Efficiency and Collaboration

Efficiency and Collaboration Proposal

Effectively fighting the battle against inefficiency in the workplace requires the implementation and subsequent use of the proper information systems. According to Bill Gates chairperson of Microsoft Corporation, “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency” (Technology Quotations, 2011, para. 5). Moving from a spreadsheet software program to a relational database management system (e.g. Microsoft Access) will provide Party Plates with an information system that will maximize efficiency for all departments in the company.

Benefits of switching from Excel to Access

Microsoft Excel is not a database, it is a software program; as such, it has limited capabilities when managing large amounts of complex dynamic data. Relational database management systems (RDBMS) allow users to “combine data from multiple tables to create queires, forms, and reports” (Grauer et al., 2011, p.560). Microsoft Access is a relational database system that provides many tools to organize, identify, and extract specific data (Grauer et al., 2011). Access also allows easier manipulation of the data once the database is set up. Finally, Access permits the creation of custom reports quickly and easily as opposed to Excel, which is a cumbersome process involving formatting, creation of links, transferring data, etc.

Benefits provided in the work environment

In addition to the benefits of increased efficiency when accessing, manipulating, and reporting the data, Access also provides benefits to the work environment. For example, several users can work in the same file simultaneously. This would allow a user to add information to “a customer’s table while another can be creating a query based on the products table” (Grauer et al., 2011, p. 540). Access also protects the data by offering Compact and Repair and backup.

These two functions maintain database performance, reduce the risk of corrupted files, and provide easy backup options (Grauer et al., 2011). Furthermore,