Database Environment Paper

Database Environment Paper

The database environment that I have chosen to review and discuss in this paper will be for my current employer, a debt collection agency. The company collects debts from a large number of consumer debtors for a variety of different clients from across the United States. The database environment will consist of a series of tables which will store different identifying information about the debt, the client and the debtor. For privacy reasons, I will be using dummy information for the data. The data that is stored in the database environment will assist both the collector and the client in locating and notating debtor information quickly. This is necessary due to the fact that data is currently kept on typed index style cards which are filed alphabetically in boxes. These files are easily disorganized and frequently lost, leading to a large amount of time being spent trying to find them.

The objective of the database environment will be to facilitate a means for the client to send information concerning their unpaid accounts which can then be stored and recalled immediately when needed. Besides eliminating the loss of files, another key benefit to this database environment will be that additional information that is not currently provided, due to the limited size of the index card, can now be included. This additional information is critical in increasing the performance of the collectors and, ultimately, the company’s revenue.

The main problem that is facing this project is the fact that this will be a complete change in the way that this collection agency, and every other agency in the country, currently stores their data. Due to this fact, there will most likely be a lot of errors during the project and will probably require trial and error to accomplish the task at hand. The main objective is that by having this database in place you will be able to successfully locate a box with the company with no issues at all. The data format for these tables will be primarily text or numeric. In this database which is very important you will be entering everything manually so you can physically see what you are entering which for example each customer name is different. The ending result is that all four databases will have all the information that is required by the user in the company to access whichever box is needed for a customer for delivery.

The database designer must recognize there will be two sets of limits. The first is the system's scope, which “defines the extent of the design according to operational requirements. Knowing the database design scope helps in defining