Insight to the Industry by www.rm-mi.net
 

3/3/2005

Microsoft Access Performance issues

Filed under: — Justin Mead @ 12:22 pm

How-to articles - Performance
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/ph/2509?sid=49
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Information about query performance in an Access database
Describes the tips and the techniques that you can use to improve the performance of your queries in Access 2000 databases, in Access 2002 databases, and in Access 2003 databases.
How to keep a Jet 4.0 database in top working condition
By default, Microsoft Jet is the database engine that is used in Microsoft Access. This article describes best practices that you can use to help keep your Jet database in top working condition. This article describes databases that are running in…
Defragment and compact database to improve performance
Explains that you can defragment your hard disk and compact your database to imporve the performance of Microsoft Access

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These are an example of searching for ways to optimize an Access Application for a client. The location to goto and search Microsoft for information? That place is known as the Microsoft Knowledge Base (http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1) and can be very helpful. It also can be very confusing. The reason is partially due to asking the right questions sysndrome. I have seen people spend most of a day trying to find answers at the big M and not find really what they needed.

One trick is to GOOGLE a little first. (http://www.google.com/) By doing this you are actually looking for hints on how to phrase your question. Put in all the words you think may work, see what you get. Put in two words, see what you get. Put in three words, try that. Keep in mind that your goal is to find out how to ‘ask the question.’

Now, you may find your answer on Google, and or you may find links back to Microsoft’s Knowledge Base. The key here is to try different angles to the same problem.

You will get the best results that way.

LUCK!


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3/1/2005

BI is about reporting in business

Filed under: — Justin Mead @ 11:37 am

Business intelligence

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence

Business intelligence is the process of gathering information in the field of business. Information is typically obtained about customer needs, customer decision making processes, the competition and competitive pressures, conditions in the industry, and general economic, technological, and cultural trends. Business intelligence is carried out to gain sustainable competitive advantage, and is a valuable core competence in some instances. Every business intelligence system has a specific goal, which is derived from an organisational goal or from the Vision statement. Goals could be short term (e.g.: quarterly numbers to Wall Street) or long term (shareholder value, target industry share / size etc).

The term was first used by Gartner and popularized by analyst Howard Dresner. It describes the process of turning data into information and then into knowledge. The intelligence is claimed to be more useful to the user as it passes through each step.

Industrial espionage is a type of business intelligence that uses covert techniques. There is a gray area between "normal" business intelligence and industrial espionage.

Business performance management is a software oriented business intelligence system that some see as the new generation of business intelligence though the terms are used interchangeably by most in the industry.

The first probable reference to Business intelligence is made in Sun Tzu’s "Art of War" where he claims that to succeed in war, you should have full knowledge of your strengths/weaknesses and full knowledge of your enemy’s strengths/weaknesses. Lack of either one might result in defeat. BI is the art of wading through tons of data overload, sieving through data and presenting information - both internal (from operational systems) and external (market intelligence) - on which management can act or build strategies.

More information found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence


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Filed under: — Justin Mead @ 11:35 am

Medical informatics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_informatics


Electronic patient chart of a HIS
Electronic patient chart of a HIS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sshot_fever.png

Medical Informatics is the name given to the application of information technology to healthcare. It is the:

"understanding, skills and tools that enable the sharing and use of information to deliver healthcare and promote health" (British Medical Informatics Society).

Medical informatics is often called health informatics or biomedical informatics, and forms part of the wider domain of eHealth. These later-generation terms reflect the substantive contribution of the citizen & non-medical professions to the generation and usage of healthcare data and related information. Additionally, medical informaticians are active in bioinformatics and other fields not strictly defined as health care.

Aspects of the field

A HIS's automatic immunization data entry in the patient's admission module.
Enlarge
A HIS’s automatic immunization data entry in the patient’s admission module.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Immune_auto.jpg

These include:

  • architectures for electonic medical records and other health information systems used for billing, scheduling or research.
  • decision support systems in healthcare
  • messaging standards for the exchange of information between health care information systems (e.g. through the use of the HL7 data exchange standard) - these specifically define the means to exchange data, not the content
  • controlled medical vocabularies such as the Standardized Nomenclature of Medicine, Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT) or Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) - used to allow a standard, accurate exchange of data content between systems and providers.
  • use of hand-held or portable devices to assist providers with data entry/retrieval or medical decision-making

More information at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_informatics


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About Data

Filed under: — Justin Mead @ 11:34 am

Database

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database

A database is an information set with a regular structure.

Any set of information may be called a database. Nevertheless, the term was invented to refer to computerised data, and is used almost exclusively in computing. Sometimes it is used to refer to not yet computerised data, but usually in the process of planning its possible computerisation.

Software created to manage generalised databases is usually called a database management system or DBMS. Several software architectures are possible: For smaller single user databases often all functions are managed by one program. In larger and multiple user databases usually a number of programs are involved and most commonly a client-server architecture is adopted.

The DBMS front-end (i.e., the clients) is concerned mainly with data entry, enquiry and reporting. The back-end (i.e. the server) is the set of programs that actually control data storage, responding to requests from the frontend. Searching and sorting is usually performed by the server. There are a wide variety of database implementations, from simple tables stored in a single file each to very large databases with many millions of records, stored in rooms full of disk drives or other peripheral electronic storage devices.

Databases resembling modern versions were first developed in the 1960s. A pioneer in the field was Charles Bachman. Two key data models arose at this time: the network model (developed by CODASYL) followed by the hierarchical model (as implemented in IMS). These were later usurped by the relational model, which was contemporary with the so-called flat model designed for very small tasks. Another contemporary of the relational model is the object-oriented database (OODB).

While the relational model is based on set theory, one proposed modification suggests fuzzy set theory (based on fuzzy logic) as an alternative.

More information at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database


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Welcome to Consulting

Filed under: — Justin Mead @ 11:32 am


Consultant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consultant

A consultant is a professional that provides expert advice in a particular domain or area of expertise such as accountancy, information technology, the law, human resources, marketing, medicine, finance or more esoteric areas of knowledge, for example engineering and scientific specialties such as materials science, instrumentation, avionics, and stress analysis. See related Certified Management Consultant and MBA.

How a consultant works

Often the consultant provides expertise to customers which only rarely or occasionally require this particular type of knowledge, thus providing an economy to the client.

More recently the term is also used somewhat euphemistically to mean a person that is only temporarily employed by a company and working under the company’s direction in a skill area that the company already has, in other words as an adjunct to the company’s core set of employees. This usually implies that the consultant is more expendable when the demand for that particular skill diminishes.

Often a consultant is not an independent agent but is a partner or an employee of a consultancy, that is a company that provides consultants to clients on a larger scale or in multiple, though usually related, skill areas.

A consultant giving career advice and training to an individual or a team is a Coach (see Coaching)

Consultants are very pervasive in upper management in most industries. New trends are spread through corporations by the efforts of consultants, such as Six Sigma.

There are also independent consultants/directors who are interim executives or non-executives with decision-making power under corporate policies/statute. They sit on boards or committees.

Why Hire a Consultant or HOW TO Hire a Consultant

More information at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consultant


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