For each of the following applications, specify a file organization method (sequential, direct access, indexed sequential). Briefly justify your selection in terms of the anticipated activity ratio, processing time frame, file size, and response time to inquiries about file status.
a. General Motors stockholder file, updated weekly and used for mailing dividend checks, quarterly reports, and proxy requests.
b. A salesperson commission file, updated at the time of sale from a point- of- sale data entry terminal.
c. A bank’s customer account file, updated daily for deposits and withdrawals and used for mailing monthly statements of account.
d. An inventory file, updated daily, that is also used to ascertain product availability and other related inquiries during daily operations.
e. A master payroll file, used biweekly to process payroll and also quarterly to process various tax reports.
f. A master scheduling file, used by a large airline to reserve seats on all its flights. The file is used heavily every day for scheduling and ad hoc inquiries concerning seat availability but is never processed to generate reports.
g. A file of authors for a publishing company, processed quarterly to prepare royalty checks and once at year- end to prepare tax reports.
h. A vendor file used by a large manufacturing company. The file is used heavily every day for ad hoc inquiries concerning orders and payments and is also processed once each week to generate payment checks for many of the company’s 500 vendors.
i. A master file of fixed assets for a small manufacturing firm, processed quarterly to produce depreciation for tax and accounting reports and once each year for insurance purposes.