TRANSACTION

PROCESSING
SYSTEMS
TRANSACTION PROCESSING
SYSTEMS
Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) collect, store, modify and
retrieve the transactions of an organisation.

CHARACTERISTICS:
• Rapid Response: Fast performance with a rapid
response time is critical.
• Reliability: A breakdown will disrupt operations or
even stop the business.
• Inflexibility: A TPS wants every transaction to be
processed in the same way regardless of the user, the
customer or the time of day.
• Controlled Processing: If an organisation allocates
roles and responsibilities to particular employees,
then the TPS should enforce and maintain this
requirement.
 BATCH TRANSACTION
PROCESSING
Batch Transaction Processing collects the transaction data as a
group, or batch, and processes it later. It has a time delay.
Transactions are collected and held for processing until it is
convenient or economical to process them.

Advantages of Batch Processing:

•Lower costing per transaction.
•Used for large amounts of data
that manually could be very time
consuming.
Disadvantages of Batch Processing:
•All processing must wait until
a set time. The processing
schedule is predetermined.
•Errors cannot be corrected
during processing.
•Sorting the transaction data is
expensive and time consuming.
REAL-TIME TRANSACTION
PROCESSING
Real-time transaction processing is the immediate processing of data.
It provides instant confirmation of a transaction but does require
access to an online database.

Two main concerns with real-time processing are Concurrency and

Concurrency
Atomicity. :
•Ensures that two users cannot change the
same data at the same time.
•One user cannot change a piece of data
before another user has finished with it.
•(e.g.) Two people booking the same air flight,
and booking the same seat. Concurrency makes
sure that this doesn’t occur.
Atomicity:
•Ensures that all of the steps involved in a
transaction are completed successfully as a
group.
•If any step fails, no other step should be
completed and the transaction is incomplete.
•(e.g.) The power shuts off during a
transaction, therefore not allowing steps to
be complete, making the transaction is
 DIFFERENCES:
BATCH VS REAL-TIME
BATCH REAL-TIME
The database is not Each transaction is
accessible all of the unique. Not part of a
time
Only for
one batch
computer is group process
Requires .
a Master File.
processing
needed to .operate the Updating and Referencing
system .
Impractical to shut occurs constantly
Fewer Errors . Data. is
down the process validated and entered
because
Data is of one error
organised and. immediately . occurs, the
When an error
stored before the whole system still
Master File is updated. operates while fixing
Errors may occurneeded
Less personnel in the
Moreerror happens
computer .
operators
this
and issteps .
easier to are needed and are
maintain. difficult to maintain.
 TRANSACTION
PROCESSING MONITOR
A transaction processing monitor (TP monitor) is software that
allows the transaction processing application programs to run
efficiently.
• It manages a sequence of events that are
part of a transaction. A TP monitor provides a
standard interface between the input devices, the
transaction processing application programs, and
the DBMS.
• It also provides data security by ensuring
that transactions do not get lost or corrupted.
•A TP monitor is used in conjunction with a
particular operating system.
 DATA
VALIDATION
Data Validation is used to check the entry of transaction data.
It involves procedures to ensure that transactions are correct
and have been accurately stored in the database.
Data validation involves transaction initiation and field
checking:
Transaction Initiation: is used to acknowledge that the TP
monitor is ready to receive the transaction data. It is used in
real-time processing to eliminate a number of possible errors.
Some TPS’s add an entry time to the transaction data in an
attempt to trace the data if it is lost.
Field Checking: occurs when the transaction data is entered into
a database. The data is organised into files, records, fields and
characters. Data validation is carried out by checking fields,
using a range check, list check, type check or check digit.
 COMPONENTS OF A
TRANSACTION
PROCESSING SYSTEM
Users of TPS often take the data provided by the TPS and use it
in another type of information system.
Participants are the people who conduct the information
processing. They are the people who do the work. Participants
need to know what to do, how to do it and when to do it.
People from the environment are becoming participants in real-
time processing systems as they directly enter transactions and
perform validation.
WOOLWORTHS
TPS’s
 WOOLWORTHS
TRANSACTION
PROCESSING SYSTEMS
Woolworths uses two main Transaction Processing
Systems :

EFTPOS
&
AUTOSTOCKER
 EFTPOS
This is used as a user purchases items from Woolworths and
decides to pay them by credit or debit card.
By using the EFTPOS terminal supplied by Woolworths, they swipe
their card to supply details to access their account, then the
choose of whether to pay from their credit account or savings
account. Once selected, they either sign or enter a pin and after
the transaction is approved the money will be send from the
users account to the Woolworths account.
This used real-time processing to operate efficiently as the
funds need to be transfer between user and Woolworths to be
complete (Atomicity). This changes the users amount of funds in
the bank after the purchase and also the funds into the
Woolworths account, otherwise if batch processing occurred, the
user could spend more then they have in their account if they
used a debit card, as the processing would happen later that day.
Therefore purchasing more then they can afford, resulting in
companies not getting their money for the purchase and the user
is stealing.
AUTOSTOCKER
This occurs when an item or various items has been purchased
through a cash register, the barcode is scanned on the item, then
the details such as the items name, weight and price appears on
the screen.
When the barcode has been scanned that sends a signal to the
database to the master file. These signal tells the master file
that the quantity of that item was purchased will not be in
stock anymore requiring the re-ordering of that item. A decision
support system (DSS) would be present in the re-ordering of the
items as over the past 6 years, all details of sales, trends, fads
and seasonal conditions change the amount in which the DSS would
re -order
Using the. barcodes on the products
and the barcode reader linked to the
computers seen by both the customers
and the employees. From the
transaction process, the employees
use RF scanners to constantly check
the stock of certain products. They
can also manually order stock but the
computer has enough data from past
years enable it to order products as
they are running out.
 USERS Customers Woolworths ENVIRONMENT I
S
C
PURPOSE To sell food and other domestic products.

D
INFORMATION PROCESS

• Scan product • Update product inventory I

A
•
• Search Database • Display product
information
G
PARTICIPANTS DATA/INFORMATION INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY R
A
M
• Store • Barcode • Electric Cash
Staff • Registers
• • Product •
• Computing Details • Central Computer
Personnel • •
• Receipt • Barcode Reader
 D
EFTPOS A
T
Funds Transacti A
Customers on Woolworths
Require Transfer of money
d Approved F
Availab Funds
L
le Approved O
Funds Bank Database W
D
AUTOSTOCKER I
A
G
Product Item R
Cash Register Database
Updating
Scanned Product Quantity
Removed A
M
Product = 1 Less
Purchased Quantity
Master File of
Product
 SOCIAL &
ETHICAL ISSUES
Some people decided not to use the new register where you scan
your items yourself. They decided not to use them because they
thought that they caused the loss of jobs because there was
only one person operating them. But actually operators of the
registers haven’t lost there jobs but have been put into
different areas within the store.
Jobs have been moved from the cash register to other jobs
involving re-stacking shelves, working out back, serving and
displaying. Also with the introduction of transaction
processing systems, jobs have been created to maintain and
operate the system, also outside of the Echuca store, in Sydney
there is a group of people which view the orders that have
been sent in by the TPS’s.
 POWER
SHORTAGE
Woolworths has a generator that operates when power it loss
from the grid but it also have a separate one for the
computing system to make sure it doesn’t crash but only last
approximately 50 minutes to an hour.
The EFTPOS system continues to operate if the system is still
working with the generator because each terminal has it’s own
supply of power so it continues to work while the power is
off. If the power to the communication service is down, the
terminal continues to work but instead of sending the
transaction straight to the bank or communication service, the
terminal stores the data until the service become online again
and the transaction can be processed.
 INFORMATION
ISSUES
There is a group of people that work for Woolworth in Sydney
that are sent every TPS’s auto stocker order and check over it
to check it there is any errors in the quantity of the product
has been entered incorrectly. The pressing of an extra button
can be the difference between getting nine items of that
product or getting ninety. But some measure have been put into
place by some operators that when they use the system, they
will set up a program to operate an alert system that is the
quantity of an item has be entered >10, the alarm will come up
to check the quantity of that product to ensure that the right
amount of that product has been ordered.
 ENVIRONMENT
ISSUES
Through the use of TPS’s, the amount of paper used has become
amazingly less and less. There is no need to have a huge room
just for the storage of orders, invoices and other paperwork.
Instead now they use computers to store the large amounts of
data onto a hard drive or several hard drives, encase of an
emergency or accident.