In a Large Corporation
Today all companies recognize that one of the ways to remain competitive is to use computer-stored data for more than just day-to-day operations. Creative managers are constantly looking for ways to "turn data into information." As a result, companies no longer have "data processing" units; they have vast MIS departments charged with the care and feeding of the company's valuable computer-stored information.
Nearly all corporations start by building operational data processing systems. These systems collect and process the individual transactional data required to run the business on a day-to-day basis. Examples of transactional data include the following.
Checks cleared and money withdrawn and deposited in a banking demand deposit system
Incoming inventory and items sold in a retail system
Raw materials ordered and received and finished goods shipped in a manufacturing system
Energy consumed, raw product delivered, and service connection/disconnection data in a utility system
These systems are relatively simple to design and implement with respect to the data input, the processes required on this data, and the data output. They are also easy to justify financially because they can reduce clerical tasks and, at the same time, handle rapidly growing volumes of data. (Imagine trying to post 10 million checks to accounts manually.)
After operational systems are in place and management becomes aware of the vast amounts of data being collected, management often begins to examine the data to better understand how the business interacts with its customers, suppliers, and competitors—to learn how to become more efficient and more competitive. Information processing in most MIS departments usually begins quite innocently as an extension of operational systems. In fact, some information processing almost always gets defined as part of an operational application system design. While interviewing users of a system during the systems analysis phase, the system designer usually hears requests such as, "When the monthly invoices are produced, I'd also like to see a report that tells me which accounts are more than 90 days past due." Printing the invoices is not information processing. Producing the report is.
On the surface, it would seem simple to answer a question about delinquent accounts, given the data about all accounts receivable. However, the operational system might require only 30 days of "current" data to get the job done. The first information request almost always begins to put demands on the data processing systems, and these demands far exceed the data and processing power needed to merely run the business. At some point, the MIS organization decides to reserve additional data storage and processing capability to meet the growing need for information.
This need for information has led companies to build vast networks of departmental systems, which are in turn linked to desktop systems on employees' desks. As more and more data spreads through the corporation, the data becomes more difficult to manage, locate, and access, as Figure 2-4 makes clear. Multiple copies of the same data proliferate, and it becomes hard to determine who has the most current and accurate data.
Why do so many copies exist? Many copies of data exist because the vast majority of tools aren't designed to work with data in more than one format or to connect to data from multiple sources. Employees must resort to obtaining a copy of the data they want and then converting it to the format understood by their tool of choice.
Attached Figure 2-4. The typical corporate computing environment, in which data can spread and become difficult to manage, locate, and access.
One major strength of Microsoft Access in a corporate environment is the ability to link to a variety of database formats on the workstation, on database servers, or on host computers. A manager trying to solve a problem no longer has to figure out how to get copies of data from several different sources to plug into a spreadsheet-based graph for analysis. Using Access, the manager can connect directly to the source data, build a query to extract the necessary information, and create a report with an embedded graph—all with one tool. When a corporation has implemented an intranet, authorized users can access this same information in published data access pages. The ability to retrieve data from multiple sources, combined with ease of use, makes Access a powerful tool for creating information processing systems.
Workgroup Applications
Large corporations find Access especially well suited for creating the workstation portion of client/server applications. Unlike many other Windows-based client application development systems, Access uses its knowledge of the application data and structure to simplify the creation of forms, reports, and data access pages. (Data access pages are a new feature in Access 2000 that make it easy to design and deploy Access-based web applications on a company intranet.) Applications developed using Access can be made available to users at all levels of the corporation. And with Access it's easy to design truly "user-friendly" applications that fully utilize the investment in employee workstations.
Because Access can link to and share data in many different database formats, it's ideal for creating workgroup applications that maintain data on local departmental servers but need to periodically use data from applications in other departments or upload data to corporate servers. For smaller workgroup applications, local data can be stored and shared across the workgroup using native Access database files. For larger applications, a true database server, such as SQL Server, can be used to store the data, with Access as the workstation client. When data must be shared with other workgroups or corporate servers, the Access-based application can use the ODBC standard to execute queries that read or update data that is stored in any of several database formats.
Information Processing Systems
Perhaps a more common use for Access in a corporate environment is as the front-end tool for information processing systems. Many corporations create Executive Information System (EIS) applications using Access so that knowledgeable executives can create their own "drill down" queries, graphs, and reports. MIS departments find that Access is also a great tool for creating the end-user interface for information processing applications.
In recent years, Ray McCann's business has grown by leaps and bounds. He now keeps track of dozens of entertainment groups and more than 100 nightclubs. Although he doesn't run a large corporation, his information processing needs have grown to the point that he often needs sophisticated search tools to find the perfect match between entertainment groups and clubs. The Entertainment Scheduling sample database now contains the sort of "drill down" search mechanism that you might implement in a corporate information processing system.
Attached Figure 2-5 shows a complex search in progress. The initial search screen generates a filtered list of groups (the Group Search Summary) when more than a few groups meet the criteria entered. A double-click on a specific group in the filtered list lets Ray display the full details for that group.
Attached Figure 2-5. A "drill down" search
 Attachments
Figures Understanding (34542-3133-In-a-Large-Corportation-Figures.zip)
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