Emerging Tools and Technologies for Managers

Enterprise Recourse Planning

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is business process management software that allows an
organization to use a system of integrated applications to manage the business and automate many
back office functions related to technology, services and human resources.

ERP software typically integrates all facets of an operation — including product planning, development,
manufacturing, sales and marketing — in a single database, application and user interface.

ERP is an Enterprise Application

ERP software is considered to be a type of enterprise application, that is software designed to be used
by larger businesses and often requires dedicated teams to customize and analyze the data and to
handle upgrades and deployment. In contrast, Small business ERP applications are lightweight business
management software solutions, often customized for a specific business industry or vertical.

Today most organizations implement ERP systems to replace legacy software or to incorporate ERP.

Examples of ERP system modules include: product lifecycle management, supply chain management (for
example purchasing, manufacturing and distribution), warehouse management, customer relationship
management (CRM), sales order processing, online sales, financials, human resources, and decision
support system
Overview and Benefits of ERP:

There are many advantages to implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solution.
Among countless other advantages, implementing ERP software can improve productivity, increase
efficiencies, decrease costs and streamline processes. Let’s look at 15 of the most common benefits of
an ERP system that companies have reported after implementation.

ERP implementation is broken up into three phases: discovery, implementation, and results. In the initial
phase, we install the software, build a prototype, and train your staff. Then we test the ERP system,
create reporting templates, and run more targeted training sessions. Finally, we finalize the model of
your ERP system, conduct readiness assessments, and go live.

WorkWise provides expert level software implementation, which is the process of placing sub- systems
into your main ERP system and ensuring that they all are able to function together as one seamless
system. Taking a knowledge based approach to ERP implementation, WorkWise pairs each client with a
skilled consultant with proven industry experience. They take into account the outside software needed
to help maintain and complete daily business activities. During the implementation process, clients are
also able to take part in a training process which provides them with the tools and knowledge to user
their software correctly and to the best of its ability

• COMPETITION

It’s true that ERP software requires a major investment, but there’s also an even bigger cost in not
making the investment. While some manufacturers choose to stick to the tried and true methods of the
past, others seek technology solutions. Manufacturers cannot afford to put off an ERP implementation
while their competition invests in ERP and starts reaping the many benefits we’ll touch on below.

• EFFICIENCY

An ERP solution eliminates repetitive processes and greatly reduces the need to manually enter
information. The system will also streamline business processes and make it easier and more efficient
for companies to collect data, no matter what department they’re working in.

• FORECASTING

Enterprise resource planning software gives your users, and especially managers, the tools they need to
create more accurate forecasts. Since the information within ERP is as accurate as possible, businesses
can make realistic estimates and more effective forecasts.

• COLLABORATION

Nobody wants to run a siloed business with each department functioning separate from the other.
Collaboration between departments is a crucial and often necessary part of the business. With the data
entered into ERP systems being centralized and consistent, there’s no reason why departments can’t
work together. The software also touches on almost every aspect of a business, thus naturally
encouraging collaborative, interdepartmental efforts.

• SCALABILITY

Did you know? Structured ERP systems allow the addition of new users and functions to grow the
initially implemented solution over time. When your business is ready to grow or needs more resources,
enterprise resource planning software should be able to facilitate that growth.

• INTEGRATED INFORMATION

No more issues with data spread across separate databases; all information will be housed in a single
location. This means you can integrate platforms like your CRM software with the ERP system, keeping
data consistent, accurate, and unique. Know your customer, their orders, and your inventory, all in one
place.

• COST SAVINGS

With one source of accurate, real-time information, ERP software reduces administrative and operations
costs. It allows manufacturers to proactively manage operations, prevents disruptions and delays,
breaks up information logjams and helps users make decisions more quickly. If you’ve chosen the right
solution for your business, and the right vendor who meets your needs, you’re bound to see a powerful
ROI.
• STREAMLINED PROCESSES

As manufacturers grow, their operations become more and more complex. Manufacturing software
automates business operations cross-departmentally, providing accurate, real-time information to
everyone utilizing the solution. ERP increases efficiency and productivity by helping users navigate
complex processes, preventing data re-entry, and improving functions such as production, order
completion and delivery. Streamlined, efficient processes throughout.

• MOBILITY

An advantage of ERP solutions like Work Wise ERP software is having access to a centralized database
from anywhere you work. Home, office, wherever, through our mobile-friendly solution and application.

• REPORTING

ERP software helps make reporting easier and more customizable. With improved reporting capabilities,
your company can respond to complex data requests more easily. Users can also run their own reports
without relying on help from IT, saving your users time to use toward other projects.

• PRODUCTIVITY

Save time and increase productivity levels. Sound too good to be true? It’s not with ERP software. By
having redundant processes automated, users have more time to work on other pressing projects and
tasks. They’ll also be able to work easier since the solution was designed for ease-of-use.

• REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

A benefit of ERP software which sometimes goes unnoticed is how it ties well into regulatory compliance
in the manufacturing industry. Powerful ERP solutions will keep track of regulations within the industry
and monitor changes in compliance.

• FLEXIBILITY

Modern ERP software systems are robust, flexible, and configurable. They are not a one- size-fits-all
proposition but can be tailored to the unique needs of a business. ERP systems also can adapt to the
ever-changing needs of a growing business, ensuring you won’t have to buy a new solution once your
needs change or your business grows.

• CUSTOMER SERVICE

It’s easier to provide high-quality customer service using an enterprise solution, especially when you’re
using one as well-equipped as Work Wise ERP. Sales and customer service people can interact with
customers better and improve relationships with them through faster, more accurate access to
customers’ information and history. You’ll also have access to marketing automation and contact center
software, ensuring your customers are being interacted with consistently.

• SECURITY
Data security isn’t a worry when you have an enterprise resource planning solution in place. A new
system will improve the accuracy, consistency, and security of data, all through built-in resources and
firewalls. Restrictions to data can also be enhanced by managers of the solution, so you can make your
own software as secure as you’d like.

Data Base Management Systems

Introduction:
In computerized information system data is the basic resource of the organization. So, proper
organization and management for data is required fro organization to run smoothly. Database
management system deals the knowledge of how data stored and managed on a computerized
information system. In any organization, it requires accurate and reliable data for better decision
making, ensuring privacy of data and controlling data efficiently.
The examples include deposit and/or withdrawal from a bank,hotel,airline or railway reservation,
purchase items from supermarkets in all cases, a database is accessed.
What is data?
Data is the known facts or figures that have implicit meaning. It can also be defined as it is the
representation of facts ,concepts or instruction in a formal manner, which is suitable for understanding
and processing. Data can be represented in alphabets(A-Z, a-z),in digits(0-9) and using special
characters(+,-.#,$, etc) e.g: 25, “ajit” etc.
Information:
Information is the processed data on which decisions and actions are based. Information can be defined
as the organized and classified data to provide meaningful values. Eg: “The age of Ravi is 25”
File:
File is a collection of related data stored in secondary memory.

File Oriented approach:

The traditional file oriented approach to information processing has for each application a separate
master file and its own set of personal file. In file oriented approach the program dependent on the files
and files become dependent on the files and files become dependents upon the programs
Disadvantages of file oriented approach:
1) Data redundancy and inconsistency:
The same information may be written in several files. This redundancy leads to higher storage and
access cost. It may lead data inconsistency that is the various copies of the same data may longer agree
for example a changed customer address may be reflected in single file but not else where in the
system.
2) Difficulty in accessing data :
The conventional file processing system does not allow data to retrieve in a convenient and efficient
manner according to user choice.
3) Data isolation :
Because data are scattered in various file and files may be in different formats with new application
programs to retrieve the appropriate data is difficult.
4) Integrity Problems:
Developers enforce data validation in the system by adding appropriate code in the various application
programs. However when new constraints are added, it is difficult to change the programs to enforce
them.
5) Atomicity:
It is difficult to ensure atomicity in a file processing system when transaction failure occurs due to power
failure, networking problems etc.
(Atomicity: either all operations of the transaction are reflected properly in the database or non are)
6) Concurrent access:
In the file processing system it is not possible to access a same file for transaction at same time
7) Security problems:
There is no security provided in file processing system to secure the data from unauthorized user access.
Database:
A database is organized collection of related data of an organization stored in formatted way which is
shared by multiple users.
The main feature of data in a database is:
1. It must be well organized
2. it is related
3. It is accessible in a logical order without any difficulty
4. It is stored only once
for example: consider the roll no, name, address of a student stored in a student file. It is collection of
related data with an implicit meaning.
Data in the database may be persistent, integrated and shared.
Persistent:
If data is removed from database due to some explicit request from user to remove.
Integrated:
A database can be a collection of data from different files and when any redundancy among those files
are removed from database is said to be integrated data.
Sharing Data:
The data stored in the database can be shared by multiple users simultaneously without affecting the
correctness of data.
Why Database:
In order to overcome the limitation of a file system, a new approach was required.
Hence a database approach emerged. A database is a persistent collection of logically related data. The
initial attempts were to provide a centralized collection of data. A database has a self-describing nature.
It contains not only the data sharing and integration of data of an organization in a single database.
A small database can be handled manually but for a large database and having multiple users it is
difficult to maintain it, In that case a computerized database is useful.
The advantages of database system over traditional, paper based methods of record keeping are:
 Compactness:
No need for large amount of paper files
 Speed:
The machine can retrieve and modify the data faster way then human being
 less drudgery: Much of the maintenance of files by hand is eliminated
 Accuracy: Accurate, up-to-date information is fetched as per requirement of the user at any time.
Database Management System (DBMS):
A database management system consists of collection of related data and refers to a set of programs for
defining, creation, maintenance and manipulation of a database.
Function of DBMS:
Prepared by: Dr. Subhendu Kumar Rath, BPUT.
1. Defining database schema: it must give facility for defining the database structure also specifies
access rights to authorized users.
2. Manipulation of the database: The dbms must have functions like insertion of record into database
updation of data, deletion of data, retrieval of data
3. Sharing of database:The DBMS must share data items for multiple users by maintaining consistency of
data.
4. Protection of database: It must protect the database against unauthorized users.
5. Database recovery: If for any reason the system fails DBMS must facilitate data base recovery.
Advantages of dbms:
Reduction of redundancies:
Centralized control of data by the DBA avoids unnecessary duplication of data and effectively reduces
the total amount of data storage required avoiding duplication in the elimination of the inconsistencies
that tend to be present in redundant data files.
Sharing of data:
A database allows the sharing of data under its control by any number of application programs or users.
Data Integrity:
Data integrity means that the data contained in the database is both accurate and consistent. Therefore
data values being entered for storage could be checked to ensure that they fall within a specified range
and are of the correct format.
Data Security:
The DBA who has the ultimate responsibility for the data in the dbms can ensure that proper access
procedures are followed including proper authentication schemas for access to the DBS and additional
check before permitting access to sensitive data.
Conflict resolution:
DBA resolve the conflict on requirements of various user and applications. The DBA chooses the best file
structure and access method to get optional performance for the application.
Data Independence:
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Data independence is usually considered from two points of views; physically data independence and
logical data independence.
Physical data Independence allows changes in the physical storage devices or organization of the files to
be made without requiring changes in the conceptual view or any of the external views and hence in the
application programs using the data base.
Logical data independence indicates that the conceptual schema can be changed without affecting the
existing external schema or any application program.
Disadvantage of DBMS:
1. DBMS software and hardware (networking installation) cost is high
2. The processing overhead by the dbms for implementation of security, integrity and sharing of the
data.
3. centralized database control
4. Setup of the database system requires more knowledge, money, skills, and time.
5. The complexity of the database may result in poor performance.
Database Basics:
Data item:
The data item is also called as field in data processing and is the smallest unit of data
that has meaning to its users.
Eg: “e101”,”sumit”
Entities and attributes:
An entity is a thing or object in the real world that is distinguishable from all other
objects
Eg:
Bank,employee,student
Attributes are properties are properties of an entity.
Eg:
Empcode,ename,rolno,name
Logical data and physical data :
Logical data are the data for the table created by user in primary memory.
Physical data refers to the data stored in the secondary memory.

Schema and sub-schema :

Prepared by: Dr. Subhendu Kumar Rath, BPUT.
A schema is a logical data base description and is drawn as a chart of
the types of data that are used . It gives the names of the entities and attributes and
specify the relationships between them.
A database schema includes such information as :
 Characteristics of data items such as entities and attributes .
 Logical structures and relationships among these data items .
 Format for storage representation.
 Integrity parameters such as physical authorization and back up policies.
A subschema is derived schema derived from existing schema as per the user
requirement. There may be more then one subschema create for a single conceptual
schema.
Three level architecture of DBMS :

A database management system that provides three level of data is said to follow threelevel
architecture .
 External level
 Conceptual level
 Internal level
External level :
External level
Conceptual
level
View
user1
View
User2
View
User n
Mapping supplied by DBMS
Conceptual view
Mapping supplied by DBMS/OS
Internal level
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The external level is at the highest level of database abstraction . At this level, there will
be many views define for different users requirement. A view will describe only a subset
of the database. Any number of user views may exist for a given global or subschema.
for example , each student has different view of the time table. the view of a student of
Btech (CSE) is different from the view of the student of Btech(ECE).Thus this level of
abstraction is concerned with different categories of users.
Each external view is described by means of a schema called schema or
schema.
Conceptual level :
At this level of database abstraction all the database entities and the
relationships among them are included . One conceptual view represents the entire
database . This conceptual view is defined by the conceptual schema.
The conceptual schema hides the details of physical storage structures and concentrate on
describing entities , data types, relationships, user operations and constraints.
It describes all the records and relationships included in the conceptual view
. There is only one conceptual schema per database . It includes feature that specify the
checks to relation data consistency and integrity.
Internal level :
It is the lowest level of abstraction closest to the physical storage method used .
It indicates how the data will be stored and describes the data structures and access
methods to be used by the database . The internal view is expressed by internal schema.
The following aspects are considered at this level:
1. Storage allocation e.g: B-tree,hashing
2. access paths eg. specification of primary and secondary keys,indexes etc
3. Miscellaneous eg. Data compression and encryption techniques,optimization of
the internal structures.
Database users :
Naive users :
Users who need not be aware of the presence of the database system or any other
system supporting their usage are considered naïve users . A user of an automatic teller
machine falls on this category.
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Online users :
These are users who may communicate with the database directly via an online
terminal or indirectly via a user interface and application program. These users are
aware of the database system and also know the data manipulation language system.
Application programmers :
Professional programmers who are responsible for developing application programs
or user interfaces utilized by the naïve and online user falls into this category.
Database Administration :
A person who has central control over the system is called database administrator .
The function of DBA are :
1. creation and modification of conceptual Schema
definition
2. Implementation of storage structure and access method.
3. schema and physical organization modifications .
4. granting of authorization for data access.
5. Integrity constraints specification.
6. Execute immediate recovery procedure in case of failures
7. ensure physical security to database
Database language :

1) Data definition language(DDL) :

DDL is used to define database objects .The conceptual schema is
specified by a set of definitions expressed by this language. It also give some
details about how to implement this schema in the physical devices used to store
the data. This definition includes all the entity sets and their associated attributes
and their relation ships. The result of DDL statements will be a set of tables that
are stored in special file called data dictionary.
2) Data manipulation language(DML) :
A DML is a language that enables users to access or manipulate data stored in
the database. Data manipulation involves retrieval of data from the database,
insertion of new data into the database and deletion of data or modification of
existing data.
There are basically two types of DML:
 procedural: Which requires a user to specify what data is needed and
how to get it.
 non-rocedural: which requires a user to specify what data is needed
with out specifying how to get it.
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3) Data control language(DCL):
This language enables user to grant authorization and canceling
authorization of database objects.
Elements of DBMS:
DML pre-compiler:
It converts DML statement embedded in an application program to normal procedure
calls in the host language. The pre-complier must interact with the query processor in
order to generate the appropriate code.
DDL compiler:
The DDL compiler converts the data definition statements into a set of tables. These
tables contains information concerning the database and are in a form that can be used by
other components of the dbms.
File manager:
File manager manages the allocation of space on disk storage and the data structure used
to represent information stored on disk.
Database manager:
A database manager is a program module which provides the interface between the low
level data stored in the database and the application programs and queries submitted to
the system.
The responsibilities of database manager are:
1. Interaction with file manager: The data is stored on the disk using the file
system which is provided by operating system. The database manager translate
the the different DML statements into low-level file system commands. so The
database manager is responsible for the actual storing,retrieving and updating
of data in the database.
2. Integrity enforcement:The data values stored in the database must satisfy
certain constraints(eg: the age of a person can't be less then zero).These
constraints are specified by DBA. Data manager checks the constraints and if
it satisfies then it stores the data in the database.
3. Security enforcement:Data manager checks the security measures for
database from unauthorized users.
4. Backup and recovery:Database manager detects the failures occurs due to
different causes (like disk failure, power failure,deadlock,s/w error) and
restores the database to original state of the database.
5. Concurrency control:When several users access the same database file
simultaneously, there may be possibilities of data inconsistency. It is
Prepared by: Dr. Subhendu Kumar Rath, BPUT.
responsible of database manager to control the problems occurs for concurrent
transactions.
query processor:
The query processor used to interpret to online user’s query and convert it into an
efficient series of operations in a form capable of being sent to the data manager for
execution. The query processor uses the data dictionary to find the details of data file
and using this information it create query plan/access plan to execute the query.
Data Dictionary:
Data dictionary is the table which contains the information about database objects. It
contains information like
1. external, conceptual and internal database description
2. description of entities , attributes as well as meaning of data elements
3. synonyms, authorization and security codes
4. database authorization
The data stored in the data dictionary is called meta data.
DBMS STRUCTURE:
Q. List four significant differences between a file-processing system and a DBMS.
Answer: Some main differences between a database management system and a fileprocessing system
are:
• Both systems contain a collection of data and a set of programs which access that
data. A database management system coordinates both the physical and the logical
Naïve user Application
programers
On line user DBA
Application
programs
System calls Ddl compiler
Application prog
obj code
Dml precomplier Query processor Ddl compiler
Database manager
File manager
Data file
Data dictionary
DBMS
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access to the data, whereas a file-processing system coordinates only the physical
access.
• A database management system reduces the amount of data duplication by
ensuring that a physical piece of data is available to all programs authorized to
have access to it, where as data written by one program in a file-processing system
may not be readable by another program.
• A database management system is designed to allow flexible access to data (i.e.,
queries), whereas a file-processing system is designed to allow predetermined
access to data (i.e., compiled programs).
• A database management system is designed to coordinate multiple users accessing
the same data at the same time. A file-processing system is usually designed to
allow one or more programs to access different data files at the same time. In a
file-processing system, a file can be accessed by two programs concurrently only
if both programs have read-only access to the file