Use of Databases in My Organization

In today's small business and Corporate America there is a need to store pertinent information in house. Gone are the days where the average personal computers would act as the storage units, there are servers and server networks able to store thousands and even millions of data on their systems. The data is systematically organized in a readable format so users can access it by computer. This systematic organization is what is defined as a Database. I spoke to Mr. Matt Ferguson, Director of Software Engineering on the our company's databases, what are they used for, what are the advantages and disadvantages, what information is stored, and what database applications is used.

The company I work for is called Profitline Inc where our business is telecom expense management. I asked him what the database is used for. He said there are three databases, each of which is used for a number of functions. Firstly the database is used as a transaction system, where the telephone invoices are scanned and compiled as systematic raw data. The raw data cannot be used by the employees working at ProfitLine because it is not in usable data. Secondly the database is used for storing state data. This is where the progress of the data and the tracking of the invoice through the system is monitored and stored along the way on servers to view that such progress. Thirdly the database is used as a data store warehouse where the charges, the fees the remit addresses and all other significant information are extracted. The transactional data is transformed into more usable data.

The next question asked was what Application software is used for the company. The company uses different software for different functions. They use Enterprise Architecture SQL server 2000. With this software they allow certain store procedures to interact with the data.