Spreadsheet as DSS

In this video you will see how to create a small DSS (it actually can be as big as needed using the same method) from any cloud version of spreadsheet software (like the one on Google Drive). Zoho and Microsoft have their own cloud versions.

Making your table available to all

If your zoho window looks different from my previous videos you might follow the pic below on how to make your table view public:

For the url and the code that should be embedded in the blog get the code from the Publish option as shown here (the rest of the instructions are in my blog posts):

Videos on database and table creation

Since some features of zoho have recently changed I will show in two short videos how to do the zoho task.

Step 1. Database and table creation
Step 2. Publishing to the blog and the forum

After this task, you should realize what a tremendous industrial power is this knowledge. Some students bring this technology to work and start using immediately. The database or particular tables could be created and maintained by different people or departments. The data could be made visible to only employees, to particular departments, or to the whole planet. Such skill can right there be the foundation of some business when you collect from people's data (INPUT), process them (like in your formula column, and even more powerful processing) - PROCESSING, and distribute data as table views or embedded parts of your web sites (like on your blog) - OUTPUT. Seeing the processed total results, tehcustomers can change the input -FEEDBACK - to do a more precise job, or task.

DB Task on Zoho

After the table and the formula column have been created, you have to complete the last part of the task - sharing your table over the Internet! Here you will have two types of sharing: one for the forum link and another is an iframe to be embedded into your blog. Note that the first one is a link, that if you click on - you get to the table. Another one is an iframe that works only if embedded into the HTML gadget in the Blogger.

Here are the sharing steps that might be even easier than the task proposed:

1. Make the view  of your table public (this is important for further sharing):

2. Copy the url that you will post into the Moodle forum and then confirm the public view

3. Select Publish, Embed in Website/Blog to copy the iframe and then paste it into the HTML gadget in Blogger

Databases

Although a database table might look like a spreadsheet, the capabilities of a database management system (software engine behind the databases) are quite different. For better understanding you might go to the Featured Samples (while on the Home page in your Zoho Reports site) to see that after the initial tables are created and filled with data, the rest of the database consists of various queries (that could be saved for future easy customer use), reports, charts, etc. All other database products, created from the data tables by using simple and effective tools, allow to SEE and ANALYZE a LOT of DATA from MULTIPLE POINTS OF VIEW, as compared to the relatively small amount in typical spreadsheets.

Well designed and developed (in terms of convenient analysis) databases - is what create added value to the initial data collection often stored in some input “flat” files. Data warehouses (or smaller data marts) are systems enhancing this analytical and decision support function of organizational (and even personal) data.

In my professional capacity, I was often asked by organizations that invested a lot of money into a collection of valuable data – to help them make better use of this information (bang for the invested buck, if you want). This usually results into the development of an information system with a database at its core (this is why they call them “information systems” :)