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Archive for September, 2011

Every day the demand for a good database management system is increasing. The fact is that information is growing and expanding faster than ever. And this makes sense — all old records still need to be stored and saved, while new records are being added and updated daily. Even companies that five years ago had no use for a database management system are now struggling to even get a handle on the simplest information, as it relates to their customers.

All database management systems have one goal in mind — to take the information you enter into it, and store it effectively. Then, when you need to get that information back, you can access it quickly, without any problem or headaches.

Additionally, you want the feature of being able to access all of your information in one singular central location. What good is all your information going to be if it is scattered about on various disparate systems? If the accounting is on one computer, your inventory on another computer, and your sales information on a third computer, you will not be able to make the necessary snap decisions that are required in the business world.

Another feature many database management systems have is to give you the ability to make complex statistical and data analysis, so you can make the most accurate decision as quickly as possible, since time is money in business.

In addition to those features, another good feature of a database management system is its ability to stay secure. This is especially true, as it relates to hospitals. Most hospitals have very sensitive information about their patients, which could put them in legal problems if that information was accessed.

You want to make sure that you have proper security on your database management system, otherwise your information may be compromised. Nobody wants their competitors to get a get hold of their client list, and hospitals and psychiatrists, among others, have a duty to keep their information about their clients confidential.

Security can be enforced on each individual application that exists within a database management system, or it can be set up on the system itself. This will depend upon how many users are accessing the system, and how many applications are running on that system.

In conclusion, I’ve given you some of the basic features that make up a good database management system.

Database systems today have a laundry list of features that are built into the system. You probably ask yourself, “Do I really need all of these features for my business?” The answer varies, depending on your true business needs.

The list below breaks down the key features and functionalities found in most database/CRM systems so you can better understand whether they are useful for your company or not. Even if you find some are not useful to your company right now, think about whether they might become useful in the next 2-5 years. A database system is not a short-term purchase, but rather one that should cover a minimum of 3-5 years.

Account/Contact Management

How you maintain your contact information for your business, including details on each company and person at each company (birthdate, industry, mailings to receive, etc.)

Opportunity/Sales Management

Track proposals sent, amount of potential business open by you/your sales team, who your competition is, where your business is being referred from.

Customer Service/Case Management

If you have any products or services that require customer service or call center needs, you can track which client or prospect the issue is for, what the specific issue is, who it is assigned to, how long it was open for, and how it was resolved.

Marketing/Campaign Management

If your business is involved in any marketing activities, you can track who each mailing went to, what items are part of a specific marketing campaign, who is attending an event, etc. It allows you to track the profitability of each campaign and see what marketing efforts are working for your company.

Activity and Calendar Management

Fairly self-explanatory – allows sharing of calendars amongst team members, seeing all upcoming calls, meetings, to-dos, etc. for each contact in your system, allowing a full picture of all interactions with your customers and prospects.

Notes and History Tracking

View all sent items (emails, mailings, etc.), completed calls, meetings, to-dos, etc to a contact. See any notes entered on that contact to see a full picture of all past interactions with your customers and prospects.

Email Management

Allows viewing, sending, and receiving emails within the database system (and not relying on an outside program like Outlook, Lotus Notes). Can be used in conjunction with other email programs. Allows you to attach specific emails from contacts in the database right to the contact record.

Project Management

Assign tasks, milestones, due dates to complete a client project. Similar to using Microsoft Project or another project management tool, but it integrates the project data with the contact, account, and/or opportunity data. You can assign appropriate internal resources to each task or project and track actual work time, including billable and non-billable time. Some systems also include an expense component to their project management tool.

Dashboards/Business Intelligence

A quick glance at your business’ metrics — # of open opportunities per stage of the selling cycle; dollars of business still open; # of new clients per month, etc. The list is endless, as the Dashboard views are very customizable.

Customized Reports

Most database systems come with various “out-of-the-box” reports. However, these reports were designed for the masses, and not with your business in mind. This allows you to modify existing reports to fit your needs or create new reports that provide you the appropriate business insight you need.

Workflow/Process Automation

Want the system to email you when an opportunity has been open for too long? Or remind you to call a new prospect after 3 days? These are just some examples of what workflow automation can do for you. The list is endless and enormously helpful to the day-to-day activities of every user of the system.

Mobile/Remote Tools

Do you have a salesforce that is out of the office most of the time? Do many of your employees telecommute? Do you have several handheld device users (Blackberry, Treo, etc.)? If so, a mobile or remote tool may be very helpful to you. This allows a user to gain access to critical database information right from their handheld device. It could also provide a portion of the database for them to take with them on their laptop. When the employee connects back to the company system, the data they added/changed will automatically be updated in the main database everyone shares in the office.

With more sophisticated systems, there may be even more features than listed above. This is a list of the typical ones found in most database systems, and the ones utilized most frequently in businesses.

If you are looking into purchasing a database system in the near future, or if you already have a system, but are not sure if it is the right fit for you, contact DB Pros for an assessment of your business’ needs so we can help you find the right system for your company.

MySQL databases are the world’s most popular open source database option. Also commonly known as “My Sequel” the software provides multi level user access to a number of databases. MySQL Databases effectively function as a server operating as a fully fledged relational database management system.

The development of MySQL began back in 1994 with its first release mid 1995. Since then the package has evolved through numerous stages. MySQL database server 5.6 is expected for release shortly. The system was originally developed by Michael Widenius’ whose daughter incidentally was called My; while the SQL phrase stands for Structured Query Language.

To this day MySQL remains as free open source software. However, there are also commercial based packages with added functionality starting from $2,000 for an annual subscription with Oracle who took over Sun Microsystems in early 2010. Whichever version is in use MySQL dominates database management across the world. The package is used by web Goliath’s such as Wikipedia and FaceBook and is even used by Google (although not in search). MySQL is also used in popular applications including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, MyBB and phpBB amongst others.

MySQL databases are popular for a good reason. The setup enables the rapid delivery of high performance, read-intensive applications. MySQL rises above other RDBMS systems by providing additional functionality including a number of different storage engine options. Storage engines are also dynamically loaded at run time further increasing performance.

It is possible to build and install MySQL databases from its source code. However, this can be a very laborious task so more often than not it is installed from a binary package which can then be customised as and when required. On most Linux based platforms the MySQL package can be downloaded and installed with minimal fuss. Originally MySQL was developed as a low end alternative to commercial packages but it has also evolved to support high end needs maintaining the simplicity of use that made so popular. The true beauty of MySQL databases lies in its scalability and the setup can be deployed on distributed server clusters with a number of added performance functions such as caching ensuring the stability of the platform.

Today most web hosting-plans and companies offer MySQL hosting, it is the common standard database used by most open-source developed websites. Do be aware of how a MySQL database is used by the code on your website, there are many very inefficient ways to access a MySQL database and there are of course many more effective ways to use data in a MySQL database. Ensure you choose experienced website developers if your site will handle lots of traffic.