Data processing: Data processing activities

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Data processing activities

Besides processing transaction data, discussed above, there are three other major DP activities: management reports must be produced from the master data on master files, reference data must be kept up to date, and inquiries must be dealt with. Here's a brief account of these activities.

• Transaction processing. This includes the activities you read about in previous sections: recording transaction data on transaction files, updating master data on master files, and printing audit trails. It also includes looking up data on master files in order to process transaction data. To give an example, when a customer's order is processed, the product details (such as the price) must be looked up on the stock file, and these details will be used in the invoice calculations and will ultimately be printed on the invoice and other sales documents.

• Reporting. This is the task of referencing (looking up) data on master files in order to produce management reports. To produce a stock report, for example, every stock record must be looked up in the stock file and the data on those records summarized to produce the vari­ous totals required.

• Enquiries. This is the task of looking up data on master files when queries arise. For example, when a sales order arrives it may be necessary to look up the credit status of the customer on the customer file or check the stock balance of an item on the stock file.

• File maintenance. This means keeping the reference data on the master files up to date. Customers' addresses may change, new parts may be added to the stock and other parts deleted, new employees may join the firm and other employees leave. All these changes must be recorded on the files. This is not part of transaction processing (for the changes are not transaction data), but will be done as a special file maintenance job.

clip_image002Organizing data processing

Data processing in a large organization can be organized in a variety of ways:

• Before the days of computers and other data processing equipment, it was carried out in a decentralized way (i.e. in a number of offices in different parts of the organiz­ation) using manual methods.

• It has often been carried out in a centralized way (i.e. in a central data processing department) using computers. However, with the development of PCs and low-cost terminals, there has in recent years been a shift back towards decentralized DP, though with computers rather than manual equipment.

• Some organizations use the services of an external agency (computer bureau) to process the data.

The sections below analyse each of these ways of organizing DP.

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