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Sajid Saleem

Kelly Rasmussen

Prof. Eom

BUS 591

December 6, 2015

Pair Project: ABC Healthcare Solutions

Contents Company Background ............................................................................................................................ 2

Company Information Concerns ............................................................................................................. 2

Company Information Needs .................................................................................................................. 3

Table 1: ABC Business Needs .......................................................................................................... 3

Company Business Rules and Processes ................................................................................................ 4

Relational Database Design .................................................................................................................... 4

Entity-Relationship Diagram .................................................................................................................. 5

Microsoft Access Database Structure ..................................................................................................... 6

Proposed Database System ..................................................................................................................... 6

Query #1: Approve ........................................................................................................................... 8

Query #2: Interview .......................................................................................................................... 9

Query #3: Offer ................................................................................................................................. 9

Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 9

Table 2: ABC Recommended Business Solutions ........................................................................ 10

Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 11

Note: The real name of the company has been replaced with ABC Healthcare Solutions to protect its

identity. All names have been replaced with fictional names. The report refers to our database

implementation proposal created using Microsoft Access.

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Company Background

ABC Healthcare Solutions, a for-profit national staffing agency that supplies nurses

and other allied health professionals for hospitals in need, was examined because of the gap

between the business needs and current status quo. Also, the opportunity was provided to us

for direct observation using company-generated materials, reports, and data. For purposes of

this project, only the most relevant departments, or “branches,” were selected to reflect the

implementation of a relational database. By identifying key issues and possible solutions

within one department, Travel Sales, it would best answer the current business problems and

improve the process of reputing and organizing data. If the database proves beneficial for the

Travel Sales branch, we hope to continue the use of this software throughout other branches

within the company.

Company Information Concerns

ABC was chosen as the company of interest because of the several issues revolving

around the storage and production of data and information. ABC relies on a non-centralized

database system that uses Microsoft Excel files, an online software system, and paper

records. The current database system used is the online software system where travelers,

recruiters, and contract managers can all access and change at their will. While this may be

helpful to have all eyes on the same database system, issues arise when two disparate parties

are updating the same information at once, or when one entity creates an application, such as

the traveler and the recruiter may or may not see this application and create a new one. Also,

since all of the entities have access to this online software system, there is no effective way to

backup data in case of a power outage or server malfunction. ABC also relies heavily on

paper records. This file storing system leads to several issues such as inaccurate data,

redundant data, and inefficient resource utilization. Eventually, between the Microsoft Excel

files, online software system, and database records, data is not jointly updated, thus making it

hard to trust in the end. Without the ability to trust the data, there is no effective way to

create, update, and delete current records. As it will be evident from the later part of this

section, the issues of inaccuracy, redundancy and inefficient resource utilization are clearly

interlinked.

The company allows the user to download the Excel data files and update them

individually. Furthermore, the employees do not adhere to a standard procedure. For

example, recruiters are responsible to updating files on the travelers they recruit. But

occasionally, contract managers recruit a new traveler bypassing the recruiter. The current

system is incapable of enforcing the standard business policies of ABC. Such decentralized

way of updating the system also gives rise to the concerning issue of lack of accuracy of data

in the system, and plausibly provide mechanisms for employees to practice favoritism.

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Furthermore, the current file system, does not have any means to identify the entities

in a unique way. It is plausible to have several records in several entities with the same name.

Finding the relevant record to make updates can require time and cost company resources,

which could have been spent on other productive activities. Observing the current business

practice reveals that the user of the data file frequently creates a new record every time he or

she has difficulty in finding the original record. This multitude of different copies of the same

file causes excess storage space need, redundant data, and most importantly inaccuracies in

the data storage system.

Within the travel sales department, when the current business processes do not match

the business rules, it can negatively affect all entities. For example, if all the disparate

database systems do not reflect the most updated information, a traveler may be sent to the

wrong facility or start on the wrong shift. This avoidable error affects the commissions of

both the recruiter and the contract manager. If the facility sees these errors repeatedly, they

may or may not choose to hire travelers from ABC Healthcare Solutions because of the

continuous miscommunications. The unreliable nature of such a database makes it difficult to

drive business decisions.

Company Information Needs

ABC Healthcare Solutions needs a database system that would easily update

employee demographic information, track productivity of employees and managers,

distinguish employees and hired staff with unique identifiers, simplify data that is shared

between internal employees and external contracted facilities, and standardize the process in-

line with business policies. The company wants to be able to efficiently produce accurate

reports like it currently does (See Appendix), eliminate the issues found in the prior section,

and enable a better utilization of its resources.

Table 1: ABC Business Needs Problem Category Information Needs

Accuracy Reliable data source

Redundancy Efficient use of employee time and company resources

Resource utilization Database reflecting company policy

Lack of standardization Overcome the current issues which hinder growth

We are confident that with the help of an efficient and easy to understand centralized

relational database, we would be able to overcome company’s issues and meet its information

needs. A centralized database system will synchronize all changes, resulting in more accurate

data. In addition, instilling one standardized database that provides access to all entities

eliminates the possibility of data redundancy with the use of unique primary key values. Also,

this centralized database will mitigate any unnecessary time and energy spent sorting through

various Excel files or paper records, reassuring that all possible resources are utilized. A

database with the embedded business process rules will ensure that communication between

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employees is optimized. With the implementation of queries (using SQL), the database will

mitigate the need to laboriously create similar reports each day, thus overcoming any data

redundancy and data accuracy issues for queries to generate relevant information for reports.

In addition, an efficiently managed relational database system will provide the

company with valuable information, such as which employees are the most productive, what

states typically offer the highest pay rates, and the number of offers accepted at each facility,

etc. Such pertinent information can give the company the competitive advantage they need.

Company Business Rules and Processes

Within ABC Healthcare Solutions, there are four main entities in which information is

interdependently exchanged, as seen in the Entity-Relationship Diagram below. The first

entity is the traveler. The traveler can either voluntarily submit an application via the ABC

Healthcare Solutions webpage (in which case the value for app sent field will be null), or a

recruiter, the second entity, sends out applications to the traveler. A traveler will have one

application with information such as traveler type (example: nurse or medical assistant) and

application complete. The third entity, the facility, posts job opening for these prospective

travelers with details including the role, average pay, shift time, and other requirements. A

facility may have several job postings active at the same time. The recruiter tries to match

their traveler’s with these job postings and sends a review to the contract manager, the fourth

entity. The contract manager approves or disapproves the review sent by the recruiter. If the

contract manager believes that the traveler is a good fit for the job posting, he or she will

forward the review to the facility. If the facility accepts this review, the traveler will be asked

to complete a virtual interview. Based on the success of the interview, the traveler may or

may not be offered the position. If the traveler does not receive an offer, the recruiter

continues to search for other jobs that fit his or her criteria. If the traveler accepts the offer, it

becomes a contract. The contract includes all the finalized details about the job. The

approval, interview, offer and contract are frequently used for productivity report (See

Appendix).

Relational Database Design

As discussed earlier, the proposed database will reflect the current company needs of

the Travel Sales department. This database contains 8 different entities. Each entity contains

a primary key, relevant information, and a foreign key if necessary. The entities are listed

below:

1. Traveler

2. Application

3. Review

4. Contract

5. Facility

6. Job Postings

7. Recruiter

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8. Contract Manager

Entity-Relationship Diagram

The ER diagram lists out the relationships, the modality, and the cardinality created

between these separate entities as they are aligned with the current business needs. The ER

model designed is in the 3rd normal form. There is no data redundancy except in the foreign

key attributes.

Figure 1: Entity-Relationship Diagram

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Microsoft Access Database Structure

Figure 2: Microsoft Access Database Structure

Proposed Database System

As the issues of inaccuracy, redundancy, and inefficient resource utilization are clearly

interlinked, all the attempts to eliminate any one issue will also contribute towards

eliminating other issues. For example, removing data redundancy makes the database more

accurate and reduces the storage space needed, making efficient use of the available

resources.

The proposed centralized database structure uses unique identifiers and drop down

menus in the forms to reassure the individual entering the data is using the correct primary

key. Data entry is done using forms, instead of tables, which prevent the users creating

mistakes when entering data directly into the tables in Microsoft Access database. This

methodology prevents users from messing up the proposed database structure. The screenshot

below is an example of one of the forms proposed in the new database structure (See Figure

frm_Review). In the frm_Review, the submittal number is listed as the primary key. In the

previous database, when an employee could not track the name of the traveler or duplicate

copies of the same traveler (as traveler’s names are not unique), the recruiter would create a

new record. This original style of thinking creates data redundancy issues, leading to

inaccurate data. However, in our proposed database structure, any search would be conducted

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using the primary key as the keyword. Each primary key is unique, eliminating any

possibility of duplicate records and resulting in non-redundant and accurate data. The

ContractManager_ID, Recruiter_ID, and Traveler_ID in the frm_Review are the foreign

keys. The employee entering the data will use the drop-down menu to select each foreign key

derived from the primary keys from their respective table. The drop-down menu feature

ensures that only the values existing in those primary key attributes of the related tables exist

already in the database preventing any errors during data entry. When the foreign key record

is selecting, the corresponding name will appear in the adjacent box reassuring that the

correct foreign key was selected. The fields that list the dates of approval, interview, and

offer appear only when the corresponding checkboxes are selected. This improvement

mitigates any unnecessary clouding of the form. The search box created at the top of the

frm_Review makes it easy for employees to search for the review form based on the

submittal number, a unique identifier, selected. This update helps to easily navigate between

different submittals to make changes, improving the efficiency of the user.

Figure 3: Review Form

In the proposed database structure, any derivable attributes will not be saved to

prevent any data redundancy and improve resource utilization of servers storing the data. The

report below elaborates this point further (see Figure Efficiency Report of Contract

Manager). This report displays the count of each tallied attribute: approval, interview, and

offer. This report can easily be derived by counting the records of the review table which

include approved, interviewed, and offered corresponding to the contract manager. The report

also features a filter option which allows the user to filter data by date in which the review

Foreign key

Primary key

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was approved. The current business practice requires that this report is produced frequently

(Sample in appendix), thus the queries combined with the filter feature of Microsoft Access,

making the whole process very efficient and saving valuable time for the employee.

Figure 4: Efficiency Report

The queries used to generate the Efficiency Report are listed below, following SQL

formatting.

Query #1: Approve SELECT Count(Review.Approved) AS CountOfApproved,

ContractManager.Employee_Name AS ContractManagerName, Review.Approved_Date

FROM ContractManager INNER JOIN Review ON ContractManager.ContractManager_ID

= Review.ContractManager_ID

WHERE (((Review.approved)=True))

GROUP BY ContractManager.Employee_Name, Review.Approved_Date;

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Query #2: Interview SELECT Count(Review.interview) AS CountOfInterview,

ContractManager.Employee_Name AS ContractManagerName, Review.Interview_Date

FROM ContractManager INNER JOIN Review ON ContractManager.ContractManager_ID

= Review.ContractManager_ID

WHERE (((Review.interview)=True))

GROUP BY ContractManager.Employee_Name, Review.Interview_Date;

Query #3: Offer SELECT Count(Review.Offer) AS CountOfOffer, ContractManager.Employee_Name AS

ContractManagerName, Review.Offer_Date

FROM ContractManager INNER JOIN Review ON ContractManager.ContractManager_ID

= Review.ContractManager_ID

WHERE (((Review.Offer)=True))

GROUP BY ContractManager.Employee_Name, Review.Offer_Date;

The proposed database reflects the current business practices and rules by using forms

to ensure relevant information is recorded during the data entry process. More business rules

can easily be embedded into the forms to enforce standardized daily business practices. For

example, if the business rule requires that a recruiter needs to communicate with a traveler

before a contract manager approves him or her for the suggested job posting, both recruiter

and contract manager must be involved before the traveler can move forward in the approval

process (to avoid any unwarranted traveler favoritism). The database can embed additional

VBA code to make sure that the contract manager’s foreign key value is visible only after a

recruiter’s foreign key value is entered. Furthermore, only after the contract manager and

recruiter foreign key values are added, then the approval, interview, and offer checkboxes are

enabled.

Conclusion The proposed database system will remove all data redundancy concerns. The updated

database will significantly reduce unnecessary storage space on the server by consolidating

various Excel spreadsheets and other files. Furthermore, it will help improve the accuracy of

the data, keeping all information relevant to the business practice. The ease of usage for

forms, queries, and reports will help employees stay informed and better utilize their time.

Keeping the database current will strengthen communication between all the participants,

giving ABC the competitive advantage of having data and information accessible in real time.

These advancements will exponentially improve the resource utilization of the entire business

unit and related departments.

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Table 2: ABC Recommended Business Solutions Issues Solution

Accuracy By implementing centralized relational database which has

only a single copy of data.

Updates regarding any attribute of an entity is made in only

one place keep data accurate and relevant.

Redundancy The only place redundancy is allowed is in the foreign keys.

Only one copy of data is maintained.

Resource utilization Since data is in non-redundant form, storage space required

will be significantly less.

Efficient use of

employee time

Data will be readily available to access and thus, save

employees time needed to search using primary keys.

SQL queries will make the task of create daily tailored reports

easy and efficient.

Lack of standardization Rules will be embedded in the database which reflect business

policies. This will ensure that the business data storage and

information needs reflect its policy. This will standardize the

business process.

Reliable data source Since data will be up-to-date and relevant, information created

by the user will be reliable creating an environment where the

users trust the database. This can help drive business decisions.

Overcome the current

issues which hinder

growth

Issues discussed in the sections above will be resolved using

the relational database implemented without redundancy and

accuracy issues, saving time and resources. This will help the

company grow by allowing optimal utilization of resources,

and by creating an environment where new insights can

uncovered.

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Appendix Figure 5: Original Contract Activity Report

Figure 6: Original Distinct Submittal Report

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Figure 7: Original Derived Approval, Interview, Offer Report

Figure 8: Original Web-based Reporting Method

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Table 3: Data Dictionary

Address The current address of the facility

App_Sent A yes/no variable showing whether the traveler has completed an

application

Application_# The unique application identifier number

Approved A yes/no value if the contract manager forwards the review to the

facility

Bill_Hourly The amount that ABC bills the hospital per hour of work for the

traveler

Bill_Rate The rate in which the facility is willing to pay for that traveler

City The current city of the facility

Complete_Profile Explains if the traveler has completed their profile which includes all

necessary vaccinations, licenses, classes, and certifications.

Contract_# The unique contract identifier number

ContractManager_I

D

The unique contract manager identifier number

Duration The length of the contract (in weeks)

Duration The recommended length of the job

Employee_Name The contract manager’s first and last name

Facility_# The unique facility identifier number

Facility_Name The name of the facility

Housing A yes/no variable showing whether or not ABC is responsible for

finding housing for the traveler

Interview A yes/no value indicating if the traveler completed an interview for

the facility

Offer A yes/no value indicating if the traveler completed an offer for the

facility

Posting_# The job posting created by the facility

Profession The current occupation of the traveler

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Rank Junior or Senior, the rank of each recruiter

Recruiter_ID The unique recruiter identifier number

Referral_Type The source in which the referral came from (ex: past employee,

monster, craigslist)

Region Area within the United States in which the Contract Manager is

responsible for

Role The occupation for the recommended traveler

Shift_Type Day, Middle, or Night Shift

Specialty The current specialty of the traveler (ex: critical care, post-partum,

NICU)

Spread_Margin The percentage of commission necessary to prove whether or not a

contract will be profitable for the company

Start_Date The start date of a contract

Start_Date The day in which the job starts

State The current state of the facility

Submittal/Market Explains if the traveler was matched to an existing job posting

(submittal) or if the contract manager suggested a traveler to a

facility without an existing job posting (market)

Submittal_# The unique submittal number that occurs when the recruiter has sent

a completed application to a contract manager

Traveler_ID The unique traveler identifier number

Traveler_Name The first and last name of the traveler

Traveler_Type Explains the traveler’s current occupation

Type Explains the way a traveler was hired. The type is either a new hire,

a new deal, or an extension

VMS Vendor Management System, the web-based portal that displays the

job postings for the facility’s that they are contracted with

Year_of_Hire The year in which the employee was hired

Zip The current zip code of the facility