A Database Design comes Alive with an Embedded Message Center

By thinking of business data transactions as messages you open your mind to new database design possibilities that can help you articulate more effective business models. The metaphor becomes a reality when you begin to actually incorporated the idea into the software.

A Message Center can essentially be embedded into a database design by identifying the steps of the Communication Process and assigning structure to the process as: (1) a table where the message idea or concept is stored, (2) a table that records the sender’s transmitted message, (3) a table that records where a message is sent and (4) a table that records and thereby verifies that the message is received.

Each of these four tables are of course associated with additional fields that round out the natural construction of a record layout whose purpose is noticeable at the visible interface level and tied together with a scripting language suited to you or the developers you have contracted to do the work.

The key point here is that these four tables will serve as your business activity message center and will include customers, vendors and employees related to your particular service or product. All of the traditional tables representing sales, inventory, finance, etc will be included in the design but now are associated with a virtual message center that is open for you to innovate in any number of ways.

Your new message center lets employees gain an important psychological stake in their efforts at various points throughout the company.  You may experience increased profits just because you were sure to include design ideas connecting your customers, vendors and employees in a dynamic communicative process.

Ideas for employee involvement could be something as simple as personalized customized reporting showing daily contributions to the offered service or product at each stage of eventual delivery. This could only be accomplished with a pre-thought out plan made real by your embedded message center.

Your vision and effort combined with a business savvy will of course contribute the most to the design of your new database. This will in turn spur improvements in profits and add energy to a work environment that will foster employee enthusiasm because people feel better when their ideas are incorporated into the daily activity.