Data design is more than just discovering your businesses data into a database. It encompasses defining the application's data characteristics, relationships, and processes. Data design not an art, but rather a process of gradual refinement, from the general data types to the precise data structures and processes that comprise a business system. Reliable and robust systems start with a well planned data design as the very foundation for your application. With a good data design, the application's data access is fast, easily maintained, and can accept future data enhancements without major impact.

The Managed Business Consulting, Inc. view of the data design  process includes the following steps:

• Identify the Data

• Understand the Business Processes

• Data Modeling

• Apply Data Controls

The process of data design is an iterative process that identifies the data, then refines that data through the understanding of the business process that must work with the data. One such refinement is identifying the many different characteristics of the data and how best to quantify it. Our consultants will conduct interviews with key individuals within your organization, analyze any pre-existing data structures or application currently in use, and look at other systems and data that the system must interface with. The result of this effort is a conceptual view of your application's information.

The next step in our process is to take the gathered information and begin the process of data modeling. During this phase, our consultants start to group certain data items together and assign information details describing the data's characteristics and relationships. This is where the fields, tables, indexes, keys, and relationships, which make up your data schema, are determined. With the schema defined, the issue of data is addressed. The final application must maintain control on every process that uses the data to ensure constant correctness of the information. This is accomplished through the careful implementation of four key concepts:

• Data Normalization

Refine tables, keys, columns, and relationships to create an efficient database

• Business Rules

Determine how the application will insert, update, delete, and view data into the database.

• Referential Integrity

Ensure the relationship between two tables remains synchronized during updates and deletions.

• Data Validation

Guarantee to the application that every data value is correct and accurate.

News Updates

Database Solutions

Customer Information Management System

Managed Business Consulting, Inc. has started working with Office Paper Systems, Inc. to design and build a new Microsoft based customer information management system that will provide more accurate the information for day-to-day operations as well as provide better tracking and reporting on operations. This new system will allow Office Paper Systems, Inc. to manage the increase in business and the need to provide real-time data that is critical to making business decisions.

Read more in the News section.