The Business Intelligence And Databases

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Business intelligence (BI) comprises of different theories, methods, different processes, building architectures, and functional technologies that converts raw data into significant and useful information. Business Intelligence can handle large amounts of information to identify and create new opportunities. Using these opportunities and thus higher managers implementing new and better strategies can give a strong market value and proving to get better and more efficient long term stability to the system.

BI technologies provide decision making by using historical, current and futuristic views of business operations. Few Common functions of business intelligence are :, analytics, data mining, online analytical processing, process mining.

The methods and tools of BI are used to evaluate organized data and business procedure whereas competitive intelligence collects, explores and distributes information focusing on the competitors of company. Thus, broadly BI can be considered as the subdivision competitive intelligence.

In order to differentiate between business intelligence and data warehouse, it has been defined in two ways-

The set of procedures, methods and techniques used to convert raw data into significant and valuable information which facilitate more planned and better decision is known as business intelligence.

Business intelligence contains technologies such as data quality, data integration data warehousing and content analytics. Therefore, Forrester refers to data making and data using as two different, but faithfully linked segments of Business intelligence..

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Database Management System

A database could be defined as a collection of operational data which is used by various applications and enterprises for maintaining their information and data’s relevant for organizational use.

What Is Data ?

A sequence of characters stored in computer memory or storage

Interpreted sequence of characters stored in computer memory or storage

Interpreted set of objects

Database supports a concurrent access to the data

File Systems :

• File is a unstructured collection of information

• File operations: delete, create, open, close, read, write, find, … and many more.

• Access methods: there are different access methods for files in different databases. Some dollow Algorithms along with internal file organizations.

• Examples: File of Customers, File of Students; Access method: implementation of a set of operations on a file of students or customers.

Database Applications:

•Airline Reservation Systems – Data items like: single passenger reservations; Information about flights and airports; Information about ticket prices and tickets restrictions, pre departure and post departures datas.

•Banking Systems – Data items for banking system includes: accounts, customers, loans, mortgages, balances, etc.

•Hotels Records – Data items are: sales, rooms booked, customer information, checkin, checkout dates etc.

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Information and Data management In my present work

As stated above one of the database Application is in Airline Reservation Systems, so my present work in my organization is in Airlines domain, I have been taking care of the cargo systems starting from initial itinerary management to post departure systems.

Airlines systems basically follow a typical TPF operating system for their information and transaction management. It is a fixed file management system.

TPF:

TPF is the acronym for Transaction Processing Facility and is often referred to as the operating system, the control program, or the supervisor program. All these mean the same thing. Basically, TPF sets up an environment which allows applications programs to do their job. It does not by itself do any useful application programming such as booking seats on aircraft - it just enables these tasks to be performed.

TPF is a message-oriented system (conversational) that can support a vast number of concurrent users, and can reply quickly to each incoming message. It also allows a low cost per transaction, high volume processing, high availability and reliability as well as versatility.

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Above picture is the overall Database management of the TPF system, which is further divided into smaller units and is defined in the report below.

TPF Online Database and Organization

Fixed Files

Pool Files

TPF online database management

The TPF Online database is unique in many different ways. The TPF online database is made up of a Range of DASDs (Direct access storage Devices)

These DASDs are Pre-formatted at the time of System Generation.

All users can access all the files in the database.

The TPF system unlike other multitasking operating systems, imposes no security/access restrictions on any of the file.

Like there are classifications in working storage with respect to the size, there are classifications in the TPF file system also in terms of the sizes of the physical data blocks.

Take note that physical data blocks are called records in TPF and a logical record (collection of fields) is called an item/lrec.

TPF Supports 3 Standard Record Sizes

Small (381 bytes)

Large (1055 bytes )

4K (4095 bytes)

While formatting the DASDs, separate storage areas are allocated for each record size.

Each record is identified by a 4 byte address called the Symbolic Ordinal Number address (SON address).

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Concept of Record Type and Ordinals

Wed

Tue

Sat

Fri

Thurs

Mon

Sun Record Type = #FLTLIST

In this case, more than one process can update the information in different ordinals.

It’s obvious that the information that can be stored in a block is limited.

For example, if the flight information lrecs are of size 100 bytes, each record in this record type is of size 1 k, then we can store only 10 lrecs in record.

The next 10 lrecs should be stored in another data block. This though trivial, is transparent in other operating system.

In TPF this set records that belong to a particular ordinal is called a ‘Chain".

The first record in the chain is called the ‘Prime Block’ and the rest of them are called ‘Overflows’.

Horizontal Database Allocation

TPF divides file types into ordinals and the provision that allows access to ordinals directly enhances the performance of the TPF system.

Even in a set up like this, there can be bottle necks in accessing information in different ordinals if they are stored in the same module.

To improve on this, TPF database allocation is horizontal.

Successive ordinals of the same record type are distributed across successive modules.

Vertical Database Allocation:

Module – 1 Module – 2 Module – 3

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Horizontal Database Allocation:

Module – 1 Module – 2 Module – 3

1

4

7

2

5

8

3

6

9

Fixed Files

Fixed files are:

Records defined before being referenced by application programs

Mostly contain static data , Serves as indices to dynamic data

Once defined exists till the lifetime of the applications that use it

A Set of fixed file records identified to belong to a Record type.

Each Fixed file in a record type identified with a record type Ordinal number.

Logically ordinal numbers of a particular record type are sequential records but, Physically, they are located in different modules (Horizontal database allocation !! )

A Fixed file record is uniquely identified by its Record type and ordinal number

The lrecs that are present in a fixed file can be altered during online operation.

New Fixed files cannot be created during application execution.

Fixed records are allocated in the online database so as to ensure faster access and improved performance.

Fixed file records are allocated by the Database administrator on request from application Programmers.

Pool Files

Dynamic file storage requests satisfied from storage areas known as pool file storage, or just pool.

The pool file area is shared by all applications

Dispensed as and when needed and are returned back to the system when no longer required and are re-dispensed.

System locates available record and returns pool file address on requests by application programs for pool files

Typically the address is saved in a fixed file record for subsequent reference. Here the fixed file acts as an index record.

Pool file storage area in DASD carved out during system generation

Pool files also have a SON address and an MCHR

Pool Records can be classified into two types

Short term pool records

Long term pool records

Message Flow in TPF Airlines systems:

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This diagram shows a pictorial representation of how entry flow is taken care in TPF environment. Whenever a entry is hit, it goes to the Application program which in turn gets all the data from the database(DASD),which performs all the input and output operations and then sends back output to the agent. This whole process takes less than 3 sec.

Conclusion

This TPF data base management system has been in use for last around 40 years and is one of the best system for airlines, hotels and banking system as the entry processing time is very less as compared to other open source languages and databases. At an average the time taken is less then 3 sec which includes network congestion, so overall the time is around 1/3 of a sec.

This database management has proved to be an excellent tool for making all business decisions and thus have helped all the managers and other higher organizers to it upgraded from time to time, hence helping the business to flow a comfortably.