This Article originally appeared in
Svoboda's Home and Small Business Review
Common Sense Computing
May, 1996

Database Delusions - What's a Database ?

by William R. Stocking

My friend Chris decided to take the plunge. Last month she went out and bought a database program. An article or an ad made it sound very easy to put together custom tailored programs -- programs that would fit Chris's mail-order business perfectly. The temptation was too much. She thought of the money she'd save, thought of the number of different things she and her staff could build from this one-time purchase!

Now, five weeks later Chris gives me a call -- tone of voice: slightly desperate. We agree to meet and this is what I discovered: A lovely looking entry screen for her Customer Mailing List and a set of reports and mailing labels that indicated the old "garbage in = garbage out" rule of data entry still applies. Her office assistant who had been given the responsibliliy of implementing the system complained that he had to work twice as hard as before. Instead of having look-up boxes, he has to type in all the data, instead of being able to "find" and "sort" by a number of criteria -- well, he just didn't get it.

All of a sudden, Chris realized that the "simpleton mailing list program" they were trying to replace wasn't so simple, after all! Fixing the problems would take a few hours, but at least she had gotten a product that allowed for fast and easy development: ALPHA FIVE from Alpha Software.

This story with different variations, has been repeated to me at least four or five times in the last six months. It seemed time to write about it. And this is the most important principle that I would like to get across to you:

True, these programs can be very useful tools around the office if you keep several things in mind:

1. Know the abilities and limitations of the database program to automate complex tasks without complicated programming. Programs differ significantly. Two Windows programs, Alpha Five and Lotus Approach are designed with the idea that sophisticated end-users can put together simple, useful applications without the intervention of programmers. The DOS equivalents to these programs would probably be ALPHA FOUR and to a limited extent, Q&A.
2. Database programs such as Visual dBase, Access, Delphi, PowerBuilder and Paradox are really programming tools. You'll need a professional to build applications that have any data integrity, and you'll need a reasonable amount of money to finish the job. If you really need an application that involves entering and processing transactions don't under estimate what it's going to cost.
3. Get training. Wheel spinning is costly.
4. Recognize limitations, both your's and you staff's.

Chris and I then sat down for the rest of the morning and went over the basic "what is a database" and "what do you want it to do for you" questions: A "DATABASE" is, unfortunately, a word used to describe a number of different computer "list" related things. Strictly speaking, a database is a list of information characterized by similarities in the descriptions of individual members of the list.

Example: A phone book is a form of DATABASE. Each member of this huge list would be called in computer lingo a RECORD. Each RECORD is a unique combination of name, street address and phone number. The word FIELD is used to describe the "information slots" within the RECORD for name, address and phone number. Things such as mailing lists and phone books are the most common types of databases. Most DATABASES are in the form of a single FILE, (often called a table), though this is not necessarily so. A DATABASE can also consist of multiple RELATED FILES, (or tables).

Mailing List Application

We had already decided on the RECORD layout for her customer/prospect data file and it was to look something like this:

• Customer last name: 20 spaces
• First name: 15 spaces
• Customer ID number: 10 spaces

To fabricate ID numbers we decided to use the customer's 5 digit zip code plus the first 5 characters of their last name. Easy to figure out and remember.

• Address line 1: 35 Spaces
• Address line 2: 35 Spaces
• City: 18 Spaces
• State: 2 Spaces
• Zip 5: 5 Spaces
• Zip 4: 4 Spaces

• Work Phone: 14 Spaces
• Home Phone: 14 Spaces
• Fax Number: 12 Spaces
• Email Number: 35
• Source Code: 5 Spaces

The "Source Code" will describe how Chris got her customer in the first place. "NEWP" represents newspaper ad, "SHOW" is for trade show, "REF" for referral, etc. Once Chris has accumulated this data for a few months, she will know how to spend her promotional budget more effectively.

• Date of initial entry to system: 8 Spaces
• Date of last address change: 8 Spaces
• Date of last sale: 8 Spaces
• Lifeto-date sales $'s: 7 Spaces including 2 decimal places
• Number of times mailed: 3 Spaces

Chris needed these last 3 fields of information to weed out non-buyers. She sends three catalogs to prospects and if they don't buy, they won't get mailed again. If old customers don't buy within a period of 18 months they also will not be mailed again. Chris says: "With the postal rate increases, I've got to mail much smarter than I did in the past. Three strikes and you're out of my ball game!"

We spent about five hours with the ALPHA FIVE software putting together Chris's CUSTOMER INFORMATION data entry screen and file. Most of that time was used in designing and planning. The actual screen and database construction took less than two hours. We added a few goodies such as having the city and state fill in automatically when the zipcode was entered, we added a pop-up choice box to the "source code" field and we made several other fields "required entries", among other things..

ALPHA FIVE is slick. Many built-in business rules make constructing small applications almost easy. Sophisticated entry screens should be within the grasp of anyone who has mastered the use of a Windows word processor or spreadsheet. Then, as the user increases in skill and understanding the entry screens can be modified to allow for more sophisticated data collection.

Chris was lucky. Her needs were relatively simple and she had bought the right tool in the first place. Not so lucky were two other business owners I recently met.

The first was a small but unique service business that had commissioned a "programmer" to write an application to track customers transactions and subcontractor workorders. They wanted the program written in Microsoft Access. It was to run on a four station Lantastic network. They paid the programmer about $2000 and got a program that worked very slowwwwwwwwly, when it worked at all.

Transactions that would have taken a few seconds in a DOS based system such as Alpha Four, took minutes! I looked at their application and concluded that they had perhaps gotten $2000 worth of programming, but the application probably should have cost between $5000 and $10,000 to write if it had been done the right way and properly "debugged".

The second luckless business owner tried writing his own workorder/invoicing/AR system in dBase for Windows. He got the entry screens right and the system actually printed out work orders. But, from that point forward he hit a brick wall: Nothing tied together. He didn't have the skill level to turn his work order entry system into an invoicing system that would flow into an accounts receivable ledger, etc.

The moral of this article, if any, is that while the new database tools will allow you to easily put together good looking data entry screens and reports, constructing the programs that go between the pretty screens and pretty output is still not trivial.

Next month: Back to the Internet -- We give you the low-down of several pieces of Internet software. *All all brandnames used herein are the property of their respective owners.

(William Stocking is President of First Business Systems, Ltd. an Information Management Consultant to businesses of all sizes. He has written over 80 articles on business computing. He can be reached at wrs@firstbiz.com.