capital: Investment of resources for future profit
• Types of business capital
Physical: Produce goods/services (factories, machines,
manufacturing equipment)
Human: Knowledge + skills investments
Social: Relations with expectation of marketplace returns

Value of Social Capital: Number and strength of relationships, resources controlled

Adds value in four ways:
1. Information
2. Influence
3. Social credentials
4. Personal reinforcement  Professional image or status

How Social Networking adds value to Businesses:

Allows progress in organizations
– Maintain presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, other SN sites
– Encourage customers + interested parties to leave comments
– Risk: Excessively critical feedback
Increases the number of relationships
Strengthens relationships
Links them to those with more resources
- Social Capital = Number of Relationships × Relationship Strength
× Entity Resources
- Multiplicative nature of social capital creates huge network of
relationships with people who have few resources
o May be less valuable than smaller network of relationships
with people who have substantial resources

Earning Revenue through SM

• Hyper-social organization
Uses social media to transform interactions with customers,
employees, and partners into mutually satisfying relationships with
them and their communities
• You Are the Product
“If you’re not paying, you’re the product.”
Renting your eyeballs to an advertiser
• Advertising
 • Pay-per-click
• Use increases value: As more people use a site, the more value it has, and
the more people will visit
• Freemium Revenue Model
Offers users a basic service for free, and charges a premium for
upgrades or advanced features
• Sale of apps, virtual goods, affiliate commissions, donations

Chapter 9: Business Intelligence System

Business Intelligence Systems: IS that process operational, social, and

purchased data to analyze past performance and make predictions.
• BI: The relationships, trends, and patterns identified by BI systems
• Software: BI application  Processes the data to produce BI

How Organizations Use BI:

3 Uses for Business Intelligence:

1) Identifying Changes in Purchasing Patterns
Therefore, the retailers use BI to determine changes in purchasing patterns.
2) Business Intelligence for Entertainment: Determines what they actually
want not what they say they want ex. Listening habits (YouTube)
3) Predictive Policing: Uses BI to anticipate crimes

Primary Activities of BI Process

1) Acquire Data through purchasing, operational DB, social media
 2) Analyze Data- Creating BI  After data is collected, the tables must be
combined into one table. 3 Ways:
Reporting: Create info about past data  Sort, filter, sum, avg, etc.
Data-Mining: Classify and Predict  Use of statistical techniques
- Supervised: Regression Analysis
o When you know what you’re looking for
o Conduct a model before analysis
- Unsupervised: Cluster Analysis
o Make hypothesis/model after running the analysis

BigData: Data collections that are characterized by huge volume, velocity (generated
rapidly), and are varied (structured or in free form)
- Can be broken down by MapReduce  Harnesses the power of multiple
computers working in parallel  Where hundreds/thousands of independent
processors search these pieces for something of interest.
- Hadoop: Implements MapReduce
o Includes a query language known as Pig
o Open-source program
o It requires deep technical skills to run and use it. Expert programmers
are expected to use it

3) Publish Data: Process of delivering the BI to knowledge workers

3 Alternatives:
- Server: Platform you receive info on ex. Email, BI Server, Web Server
o BI Server: Takes info from data warehouse + publishes it
o 2 Major Functions:
 Management: Setting permission for specific uses (who
does what, who views what)
 Delivery: Actual delivery of report
- Report Type:
o Static: Cannot be manipulated ex. Sales Analysis (published as PDF
documents)
o Dynamic: BI documents that are updates at the time they are
requested
- Publishing Options:
a. Push Publishing: Automatically send BI to the user without their
request, based on an event or schedule.
b. Pull Publishing: The user must request BI results.
 c. Subscriptions: Getting reports during the occurrence of an event
(sales discount)
Use of Data Warehouses + Data Marts to Acquire Data

Data Warehouse: A facility for managing an organizations BI data  required by

large organizations
• Obtains, contains, cleans, organize/relate, and catalogs data using an
Operational Database.
Potential Problems
1. Inconsistency: Relates to data collected over a period of time (customer info
may change)
2. Dirty Data: Contains errors (misspelling, duplicate records, outdated)
3. Missing Values: Yet beneficial to an extend (better than having no data)
4. Data not Integrated: Analysis may require a combination of data that needs
to be acquired from different places (ex. ERP system, social network app, etc.)
5. Wrong Granularity (level of detail): Too fine/detailed vs. too coarse/too
little data
a. Better to have the first because it can be condensed/combined
6. Too Much Data
a. Too many Attributes (columns of data)  The curse of
dimensionality  The more attributes, the easier it is to build a
model that fits sample data  But is worthless to the predictor
b. Too many Data Points (rows of data): Solution  Statistical
sampling

Data Marts:
• Subset of a data warehouse
• Oriented to a specific department/functional area of a business
o Data warehouse: Enterprise-wide
o Data Marts: Single Department
Chapter 12 – Business Information Development

Systems Development: Process of creating/maintaining IS

Requires:
1) Establishing System Goals
2) Setting Up the Project
3) Business Knowledge + Management Skill
Risky and Difficult:
 Many projects never finish
 Some finish within budget + schedule, but don’t accomplish goals
 High risk of failure
o Ex. not all firms are well equipped to develop such a complex system
Major Challenges:
1. Determining Requirements (+ changes in requirements)
2. Changing Technology (ex. creating an I-phone app also requires you to
create an Android app)
3. Scheduling + Budgeting problems (how long/how much will it cost)
4. Diseconomies of Scale: More programs/users/people  Expenses rise over
what you can cover

5 Phases of the SDLC

1. Defining the System
a. Goals/Scope (what you want it to do)
b. Asses cost, schedule, technical (current IT), and organizational
(structure) feasibility
c. Form Project Team: Users, business analysts (understand needs),
system analysts (IT experts)
d. Plan Project
2. Analyze the Requirements
a. Conducting User Interviews
b. Evaluating current systems  Identifying new application
features/functions
c. Build Prototype
3. Component Design
 a. Hardware, software specs (to buy it vs. customize it?), designing the
database structure + procedures, and people (create job
description).
4. Implementation
a. System Testing
b. System Conversion:
i. Pilot: Use new IS on limited # of computers
ii. Phases: Slow/Gradual implementation
iii. Parallel: Run both together
iv. Plunge: Shut down old -- Start new system

5. System Maintenance
a. RFC: Record Requests for Change
b. Prioritize RFC
c. Fix the Failures
i. High-priority failures are grouped into a patch, which is sent to
the security to fix it.
ii. Bundles of low-priority problems are grouped into larger
groups called service packs

Problems with SDLC:

- SDLC Waterfall: Very rare that system development operates smoothly
o Sometimes developers need to fix something in the prior step
o Must be done right the first time
- Requirement Documentation (analysis paralysis can take place when too
much time is spent writing documentations of the requirements)
- Scheduling/Budgeting

Chapter 12 Extension:

RFM Analysis: A way of analyzing + ranking customers according to their

purchasing patterns.
It divides customers into 5 groups, top 20% get 1, bottom 20% get 5, Middle 20%
get 3
- Recent orders
- Frequent orders
- Money: Amount spent

Market-basket analysis is a data mining technique for determining sales patterns.

- It shows the products customers tend to buy together. "if customer buys X
then he must buy Y", this is an ex. of cross-selling opportunity.

Base Probability: Probability of buying a product  P(A)

- Transactions that involve A / Total # of Transactions
Support: Probability that 2 items will be bought together  P(A&B)
- # of times they were bought together / Total # of transactions

Confidence: Probability that a customer will buy B, given that he had bought A.
 P(A|B)
- Intersection of B and A / A

Lift: The ratio of confidence to the base probability of buying an item.

- We check to see how much the base probability increases/decreases when
other products are purchased.
o "The lift of fins and a mask", is the confidence of fins given a mask
divided by the probability of fins alone.
o The number after the decimal is multiplied by 100 to determine
increase or decrease. If 1.something, increase. If 0. Something,
decrease.

Chapter 13 Extension: RS + OLAP

Reporting Systems: Collect Data + Transforms it into useful info

- Author, manage, and deliver reports to users on a timely basis.

Steps:
1. Collect data from diff. databases
2. RS stores the metadata, which describes the reports, users, groups, and
other activities.
3. Manipulates data into meaningful context though grouping, filtering,
sorting, + making simple calculations on the data.
4. Delivery

Report Types:
- Static/Dynamic
- Query: Report is prepared in response to the data entered by users
- OLAP: A program that allows the users to change the grouping structure of
the report
Report Media: PDF, webserver, websites, mobile applications, etc.
- Alert: When the user requests notifications to be automatically sent
- Web Service: When report is produced in response to a request from
service-consuming application
Report Mode: Push/Pull
Report Authoring: Connecting to data sources, create report structure/format
• Examples: MS Access, Visual Studio

Report Management: Defines who receives what reports, when, what format, and
by what means
- Defines user accounts, user groups

OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)  Its like sorting but on a more complex level
- Allows users to change report grouping structure.
- Ability to sum, count, average, and perform arithmetic operations on groups
of data.
- Dynamic

Measure: An item of interest (item to be summed/averaged).

Dimension: A characteristic of measure
OLAP Cube: 3D OLAP
Drill Down: Break down the data into more detail (selecting what you want to
see) Dynamic display requires a lot of computer power