E-Business Databases
Brick-and-mortar businesses are turning into web-based businesses, or e-businesses, and are moving away from the traditional in-person transaction. This means that databases are becoming more and more important as tools for tracking an e-business's transactions and interactions with customers. Spreadsheets just can't provide for the needs of online transactions. Not only are the payment processes needing to be tracked, but so are the customer service interactions, the preferences of the customers and advertising and marketing campaigns. Databases are still created the same way in an e-business environment, and there are generally more of them needed.
Database Management Systems
A DBMS or database management system is a great tool for e-businesses. Large and medium sized online businesses use Oracle, Sybase, IBM or Microsoft to manage their databases and transaction environments. Small businesses may find a more intimate system like those offered by Innovative Technology Solutions to be much easier to work with. Database management systems offer the capability of tying together many business processes in a single package. Creating reports, analyzing business data, tracking transactions, understanding trends and inventory, tracking advertising campaigns and even business blogs happen through the management of data and the use of databases and database management systems.
The Supply Chain
One great example of the use of databases in e-business is the supply chain. If you are Target, Sears or JC Penney and your e-business needs to supply product to customers, are you going to separate the brick and mortar inventory from the e-business inventory? Probably not, so databases become very important to tracking where an item is located, what size or color it is in, order time if not available and the shipping cost from its location to the customer---all supplied electronically. Databases filled with data about logistics, e-fulfillment and warehousing are common concerns in e-businesses.
Security
E-businesses may deal with data and databases from many different sources, and this brings up the issue of security and databases. Layering levels of security is a long-held practice whether speaking about a brick and mortar location or an online store. In e-business, permissions and entry requirements are one of the layers of security. Databases hold this permission information. When an employee wants to log in to go to work, his name and password is checked against the database to see if the request is acceptable. Further, the right for the employee to enter certain areas of the website can be set in the database and checked as he attempts to move through the site. This works for customers, too. A customer's personal information, billing, shipping and payment methods are all kept behind locked cyber doors in databases.
