Process of Database Development

The database development process begins with identifying the data to be stored. This includes deciding what types of data will be collected, how the data will be structured, and how it will be organised. The developer then creates a data model, which describes the structure and relationships between the various data entities. After creating the data model, the developer creates the database schema, which serves as the database’s blueprint. It contains tables, fields, and relationships between the tables. 

The next stage in the database development process is the implementation process. Here, the database developer creates the database using specialised software such as Oracle, MySQL, or Microsoft SQL Server. Next, they create the tables, fields, and relationships specified in the schema. Once the database is created, they fill it with the necessary information. 

After the database has been implemented, it must be tested to ensure it works properly. This entails running queries and tests on the database to detect errors or inconsistencies. When problems are identified, they are resolved and the database is tested again until it functions properly.

Finally, after testing and verification, the database is ready for deployment. This requires installing the database on the servers and configuring it to work with the applications that will use it.

Importance of Database Development

• Efficient Data Storage: Efficient data storage is one of the primary reasons for database development. A well-designed database can efficiently store structured and organised information. This is especially important as the amount of data collected by organisations grow at an alarming rate. Without a well-designed database, the data becomes meaningless, and an organisation may lose essential information that could have been used to make better decisions.
• Quick Data Retrieval and Analysis: The ability to quickly retrieve and analyse data is critical for organisations. Organisations with the proper database design can retrieve data in seconds, allowing them to make quick and informed decisions. This is especially important in the healthcare, finance, and retail sectors, where efficiency and time sensitivity is crucial.
• Data Sharing Between Applications and Systems: As technology advances, organisations increasingly use multiple applications and systems to manage their operations. A well-designed database allows data to be shared between different applications and systems, helping organisations improve their operations and reduce costs. Since it eliminates the need to duplicate data across multiple systems, there is a lower risk of errors and inconsistencies.
• Integrity and Security of Data: Data security and integrity are important aspects of database development. The right security measures can prevent unauthorised access to databases, ensuring that data is safe and protected from potential threats. Data integrity is also important to ensure data accuracy and consistency, which reduces the risk of errors and mistakes in data analysis. 
• Compliance with Legal and Regulatory Requirements: Legal and regulatory compliance is becoming increasingly important for organisations. Organisations can ensure compliance with data privacy laws and regulations such as the Privacy Act and My Health Record by using the right database design. Many industries have robust data privacy and security standards that require organisations to safeguard sensitive information, such as financial or medical data. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, database development is a critical process for organisations that need to manage large amounts of data effectively. The right developer can help organisations ensure data quality, accuracy, and compliance while optimising performance and scalability by following the best practices in data modeling, database architecture, and management.  

A well-designed database enables organisations to store, manage and retrieve large amounts of data in an efficient, timely, and secure manner. It also allows organisations to make data-driven decisions, streamline operations, and reduce costs. By investing in database development, organisations can ensure that they are maximising the value of their data and resources.

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It does not matter how small or big the project is. A project plan that is carefully constructed can make or break the success of the project that you are working on and its potential to be delivered within budget and on time.

What Is An Intranet?

An intranet is a helpful tool to facilitate the communication among the employees at all of the levels of the company and to promote and develop collaboration and teamwork in the workplace.

Creating a Successful Intranet Project

When you have been tasked to develop an intranet project, you must have been too excited to work on your project that you have instantly visualised a solution that will enable you to easily create an interactive intranet. However, when you tried to start working on your solution for the very first time, you realise that you have no idea regarding web-design. You also realise that you know nothing about where and how to start the project.

What are the Steps in Planning a Succesful Intranet Project?

One thing that you must keep in mind is that you do not need to be a highly-skilled graphic designer so you could able to develop a good intranet. The first thing that you must remember is that your intranet should not be identical to your external website since the external site is built for the existing and potential customers and partners of the firm whereas the users of the intranet are the employees of the company.

This article will help you learn the steps and the element in planning and working on a successful intranet project.

1. Set Up a Goal

Before choosing the colours and fonts and thinking of all the exciting parts for the visual appearance of your intranet, you must first go through the vision, mission, and goals of the project.

The first thing that you must do is to determine the goals of your project. Some usual reasons for developing a new Intranet includes:

• Providing and improving a tool for collaboration and communication
• The existing Intranet of the company is already old, out-of-date and dysfunctional
• Providing self-service and up-to-date staff contact information
• Distributing corporate news via electronic newsletter
• Making the policies and procedures of the company available online
• Sharing company documents online rather than making use of shared drives
• Enabling employees to have access to work files from their homes
• Better and simpler way of looking for important documents

The principal focus of your intranet project should first and foremost be on providing the employees with an easy and quick access to the tools and information that will help them perform their tasks. Begin with establishing a content plan that will include the kinds of information that should be seen on your intranet. Consider having the creators of the content and the people who will be responsible for updating the content of your intranet involved in the project early on so they will have a better understanding on what is demanded from them.

2. Determine the Scope and the Audience of Your Project

Some of the things that you must consider in determining the scope and the audience of your project include:

• Will the intranet be used exclusively by the staff or will it also be available for the contractors and partners?
• Will you enable the employees to have access to your intranet even when they are at home or at a site visit with your client?
• Will you allow mobile access?

3. Create a Site Map

You can use various tools such as Visio to build a sitemap. You can even make use of hand-drawn drafts to create a sitemap. The main branch is typically represented by each department.

4. Determine the Key Application That You Would Want to Use

You must also determine the type of main applications that you would like to use on your intranet. Some applications include those that will support matters such as news and blogs, documents, a shared company calendar, a database of corporate images, online policies and procedures, personnel database.

5. Establish Permissions

An intranet should always have a strong permission system. It will also help in easily distributing information. You may also want to include an area where people in a certain department can create or edit specific content while the other employees can just view it.

These restrictions can be easily done by establishing permission such as Group, Sub-Groups, and Roles.

The Organisational Chart of the company will be helpful in making this task easier.

6. Decide on the Look of Your Homepage

The homepage will be the first page that everyone will be able to see. It will be worth the extra effort to carefully design this page as it will serve as the gateway to all the other information and content that is available on your Intranet. You can easily look at the homepages of other sites for inspiration so you can decide on how you would want the homepage to appear. However, you must remember that it is best to keep your homepage simple and clean.

You can also feature a navigation menu where you present the content of your intranet the employees in various ways. You can present them alphabetically or by subject. The best way to present the information will depend on the target audience of your intranet. You must remember to name the sections of your intranet with explicit headlines that will help the employees look for the right content easily. You can also opt for an intranet solution that will offer an advanced search function to make the navigation easier.

7. Consider Your Budget and Resources

You must determine the number of the users of your internet. Most vendors of Intranet software usually price their products by the number of the users.

You must also determine the provider of your software and your internal project team. A project sponsor, a project manager, a technical support contact, and a representative from the marketing or communications division can comprise your team. However, smaller companies may have fewer people involved in the project.

8.Establish Your Timeline

You must carefully plan your timeline as every company is different. Some significant points to consider that may cause some delays include:

• Looking for the source of the hardware
• Obtaining access to the office network
• Finalising your design
• Updating the list of users
• Content population
• Content migration.

9. Determine Future Plans

Numerous intranet projects lose their momentum following the initial launch phase. You must remember that a successful intranet is something that develops over time. You must start with a simple project and gradually add new features. You must also learn from the feedback of the users and implement the requests of the users wherever feasible.

Small improvements can make a big difference. You must keep the original team, and you must regularly meet with them for reviews of the project and brainstorming of some new ideas.

10. Start As Soon As Possible

The most important step is implementing all your plans. You must immediately start on the project and prepare for the adoption of the company of your intranet.

You must also be prepared to train the content authors, managers, and owners of the company. You must also set some standard and guidelines and determine a process of decision making for changes and improvement to your intranet project. It will also help to determine the central team that will manage some aspects of the site.

Important Points to Consider

In creating an Intranet Project, you must remember the end user of your project. You must always keep in mind that the people who will be using it are employees that have varying degrees of skill when it comes to the use of technology. The best possible way to overcome this concern is to keep your project simple and consider usability and ease of navigation.

Once the intranet is in place, you must continuously obtain feedback from its users and make continuous improvements to it accordingly.

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Here at Creativ Digital, we develop many types of custom apps and software for both web and mobile devices. These help in solving problems in various industries like finance, transport, not for profits, to improve efficiency or make a better experience for customers.

Here are some reasons why you may need our help to develop custom mobile applications.

One Software Doesn’t Fit All

Surely, productivity software apps such as Google Docs, Asana, Trello, and even CRMs like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Pipedrive do help in providing a more systematic way of streamlining business processes. However, your business process is very much different from that of another even if it falls within the same industry.

These traditional and generic apps may partially address what your business process requires, but it will still lack in catering to exactly what your business needs. For example, a retail A company with more than one brick and mortar location should be able to properly track inventory, sales, and customer relationship management, whereas, the same process applied to retail B company with only one store location may need a different way of handling their sales and tracking process.

Scalability Is Key

Another plus point of custom database applications is their scalability in line with what your business needs. Using different apps and systems will not give you the proper insight and analysis that you need to improve your business and keep it sustainable for the long term.

Given that a custom-developed app perfectly matches the size and requirements of your business, it would be better in providing you with accurate measurements with precise reports and analysis. Peter Drucker, the founder of modern management, has said, “What gets measured gets improved.” Suffice it to say, accurate scalability thanks to custom-developed apps will help you in measuring the performance and productivity of your team, which would prove to be vital in the continuous improvement for your business.

Increased Productivity Equals Efficiency

Having your company use a customized app does not only provide exactly what you need, but it also eliminates what you don’t need. It’s about doing more of what is right and needed, and reducing unnecessary and inefficient tasks and errors.

All of these create a powerful impact on how your business run and its long-term sustainability. And in this day and age where businesses have a 50-50 chance of succeeding and failing, you’ll need a reliable system as part of your business’ foundation in order to ensure success.

A custom-developed app is one investment that your business will surely reward. There’s really no time to delay in having one done for your company. And with the help of our team of specialists in web development Sydney here at Creativ Digital, you can rest assured that you’ll be securing the overall efficiency and future success of your business.

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