Bonadio Electrical Supplies distributes electrical components to the construction industry. The company began as a local supplier 15 years ago and has grown rapidly to become a major competitor in the north central United States. As the business grew and the variety of components to be stocked expanded, Bonadio acquired a new computer and implemented an inventory control system and a computerized accounting sysem. Because of its operational importance, the inventory system has been upgraded to an online system, while all the other applications are operating in batch mode. Over the years, the company has developed or acquired more than 100 application programs and maintains hundreds of files. Bonadio faces stiff competition from local suppliers throughout its marketing area. At a management meeting, the sales manager complained about the difficulty in obtaining immediate, current information to respond to customer inquiries. Other managers stated that they also had difficulty obtaining timely data from the system. As a result, the controller engaged a consulting firm to explore the situation. The consultant recommended installing a database management system (DBMS), and the company complied, employing Jack Gibbons as the database administrator.
At a recent management meeting, Gibbons presented an overview of the DBMS. Gibbons explained that the database approach assumes an organizational, data-oriented viewpoint, as it recognizes that a centralized database represents a vital resource. Instead of being assigned to applications, information is more appropriately used and managed for the entire organization. The operating system physically moves data to and from disk storage, and the DBMS is the software program that controls the data definition library that specifies the data structures and characteristics. As a result, both the roles of the application programs and query software, and the tasks of the application programmers and users are simplified. Under the database approach, the data are available to all users within security guidelines.
a. Explain the basic difference between a file-oriented system and a database management system.
b. Describe at least three advantages and at least three disadvantages of the database management system.
c. Describe the duties and responsibilities of Jack Gibbons, the database administrator.
(CMA Adapted)