Database Management Logical Design

Assignment 2-Logical Design

Dorothy Bradley-Shelton

Professor Chad Frommeyer

Introduction To Relational Database Management Systems

January 20, 2013

What are the benefits of using an E-R model in developing a database for ACME Global Consulting? I will list the benefits for using an E-R database for your company. An E-R Database will benefit your company in many ways. It will make your day to day operations run more smoothly. In the long run, it will save time and money. An ERD will be a secure, effective and efficient way to run your operations and acquire needed information. You will be able to use simple tables to organize your company's data.

You will be able to link all required information by using entities, attributes and relationships. Entities symbolize real-world objects like a person, place or things and are distinguishable from other things. The attributes are the distinct characteristics of the entities that make them different from any other entity. And the relationship provides the link or the fitting together of all mutual assets of these instances for that particular entity. With an E-R database you will be able to organize all your clients according to their individual consultant, the client's type of business, client investments and client fees.

With and E-R database you will be able to determine trends in your clients overall requirements and needs. An E-R database will help you to conclude which consultant works best with each individual investment type. You will be able to separate your consultants into groups according to the investment amount, whether the investment is short-term or long-term and the number of employees who are employed by a said investor.

An E-R database makes this possible by using what are called superkeys, candidate keys and primary keys. Superkeys are used to distinctively pinpoint an entity. This will enable you to tell one entity from another. For example, short-term or long-term investments would be a superkey in the model I have provided. A candidate key is like a superkey because it does not have any other subsets or attributes that distinguish it. There can be multiple candidate keys, therefore, the primary key is the one chosen from the different candidate keys that you would use to identify or access your data. Another advantage of an E-R database is, it will allow you to see what each individual consultant is working on in the event another consultant may have to step in for that consultant. The E-R database will equip him/her with all the information, they need to meet the client's expectations.

The benefits and advantages of a relational database are many. As I have previously stated, you will be able to access information by using a simple organized table. The relational database allows you to access that information by using an entity. That entity can be a person, place or thing. In your particular case, that could be consultant 1, consultant 2, and consultant 3 and so on. Once