Arminello maintains separate data files in different departments. The sales department records a sale and the documents are then forwarded to the accounting department for recording. The customer service is then notified so that it can update its records. A single transaction leads to data redundancy and concurrency. The entire system leads to the duplication of data due to process complexity. The company lacks a central access point where the different departments can be updated. The redundancy in the data can lead to serious problems since the data in the three departments will be inconsistent (Turner Weickgenannt & Copeland, 2017). An update to the sales department does not update the other two departments. Data that should be identical can have different values since typographical errors can lead to the entry of the wrong data.
There are significant issues from the current system in that the storage of data several times within the organization wastes space. A change in a field value will require an update of the three systems which is time-consuming. Failure to update one system or the use of wrong data in the accounts or customer care system can lead to inconsistencies. The databases, in this case, do not provide data concurrency since multiple users from the three departments cannot access the same data without causing inconsistencies. The users cannot see consistency in the data in the three departments including the possible changes made by the sale of an item which is not reflected immediately in the accounting or customer care department (Dull & Gelinas, 2014). Customer transactions have to be updated later in the other departments which can lead to inconsistencies.
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The sales, accounting and customer care departments cannot access the same database which makes it difficult to maintain consistency which could otherwise not be the case if the three could access the same data. Users from the two departments should be able to read the same data concurrently. Similarly, they should be able to read and update the same in different instances. It should also be possible to write in different instances on the same database (Dull & Gelinas, 2014).
The requirement for Database System
The company should invest in a single database that allows access by multiple users from the three departments. Similarly, it can invest in a distributed database that allows users to query and access it concurrently. Such access can lead to redundant data which is distributed throughout the databases in the company’s system. The system should be interconnected so that any change in the data of a single database updates the different copies across the other databases (Turner Weickgenannt & Copeland, 2017). System updates ensure that there is the consistency of data and therefore eliminating any redundant data in the system. Such an arrangement allows the recovery of data in all the databases when the system recovers after a failure.
The database should be strong enough to accommodate the increased number of queries from the different departments. The communication network should be able to withstand increased traffic and the network should propagate requests from users sending back the required feedback. Such networks should be able to withstand heavy loads to reduce chances of failure when there is an increase in the traffic between the users and the databases. The recovery system should also be robust enough to recover failed databases before the system is availed to the users (Ramakrishnan & Gehrke, 2011). The users from the three departments should not be affected by the failure of a database.
Recommendations
The company should maintain the data for the three departments in different sites where the databases can be distributed vertically, horizontally or both. A transaction that involves inserting, updating and deleting should only modify the partial data in a database and the same is updated to the rest of the databases. The process involves the execution of commit in the three databases (Ramakrishnan & Gehrke, 2011). The database for the sales department acts as the primary site and manages the transactions of the entire system. It locks the data at a central location allowing access to the data by the other departments. Care must be taken to avoid overloading the databases slowing the entire system.
Information storage and access should guarantee the completeness and timely access for the three departments. All users must be able to access reliable information that can be used for decision making. The database manager must allow access and changes to the data without compromising the integrity of the data. Multiple users from the three departments should be able to share the same information at the same time. It is therefore critical to ensure that there are no lost updates caused by duplication of activities (Ramakrishnan & Gehrke, 2011). The management of the company must evaluate the current system and come up with a database that can be accessed by the entire organization at the same time which gives the same information without relying on the manual update by the different departments.
References
Dull, R., & Gelinas, U. (2014). Accounting Information Systems . Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia.
Ramakrishnan, R., & Gehrke, J. (2011). Database management systems . Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Turner, L., Weickgenannt, A., & Copeland, M. K. (2017). Accounting information systems: The processes and controls (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons
