Trident University International

Jonathan Moore

ITM306 Foundations of Management Information Systems

Module 3 - Case

Dr. Kenneth Phillips

June 23, 2021

We are now in the era of dealing with massive data where organizing them in a specific way

could pose a challenge. That is why to heed this challenge, Database Management Systems

(DBMS) concept was conceived.

A database management system (DBMS) is a piece of software that allows you to create and

manage databases. End users can create, protect, read, update, and remove data in a database

using a database management system (DBMS). The DBMS, the most common type of data

management platform, acts as an interface between databases and end users or application

programs, ensuring that data is consistently structured and accessible. (Mullins, 2021) The

database management system (DBMS) is in charge of data management; the database engine is

in charge of data access, locking, and modification; and the database schema is in charge of the

database's logical structure. Concurrency, security, data integrity, and standard data

administration processes are all supported by these three basic aspects.

DBMS has both advantages and disadvantages. Figure 1 shows the contrast between the

functionality of DBMS:

Big companies and firms are faced everyday with an overwhelming amount of data on a regular

basis. If left uncheck and left disorganized, it will pose a problem with greater ramifications that

will impact the firm in the long run. Just like in the case study we are going to discuss today.
 Figure 1: DBMS Pros and Cons

As we can see from this comparison, Database Management is an extremely critical technical

consideration. We could see from the comparison of these two tables the contrast between

having an organized database versus an unstructured one. But what’s clear here is that the pros

outweigh the cons and therefore it would be in the company or firm’s benefit to implement a

DBMS.

Case Analysis (Comparative)

Let us compare the two methods so we could have a general consensus and overview on how

these two methods presented differ and what could be improved.

Method 1:

Method 2:

Observe that, there are a lot of discrepancies in the two tables. Under the Description column,

notice that there is a difference in how the two methods describe the bearing material; in the first

method, the dimension is given first and the type of bearing material is then specified. In method

2, the description is bland and aside from the dimension, the specifics of the bearing material are

not well described in this method. For the Cost per Unit/Unit Cost column, although the cost of

the first product in both methods are the same, the second product cost is varied due to numerous

potential reasons (i.e., typographical, reading inaccuracies, different methods of computation).

Units Sold or Units/Sold column, we see that there are no discrepancies in the values in the

tables but the only difference is the column description. In the Geographical Area column, we

see alternating descriptions here; if the other one is abbreviated, the other one is not. Also, we

could see a unique column for both methods in both of their final part. Dealing with different

formats such as these is overwhelming. You are then faced with tricky situations due to the lack

of standardization and with confusion leads to lots of inaccuracies. Data mistakes are

unforgivable and as such one must be critical in reflecting all sorts of data to obtain an accurate

and sound output.

How simple would it be to construct a database that stores data on both sources in a uniform

model format? It depends on the amount of data. In this example, it is very doable and business

managers could just address this issue immediately in coordination with their local IT. In

contrast, if we are dealing with a huge amount of data, then it would be wise to hire experts in

this matter to ensure accuracy in this arena because we don’t want to run the risk of data

mistakes which are very damaging to big, data dependent firms. When hiring DBMS experts,

business managers have to be present in the organization process so that the experts could

consult them with the standard they desire in order to have a unified opinion on the matter. That

is why collaborative work is key here in order to achieve a harmonious and precise final output.

The final opinion that must prevail when standardizing these data are the business manager(s)

and employees. In the end what goes in and goes out must be under their purview so that they

could judge whether is this standard okay or not. There must be a unified opinion in this matter

so that everyone could agree that this should become the standard and merge their different

methods to achieve a more standardized database that everyone can access and interpret

correctly.

This is why Database Management System is so important. It’s just not sorting data. It’s about

understanding data. Data mistakes are unforgivable. Simple mistakes could potentially present

greater destructive ramifications in the long run if left unchecked. That is why DBMS matters.

This is why every firm should rest their shoulders on it.

References:

(2021). Retrieved 23 June 2021, from https://tutorialink.com/dbms/advantage-and-

disadvantages-of-dbms.dbms

Mullins, C. (2021). What is a DBMS? Database Management System Definition. Retrieved 23

June 2021, from https://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/definition/database-management-system

The Benefits Of Using Database Management Systems -RingLead. (2021). Retrieved 23 June

2021, from https://www.ringlead.com/blog/the-benefits-of-using-database-management-systems/