Hardware, Software and All that Jazz

Abstract

All large consumer-facing organizations maintain a number of different systems that hold data about people. A standard setup will include:

•Operational systems. These hold information that is directly relevant to managing the relationship that an organization has with its customers. Examples of operational systems include: seat reservation systems, power dialers,¹ insurance quotation systems and customer contact systems used for direct marketing. Most operational systems provide only limited analytical and reporting capability; usually just enough to allow the operational status of the system to be assessed : for example, how many cases were processed that day total value of transactions in the system or number of calls waiting to be answered.