STUDENTS' CORNER - 206

Database is an integral part of any business enterprise

 Let us spend some time on database.  With digitalization in the air and with the benefits it brings to the users, database almost has assumed, rightly at that, a great commercial significance. Of course, it all begins with the company’s efforts to find and retain customers.

 A very efficient management of database, which is dynamic, which must be dynamic, will help turn customers into so to say the ambassadors, the clients of the company. The basic difference between a customer and a client to put it in a nut-shell, customer is an impersonal acquaintance, a superficial relationship with no deep interest in the product or service of the company; it is a chance occurrence; but a client is a personalized individual with real mutual interest; the company knows all vital details about the client; the frequency of purchase, his taste, his age, his family etc.; it is a choice occurrence. Clients bring certain revenue which can be largely taken into account; but it is not the case with the general customer.

Many have misconception that databases just contain a long list of mailing addresses. Yes, it has mailing addresses but it does not exhaust its potential usefulness; moreover, the database must have other details also like the past purchases, the age, the family members with some significant details, their purchasing power that is the class they belong to, their preoccupations that is their hobbies and interests , their opinions on matters of general social interest. Of course, all these details can be collected through intelligent interactions with them by the sales personnel, the marketing personnel of the company; it must be done so casually that the customers must be happy to share these details; it should not be collected, just for an example, like the Municipal Corporation official collecting information for the formation of the voters’ list. It only means that the company must conduct training for its employees. Actually, the money, little or large, spent on such training programmes is an investment; money is not going down the drain but into capacity building of the employees.

Experts talk about Customer Database, Business Database, Data warehousing and Data mining. Data mining is just a process undertaken for a particular purpose; it is an attempt to get at the right kind of materials needed for the context. Databases are supportive of decision-making.  We will see some facts about database in our next session.