Introduction
Data Systems is a term used to refer to an organized collection of symbols and processes that may be used to operate on such systems. In other words, any organized collection of symbols and symbol-manipulating operations can be referred to as Data Systems. As Data Systems include a term data, understanding of this term has become necessary as well. Data are values of qualitative or quantitative variables, belonging to a set of items. Earlier systems allowed a customer with only two types of choices for administrative software. That is they can either buy “off-the-shelf” software or spent lots of money to get “custom built” software. “Off-the-shelf” software means readymade software readily available at any software store whereas “custom built software” is software made for specific purpose.
History
Customized software appears to be advantageous as it is developed in accordance with the user’s requirements, but actually it’s not. There are number of disadvantages linked with usage of custom software which makes its use worthless and expensive. As companies are growing day by day their system requirements may vary which requires the system’s modification and upgrading. But it becomes problematic while using custom built software, because users are not provided with the source code. This results in user’s complete reliance upon developers for ongoing support.
Features
Data Systems are capable of providing software that can uniquely handle specific business needs. It has an edge over custom software as it is available at a reasonable price. Data Systems has three basic types interactive system, batch system or hybrid system which is further explained.
An interactive system consists of one or more portables connected in real time to a computer. In these systems, the central computer manages data collection and verification as the user enters data. In this type of Data Systems computer systems are connected to each other which allow them to share data. The system has various advantages such as immediate data verification, sophisticated data verification, user interaction, error reduction and easy setup.
A batch system uses one or more portables to gather data that is stored for later input to a computer. This is the most common and most economical portable system. Batch systems can do only limited validity checking. This type of Data systems involves processing of data in batches, one batch after other. Batch systems are generally used with portable readers. They are also used in some fixed-mount systems where the reader must continue to collect data if the computer system goes down. It has few advantages as well economical for standard portables and reliable in mission-critical applications.
Conclusion
Third type of Data Systems is hybrid system which means a combination of two systems. Several systems combine attributes of both interactive and batch modes. The most common are radio frequency systems and batch/interactive hybrids. Radio frequency systems use RF signals to connect portable readers to a central computer in an interactive manner. Batch or interactive hybrids use local batch processing combined with an interactive link to a central computer. All these different types of data systems play a key role in any business organization's success.
