Databases for Small Business (eBook)

Anna Manning is a founding director of an engineering startup company, having worked for eight years as a data scientist at Manchester University. A specialist in data mining and data protection, she contributed to the development of software for protecting confidential data now used by national statistics agencies worldwide. She served as a data analyst and database administrator for large and small law firms and for a nonprofit organization. Dr Manning’s papers in the field of data mining have been published in various research journals. She has a PhD in data mining and a Master’s degree in Informatics from the University of Manchester, an honors degree in Law from the University of Law, and a BA Hons. in Mathematics from Trinity College, Dublin.

Chapter 1. Why Data Is Important to Your Small BusinessIntelligently collecting, preparing, and analyzing data enables you to tailor the marketing and customer relations operations of your small business or professional office by developing an accurate and actionable understanding of the shared culture and individual profiles of your existing and potential customers. Small businesses often have little in-house expertise in databases and data analysis and limited financial resources. Yet database technology is now affordable to most and basic knowledge can be acquired reasonably easily. Three case studies are introduced in the next three chapters and recur through each chapter of the book: a small engineering firm, a small law firm, and a small nonprofit. Chapter 2. A Small Engineering Company: Case StudyA small engineering firm can operate in a number of ways. It may provide components, goods, and services to other businesses and the public. The corresponding data takes the form of quotes, invoices, work paid for, etc. as well as generic retail data. All this information can be used in a database that can be used for marketing purposes. Many small engineering firms also receive grants and contracts for research. The identification of a source of funding can involve searching through many potential donors. Chapter 19 considers efficient searching of data online. In addition, once the research is under way, engineering is a discipline where there is much essential literature online. It is important to be able to find this information quickly. The attraction of new clients is often important to an engineering firm. A customer database can be essential in driving an effective marketing campaign. Chapter 3. A Small Law Firm: Case StudyLaw firms generally aim to attract clients and to make profits from the fees that they charge. They will hold data on their clients just like any generic profit-making company. In addition, law firms often need to find legal documents issued by courts, legislatures, and other government bodies. Many large law firms use electronic databases such as LexisNexis or Westlaw but, due to cost, these resources may not be accessible to smaller organizations. However, there are free legal materials on the Internet, as discussed in Chapter 19. Marketing campaigns for new clients are essential to keep the fee income up, and client databases often form the backbone of these. Chapter 4. A Small Nonprofit: Case StudyMost nonprofits rely on external funding such as government funds, grants from charitable foundations, and direct donations to maintain their operations. It is useful for a nonprofit to use a database to keep records on all of its donors. Such a system can help prompt grant application deadlines and dates for final report submissions. Databases can be useful for other aspects of a nonprofit’s work, depending on what this is. A database can be kept of local community organizations, contacts with the public (such as for a helpline), and volunteers. Reports are often required by funding bodies to establish that the objectives of the grant are being met. Databases of clients using the nonprofit, including demographic information, are an important resource for acquiring the necessary information. Nonprofits also need to attract new clients to justify their funding. For example, information about previous clients provided by a database is highly valuable. Chapter 5. Identifying the Business Objectives of Your DatabaseTo gain maximum benefit from the use of a database within a business, it is important to set clear goals, metrics, and levers before designing the database to meet your specific data collection, analysis, and reporting requirements. Chapter 6. Choosing between Spreadsheet and Database in Your BusinessSmall businesses often use spreadsheets when a database would be more appropriate. This can be due to lack of in-house knowledge and financial constraints. In most cases, using a combination of a database to store large numbers of business records and a spreadsheet to analyze selected information works best and optimizes results for your business. The shift from using a spreadsheet to a database is not difficult if taken in simple steps. There are also many free and low-cost database solutions available. Chapter 7. Designing Your Small Business DatabaseThe design of your business database design mirrors and serves your business objectives identified in Chapter 5. Relational databases have many advantages over flat tables, such as eliminating redundant information. Data needs to be broken down into logical tables, partial dependencies need to be identified, and the use of derived columns needs to be kept to a minimum.Chapter 8. Data Protection Laws and Your Data Security and Privacy PolicySmall businesses no less than large companies must exercise care and vigilance in collecting and storing personal data about their customers. Laws and regulations in overlapping jurisdictions constrain the monitoring and protection of personal data by companies in various ways. As with any body of laws, it is important to know how they affect your specific business, to comply as necessary, and to articulate the relevant legal requirements and voluntary undertakings in an outward-facing company policy that satisfies your customers. Chapter 9. Collecting Your Small Business DataMany small businesses collect client and sales data without using a database, employing such methods as personal interviewing, telephone, mail, the Internet, optical character recognition, voice recognition, and bar codes. Databases have a number of advantages for the storage, cleansing, and manipulation of such data. Chapter 10. Cleansing Your Small Business DataUnlike Adam and Eve, data does not enter the database in an error-free state. Spelling mistakes must be corrected, missing data must be retrieved, and inconsistent information must be flagged and corrected. Absent this step, defective and deficient data inevitably yield useless or misleading results. Large organizations often outsource this step. Small businesses typically conduct their data cleansing in-house and need to acquire the appropriate skills. Chapter 11. Maintaining Your Small Business DatabaseDatabases are not static: new customers come along, fields in existing records change, and records expire and are deleted. Such changes need to be made in a timely manner so the data is as current as possible, particularly when more than one person is operating the database. Update queries are standard in relational databases and are straightforward for small business personnel to learn. Chapter 12. Searching Your Small Business DatabaseThe mechanisms provided for searching your data must be fast and flexible if your database is to be useful to your business. Database facilities such as queries and forms provide invaluable tools and enable simple and more sophisticated searches to be conducted even at the level of small business. Chapter 13. Analyzing Your Small Business DataIn the main analysis phase, either an exploratory or confirmatory approach can be adopted depending on your business objectives. In an exploratory analysis the data is searched for models that describe the data well. In a confirmatory analysis, models about the data are tested. Selecting those data analysis techniques that are just right for your business needs and acquiring just enough in-house expertise to use them appropriately can reap outsized rewards for your small business. Chapter 14. Reporting Your Small Business DataSmall businesses routinely report specific data to internal decision makers and external consultants, service providers, and organizations, such as your marketing director, funding bodies, and accountants. Database reports contain useful data for decision-making and analysis which ought to link directly with the business objectives. Databases often enable reporting tools to be designed that run automatic data queries tailored to specific recipients. Chapter 15. Acting on ReportsBased on reports, you can decide on further action and iteratively improve your data collection, data cleansing, and data models. The faster and more frequently your business can repeat the process, the more value you can extract from the data. Chapter 16. Acting on Outside RequestsYour databases need to be structured to allow your business to respond flexibly and appropriately to external requests from customers, suppliers, partners, legal discovery, and auditing agencies. Input of new information that might be required to comply with requests should be adequately planned for. Chapter 17. Archiving and Retrieving Your Small Business DataYour data needs to be stored in such a way that it can be easily, quickly, and cheaply searched, filtered, and aggregated. For example, it may be important when you launch a new or updated product or service in a certain category to identify and target the subset of your customers who historically have ever bought products in the same class. Chapter 18. Storing Your Small Business Database in the CloudCloud storage has several benefits for small businesses. For example, it can serve as a very safe place to backup a database and can improve accessibility to the data while employees are away from the office. The cloud also offers small businesses attractive database-as-a-service options. Chapter 19. Searching Online Databases for Your Small Business NeedsMany small businesses trawl governmental and commercial online databases for pertinent information about demographics, research, regulation, law, bids, grants, individualized public records such as voter rolls and political donations, and so on. Generic methods for searching these efficiently and getting the most out of them for your specific business needs are detailed in this chapter. Chapter 20. Training Up Your Staff to Optimize Profits from Your Small Business DatabaseMany small businesses simply cannot survive in today’s fast-moving competitive economy unless they make optimal use of databases to mine, analyze, and act on relevant information. Other small businesses might stump along but leave money on the table by neglecting the latent value in their own and external databases. It is important for you and your small business staff to be trained in the skills to search and leverage databases efficiently, routinely, and confidently. Training methods are detailed in this chapter.