Database Applications & Solutions
Providing Master Databanks
Microsoft MS SQL/ASP.Net is available as an option with a Windows website hosting
account. An MS SQL database backend used with VB/JAVA scripting is a tried and tested
web designer's favorite for building dynamic websites. The MySQL/PHP combination
is also ideally suited to solving those problems posed by website designs that are
not scalable, maintainable or technically feasible using the conventional HTML authoring
techniques. MySQL provides a fast, reliable and easy-to-use database solution that
is ideal for retrieving product information and storing customer information. PHP
is a server-side HTML-embedded scripting language equivalent to Microsoft's Active
Server Pages on the Windows NT platform. It is the ideal tool for database integration,
and it is widely used in combination with MySQL, Windows NT ODBC.
An ODBC or Open Database Connectivity (additional cost) data source allows you to
use SQL queries to connect to an uploaded database file. Querying a database via
ODBC is simple. SQL statements can be embedded into your Active Server Pages, with
the query being executed when the page is requested. The output of the query can
then be used to create the Web page.
If you want your website to deliver excellent customer service and enable your customers
to be able to search intuitively for your products, a database will become a vital
component of your online strategy.
Improve Customer Service
Purchasing products and services can often be complex and frustrating experience.
A database allows you to publish your products/services online and make searching
and selecting easy for your customers. The speed and simplicity a database provides,
can improve customer satisfaction and retain online customers.
Automate Customer Interaction
A database automates much of the interaction that takes place when a customer buys
a product, thus reducing the amount of time you need to spend answering telephonic
queries.
Increase Profitability
Whether trading online or not, your product/service can be far more accessible with
a database-driven website. Improved customer satisfaction, reduced telephone sales
and administration costs can make your business more profitable.
Achieve Customer Focused eCommerce
According to forecasts by independent research groups, e-commerce will create more
than £200 billion worth of transactions annually by the year 2002, compared to £6
billion in 1997. To take advantage of this burgeoning market, businesses need fast,
efficient, and highly reliable e-commerce websites. A critical component of this
is a database that stores product and customer information and allows customers
to search and select your products intuitively.