Topic 5 - Capabilities and Limitations

There are many benefits to storing data on computer systems compared to manual systems.

• Data storage capacity

- Millions of records can be physically stored in a very small hard disk so reducing the need to buy or rent office space with many filing cabinets. e.g. all the information about students in a large college will fit on one small hard drive.

• Faster searching

- Records can be found instantaneously, e.g. A company can find a sales transaction amongst its hundreds of thousands when a customer queries a delivery instantaneously.

• The ability to produce different output formats

- Information can be produced in tabular or graphical format e.g. a scientist producing a report will include data in a table and to make some of them easier to understand will produce some of them as graphs.

• Ease of updating data

- Errors in data can be quickly changed without the need to retype everything e.g. if someone changes their address the details can be altered quickly without having to re-write the whole record

• Allows predictive analysis

- To give better management statistics/information to help decision making e.g. analysis of sales patterns will influence choice of stock sent to supermarkets.

• Security policies can be centrally administered / Easier to back up data

- which can be done centrally e.g. Suitable backups can be performed at set times and in one fixed location, e.g. customer orders can be backed up on RAID systems

• Speed of data communications

- Messages sent out across the world instantaneously, e.g. an email can be sent from the UK to the USA within seconds. (speed of light)