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Chapter 6 Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management 271

and other data. Assess the potential business impact of these data quality problems. What decisions
have to be made and steps taken to reach a solution?
2. Your industrial supply company wants to create a data warehouse where management can obtain a
single corporate-wide view of critical sales information to identify bestselling products, key customers,
and sales trends. Your sales and product information are stored in several different systems: a divisional
sales system running on a Unix server and a corporate sales system running on an IBM mainframe. You
would like to create a single standard format that consolidates these data from both systems. In
MyMISLab, you can review the proposed format, along with sample files from the two systems that
would supply the data for the data warehouse. Then answer the following questions:
• What business problems are created by not having these data in a single standard format?
• How easy would it be to create a database with a single standard format that could store the data from both
systems? Identify the problems that would have to be addressed.
• Should the problems be solved by database specialists or general business managers? Explain.
• Who should have the authority to finalize a single company-wide format for this information in the data
warehouse?

Achieving Operational Excellence: Building a Relational Database for Inventory
Management

Software skills: Database design, querying, and reporting
Business skills: Inventory management
In this exercise, you will use database software to design a database for managing inventory for a small
business. Sylvester’s Bike Shop, located in San Francisco, California, sells road, mountain, hybrid, leisure,
and children’s bicycles. Currently, Sylvester’s purchases bikes from three suppliers, but plans to add new
suppliers in the near future. Using the information found in the tables in MyMISLab, build a simple rela-
tional database to manage information about Sylvester’s suppliers and products. Once you have built the
database, perform the following activities.
• Prepare a report that identifies the five most expensive bicycles. The report should list the bicycles in
descending order from most expensive to least expensive, the quantity on hand for each, and the markup
percentage for each.
• Prepare a report that lists each supplier, its products, the quantities on hand, and associated reorder levels.
The report should be sorted alphabetically by supplier. For each supplier, the products should be sorted
alphabetically.
• Prepare a report listing only the bicycles that are low in stock and need to be reordered. The report should
provide supplier information for the items identified.
• Write a brief description of how the database could be enhanced to further improve management of the
business. What tables or fields should be added? What additional reports would be useful?

Improving Decision Making: Searching Online Databases for Overseas
Business Resources
Software skills: Online databases
Business skills: Researching services for overseas operations
This project develops skills in searching Web-enabled databases with information about products and
services in faraway locations.
Your company is located in Greensboro, North Carolina, and manufactures office furniture of various
types. You are considering opening a facility to manufacture and sell your products in Australia. You would
like to contact organizations that offer many services necessary for you to open your Australian office and
manufacturing facility, including lawyers, accountants, import-export experts, and telecommunications
equipment and support firm. Access the following online databases to locate companies that you would
like to meet with during your upcoming trip: Australian Business Register (abr.gov.au), AustraliaTrade Now

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