الخميس، 8 مايو 2014

Managing Knowledge and Data


First, difficulties in Managing Data

Ø  Amount of data increases exponentially

    According to the annual survey of the global digital output by International Data Corporation, the total amount of global data was expected to pass 1.2 zettabytes

Ø  Data are scattered and collected  by many individuals using various methods and devices

Ø  Data degrades overtime

Examples: customers move to a new address

                      employees are hired and fired

Ø  Data rot: problems with media on which the data are stored 

 

Data Governance:  an approach to managing data across an entire organization.

ü  Formal sets of policies that are designed to ensure that the data are collected, handled and protected in a certain, well-defined fashion .

 

ü  Master data management: a process/method that provides an organizations with the ability to store, maintain, exchange and synchronize a consistent, accurate and timely ‘single version of the truth’ for the organization's core master data .


 

Master data: a set of core data [customer, employee, vendor, geographic location] that span all enterprise information systems.

Transaction data: data that are generated and captured by operational systems

 

Second: The Database Approach

Ø  Database management system (DBMS) provides all users with access to all the data.

Ø  DBMSs minimize the following problems:

Ø  Data redundancy: The same data are stored in many places

Ø  Data isolation: Applications cannot access data associated with other applications

Ø  Data inconsistency: Various copies of the data do not agree.

 

Ø  DBMSs maximize the following issues:

o   Data Security: keeping the organization’s data safe from theft, modification, and/or destruction.

o   Data integrity: Data must meet constraints (e.g., student grade point averages cannot be negative).

o   Data independence: Applications and data are independent of one another. Applications and data are not linked to each other, meaning that applications are able to access the same data.

 

Database Management Systems



Data Hierarchy:

Bit: a binary digit, or a “0” or a “1” - The smallest unit of data a computer can handle

Byte: eight bits and represents a single character (e.g., a letter,  number or symbol)

Field: is a group of related characters (e.g., student’s name, age,  mobile number)

Record: a group of logically related fields (e.g., student in a university database)

 

File (or table): a group of  related records

Database: a group of  related files.



Designing the Database:

 

Ø  Data model

Ø  a diagram that represents the entities in the database and

Ø  their relationships

o   Entity: a person, place, thing, or event about which information is maintained. [A record generally describes an entity]

o   Attribute: a particular characteristic of a particular entity

o   Primary key (Key field): a field that uniquely identifies a record, so that it can be retrieved and updated

o   Secondary Key

 

Entity-Relationship Modeling:

Ø  Database designers plan and create the database through a process called entity-relationship (ER) modeling.

Ø  ER diagrams consists of entities, attributes and relationships. [illustrating relationships between database entities]

o   Entity classes: groups of entities of a certain type

o   Instance: the representation of a particular entity

o   Identifiers: attributes that are unique to that entity instance

 

 

Third, Database Management Systems:

Database management system (DBMS): a software that provides users with tools to add, delete, access, and analyze data stored in one location

Examples:

v  Microsoft Access

v  Oracle

Relational database model: based on the concept of two-dimensional tables

Requesting Data from a database

Structured Query Language (SQL): allows users to perform complicated searches (request information) by using relatively simple statements or keywords.

SELECT (Student Name) FROM (Student) Database WHERE (GPA)  > 3.4

Query by Example (QBE): allows users to fill out a grid or template to construct a sample or description of the data he or she wants

 

Normalization:

Ø  Normalization is a method for analyzing and reducing a relational database to its most streamlined form for:

o   Minimum redundancy

o   Maximum data integrity

o   Best processing performance

Ø  Normalized data is when attributes in the table depend only on the primary key.


Fourth, Data Warehouses and Data Mart:

Ø    Data warehouse: a repository of current and historical data to support decision makers in the organization.

o   Organized by business dimension or subject [for example, by customer, product, price and region)

o   Consistent

o   Historical: can be used for identifying trends, forecasting, and making comparisons over time.

o   Multidimensional 

 

Benefits of Data Warehousing:

Ø  End users can access data quickly and easily via Web browsers because they are located in one place.

Ø  End users can conduct extensive analysis with data in ways that may not have been possible before.

Ø  End users have a consolidated view of organizational data.

 

Problems with Data Warehousing:

Ø  Very expensive to build and to maintain [ around R.O. 400, 000]

Ø  Incorporating data from obsolete (old) mainframe systems can be difficult and expensive

Ø  People in one department may be reluctant to share data with other department

 

Data mart:

Ø  Data mart: a small data warehouse, designed for the end-user needs in a strategic business unit (SBU) or a department.

Example: Marketing and sale data mart to deal with customer information

Ø  Far less costly than a data warehouse (around R.O. 40, 000)

Ø  Can be implemented more quickly (around 3 months)

Ø  More rapid response and easier to learn and navigate

 

Fifth: Knowledge Management:

Ø  Knowledge: information that is contextual, relevant, and actionable

*Intellectual capital

*intellectual assets

Ø  Explicit knowledge: codified (documented) in a form that can be distributed to others (CEPS student’s handbook)

Ø  Tacit knowledge: a set of  insights, expertise and skills

Knowledge that people carry in their heads, but difficult to write down 

in a document

Ø  Best Practices: the most effective and efficient ways of doing things

 

Ø  Knowledge management (KM): a process of accumulating and creating knowledge efficiently, so that it can be applied effectively throughout the organization

Ø  KM is not a technology. It a process supported by IS

 

Benefits of KM:

Ø  KM fosters  innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas, novel approaches and better ways of solving problems

Ø  KM improves customer service by streamlining response time

Ø  KM boosts revenue by getting products and services to market faster 

Ø  KM enhance employee retention rates by recognizing the value of employees’ knowledge

 

                                                                                                                                                                       

Knowledge Management System (KMS)

 

Ø  KMS: the use of information technologies to systematize, enhance, and expedite intrafirm and interfirm knowledge management and knowledge sharing .

 

Knowledge Sharing:

Nothing is more frustrating for a manager than the situation in which one employee struggles with a problem that another employee knows how to solve it easily

v  Knowledge Sharing tools

v  Portals

v  Discussion groups - FAQa

v  E-mail

v  Blogs/ wikis

v  Podcasts

Resistance to sharing knowledge

-          Reluctant to show that they do not know 

-          Employee competition

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