DATABASES AND

DATA WAREHOUSES
 LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. List, describe, and provide an example of

each of the five characteristics of high
quality information

2. Define the relationship between a

database and a database management
system

3. Describe the advantages an organization

can gain by using a database.
LEARNING OUTCOMES

4. Define the fundamental concepts

of the relational database model

5. Describe the role and purpose of a

database management system
and list the four components of a
database management system

6. Describe the two primary methods

for integrating information across
multiple databases
UNDERSTANDING
INFORMATION
 Information is everywhere in an organization

 Employees must be able to obtain and

analyze the many different levels, formats,
and granularities of organizational
information to make decisions

 Successfully collecting, compiling, sorting,

and analyzing information can provide
tremendous insight into how an organization
is performing
UNDERSTANDING
INFORMATION
 Information granularity – refers to the extent of detail
within the information (fine and detailed or coarse
and abstract)
 Levels
 Formats
 Granularities
 Information Quality

Business decisions are only as good as the

quality of the information used to make the
decisions

Characteristics of high quality information

include:
 Accuracy
 Completeness
 Consistency
 Uniqueness
 Timeliness
 Information Quality
 Low quality information example
 Understanding the Costs of
Poor Information
 The four primary sources of low quality information include:
1. Online customers intentionally enter inaccurate information to protect their
privacy
2. Information from different systems have different entry standards and
formats
3. Call center operators enter abbreviated or erroneous information by
accident or to save time
4. Third party and external information contains inconsistencies, inaccuracies,
and errors
Understanding the Costs of
Poor Information
 Potential business effects resulting from low quality
information include:
 Inability to accurately track customers
 Difficulty identifying valuable customers
 Inability to identify selling opportunities
 Marketing to nonexistent customers
 Difficulty tracking revenue due to inaccurate invoices
 Inability to build strong customer relationships
Understanding the Benefits of
Good Information

 High quality information can significantly improve the

chances of making a good decision

 Good decisions can directly impact an organization's

bottom line
DATABASE FUNDAMENTALS

 Information is everywhere in an organization

 Information is stored in databases

 Database – maintains information about various types of
objects (inventory), events (transactions), people
(employees), and places (warehouses)
 DATABASE FUNDAMENTALS
 Database models include:
 Hierarchical database model – information is organized into a tree-like structure
(using parent/child relationships) in such a way that it cannot have too many
relationships
 Network database model – a flexible way of representing objects and their
relationships
 Relational database model – stores information in the form of logically related
two-dimensional tables
DATABASE ADVANTAGES

 Database advantages from a business perspective

include
 Increased flexibility
 Increased scalability and performance
 Reduced information redundancy
 Increased information integrity (quality)
 Increased information security
 Increased Flexibility

 A well-designed database should:

 Handle changes quickly and easily
 Provide users with different views
 Have only one physical view
 Physical view – deals with the physical storage of information on a storage
device

 Have multiple logical views

 Logical view – focuses on how users logically access information
Increased Scalability and
Performance
 A database must scale to meet increased demand,
while maintaining acceptable performance levels
 Scalability – refers to how well a system can adapt to
increased demands
 Performance – measures how quickly a system performs a
certain process or transaction
Reduced Redundancy

 Databases reduce information redundancy

 Redundancy – the duplication of information or storing
the same information in multiple places

 Inconsistency is one of the primary problems with

redundant information
 Increased Integrity (Quality)

Information integrity – measures the quality of

information

Integrity constraint – rules that help ensure the

quality of information
Relational integrity constraint – rule that enforces
basic and fundamental information-based
constraints
Business-critical integrity constraint – rule that
enforce business rules vital to an organization’s
success and often require more insight and
knowledge than relational integrity constraints
Increased Security

 Information is an organizational asset

and must be protected

 Databases offer several security features

including:
 Password – provides authentication of the
user
 Access level – determines who has access to
the different types of information
 Access control – determines types of user
access, such as read-only access
 RELATIONAL DATABASE
FUNDAMENTALS
Entity – a person, place, thing, transaction, or
event about which information is stored
The rows in each table contain the entities
In Figure 6.5 CUSTOMER includes Dave’s Sub Shop
and Pizza Palace entities

Entity class (table) – a collection of similar

entities
In Figure 6.5 CUSTOMER, ORDER, ORDER LINE,
DISTRIBUTOR, and PRODUCT entity classes
RELATIONAL DATABASE
FUNDAMENTALS

 Attributes (fields, columns) –

characteristics or properties of an entity
class
 The columns in each table contain the
attributes
 In Figure 6.5 attributes for CUSTOMER include:
 Customer ID
 Customer Name
 Contact Name
 Phone
 RELATIONAL DATABASE
FUNDAMENTALS

 Primary keys and foreign keys identify the various entity

classes (tables) in the database
 Primary key – a field (or group of fields) that uniquely
identifies a given entity in a table
 Foreign key – a primary key of one table that appears an
attribute in another table and acts to provide a logical
relationship among the two tables
Potential relational database for
Coca-Cola
 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS
 Database management systems (DBMS) – software through which users
and application programs interact with a database
DATABASE MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS

 Four components of a DBMS

Data Definition Component

 Data definition component – creates

and maintains the data dictionary
and the structure of the database

 The data definition component

includes the data dictionary
 Data dictionary – a file that stores
definitions of information types, identifies
the primary and foreign keys, and
maintains the relationships among the
tables
 Data Definition Component

 Data dictionary essentially defines the logical

properties of the information that the database
contains
 Data Manipulation
Component
Data manipulation component – allows users to
create, read, update, and delete information
in a database

A DBMS contains several data manipulation

tools:
View – allows users to see, change, sort, and query
the database content
Report generator – users can define report formats
Query-by-example (QBE) – users can graphically
design the answers to specific questions
Structured query language (SQL) – query language
 Data Manipulation
Component
 Sample report using Microsoft Access Report Generator
 Data Manipulation
Component
 Sample report using Access Query-By-Example (QBE) too
 Data Manipulation
Component
Results from the query in Figure 6.10
 Data Manipulation
Component
 SQL version of the QBE Query in Figure 6.10
 Application Generation and Data
Administration Components

Application generation component –

includes tools for creating visually appealing
and easy-to-use applications

Data administration component – provides

tools for managing the overall database
environment by providing faculties for
backup, recovery, security, and
performance

IT specialists primarily use these components

INTEGRATING DATA AMONG
MULTIPLE DATABASES

 Integration – allows separate systems to communicate

directly with each other
 Forward integration – takes information entered into a
given system and sends it automatically to all
downstream systems and processes
 Backward integration – takes information entered into a
given system and sends it automatically to all upstream
systems and processes
 INTEGRATING DATA
AMONG MULTIPLE DATABASES
 Forward and backward integration
INTEGRATING DATA
AMONG MULTIPLE DATABASES

 Building a central repository specifically for integrated

information
HISTORY OF DATA
WAREHOUSING

 Data warehouses extend the

transformation of data into information

 In the 1990’s executives became less

concerned with the day-to-day business
operations and more concerned with
overall business functions

 The data warehouse provided the ability

to support decision making without
disrupting the day-to-day operations
DATA WAREHOUSE
FUNDAMENTALS

 Data warehouse – a logical collection of

information – gathered from many
different operational databases – that
supports business analysis activities and
decision-making tasks

 The primary purpose of a data

warehouse is to aggregate information
throughout an organization into a single
repository for decision-making purposes
DATA WAREHOUSE
FUNDAMENTALS

 Extraction, transformation, and

loading (ETL) – a process that extracts
information from internal and external
databases, transforms the information
using a common set of enterprise
definitions, and loads the information
into a data warehouse

 Data mart – contains a subset of data

warehouse information
DATA WAREHOUSE
FUNDAMENTALS
Multidimensional Analysis

 Databases contain information in a series of two-

dimensional tables

 In a data warehouse and data mart, information is

multidimensional, it contains layers of columns and
rows
 Dimension – a particular attribute of information
 Multidimensional Analysis
 Cube – common term for the representation of multidimensional
information
Multidimensional Analysis

 Data mining – the process of analyzing

data to extract information not offered
by the raw data alone

 To perform data mining users need data-

mining tools
 Data-mining tool – uses a variety of
techniques to find patterns and relationships
in large volumes of information and infers rules
that predict future behavior and guide
decision making
Information Cleansing or
Scrubbing
 An organization must maintain high-quality data in the
data warehouse

 Information cleansing or scrubbing – a process that

weeds out and fixes or discards inconsistent, incorrect,
or incomplete information
 Information Cleansing or
Scrubbing
 Contact information in an operational system
 Information Cleansing or
Scrubbing
 Standardizing Customer name from Operational System
Information Cleansing or
Scrubbing
 Information Cleansing or
Scrubbing
 Accurate and complete information
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

 Business intelligence – information that people use to

support their decision-making efforts

 Principle BI enablers include:

 Technology
 People
 Culture