What is a Database?

One of the technology terms that most people have become accustomed to hearing either at work or while surfing the internet is the database. The database used to be an extremely technical term, however with the rise of computer systems and information technology throughout our culture, the database has become a household term. The definition of a database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system. In order for a database to be truly functional, it must not only store large amounts of records well, but be accessed easily. In addition, new information and changes should also be fairly easy to input. In order to have a highly efficient database system, you need to incorporate a program that manages the queries and information stored on the system. This is usually referred to as DBMS or a Database Management System . Besides these features, all databases that are created should be built with high data integrity and the ability to recover data if hardware fails. Types of Databases There are several common types of databases; each type of database has its own data model (how the data is structured). They include; Flat Model, Hierarchical Model, Relational Model and Network Model. The Flat Model Database In a flat model database, there is a two dimensional (flat structure) array of data. For instance, there is one column of information and within this column it is assumed that each data item will be related to the other. For instance, a flat model database includes only zip codes. Within the database, there will only be one column and each new row within that one column will be a new zip code. The Hierarchical Model Database The hierarchical model database resembles a tree like structure, such as how Microsoft Windows organizes folders and files. In a hierarchical model database, each upward link is nested in order to keep data organized in a particular order on a same level list. For instance, a hierarchal database of sales, may list each days sales as a separate file. Within this nested file are all of the sales (same types of data) for the day. The Network Model In a network model, the defining feature is that a record is stored with a link to other records - in effect networked. These networks (or sometimes referred to as pointers) can be a variety of different types of information such as node numbers or even a disk address. The Relational Model The relational model is the most popular type of database and an extremely powerful tool, not only to store information, but to access it as well. Relational databases are organized as

tables. The beauty of a table is that the information can be accessed or added without reorganizing the tables. A table can have many records and each record can have many fields. Tables are sometimes called a relation. For instance, a company can have a database called customer orders, within this database will be several different tables or relations all relating to customer orders. Tables can include customer information (name, address, contact, info, customer number, etc) and other tables (relations) such as orders that the customer previously bought (this can include item number, item description, payment amount, payment method, etc). It should be noted that every record (group of fields) in a relational database has its own primary key. A primary key is a unique field that makes it easy to identify a record. Relational databases use a program interface called SQL or Standard Query Language. SQL is currently used on practically all relational databases. Relational databases are extremely easy to customize to fit almost any kind of data storage. You can easily create relations for items that you sell, employees that work for your company, etc. Accessing Information Using a Database While storing data is a great feature of databases, for many database users the most important feature is quick and simple retrieval of information. In a relational database, it is extremely easy to pull up information regarding an employee, but relational databases also add the power of running queries. Queries are requests to pull specific types of information and either show them in their natural state or create a report using the data. For instance, if you had a database of employees and it included tables such as salary and job description, you can easily run a query of which jobs pay over a certain amount. No matter what kind of information you store on your database, queries can be created using SQL to help answer important questions. Storing a Database Databases can be very small (less than 1 MB) or extremely large and complicated (terabytes as in many government databases), however all databases are usually stored and located on hard disk or other types of storage devices and are accessed via computer. Large databases may require separate servers and locations, however many small databases can fit easily as files located on your computer's hard drive. Securing a Database Obviously, many databases store confidential and important information that should not be easily accessed by just anyone. Many databases require passwords and other security features in order to access the information. While some databases can be accessed via the internet through a network, other databases are closed systems and can only be accessed on site. What is a Data Warehouse? A data warehouse is a place where data is stored for archival purposes, analysis purposes and security purposes. Usually a data warehouse is either a single computer or many computers (servers) tied together to create one giant computer system.

Data can consist of raw data or formatted data and can be on various types of topics including an organization's sales, salaries, operational data, summaries of data including reports, copies of data, human resource data, inventory data, external data to provide simulations and analysis, etc. A data warehouse is sometimes said to be a major part in a decision support system. A way for an organization to use data to come up with facts, trends or relationships that can help them make effective decisions or create effective strategies to accomplish their goals. There are many different models of data warehouses including Online Transaction Processing which is a warehouse built for speed and ease of use. Another type of data warehouse is called Online Analytical processing, this type of warehouse is more difficult to use and adds an extra step of analysis within the data. Usually it requires more steps which slows the process down and much more data in order to analyze certain queries. In addition to this model, one of the more common data warehouse models include a data warehouse that is subject oriented, time variant, non volatile and integrated. Subject oriented means that data is linked together and is organized by relationships. Time variant means that any data that is changed in the data warehouse can be tracked. Usually all changes to data are stamped with a time date and with a before and after value, so that you can show the changes through out a period of time. Non volatile means that data is never deleted or erased. This is a great way to protect your most crucial data. Because this data is retained, you can continue to use it in a later analysis. Finally, the data is integrated, which means that a data warehouse uses data that is organizational wide instead of from just one department. Besides the term data warehouse, a term that is frequently used is a data mart, data marts are smaller, less integrated data housings. They might be just a database on human resources records or sales data on just one division. With improvements in technology, as well as innovations in using data warehousing techniques, data warehouses have changed from Offline Operational Databases to include an Online Integrated data warehouse. Offline Operational Data Warehouses are data warehouses where data is usually copied and pasted from real time data networks into an offline system where it can be used. It is usually the simplest and less technical type of data warehouse. Offline Data Warehouses are data warehouses that are updated frequently either daily, weekly or monthly and that data is then stored in an integrated structure, where others can access it and perform reporting. Real Time Data Warehouses are data warehouses where it is updated each moment with the influx of new data. For instance, a Real Time Data Warehouse might incorporate data from a Point of Sales system and is updated with each sale that is made.

Integrated Data Warehouses are data warehouses that can be used for other systems to access them for operational systems. Some Integrated Data Warehouses are used by other data warehouses, allowing them to access them to process reports, as well as look up current data. So why should you or your organization use a Data Warehouse? Here are some of the pros and cons of using this type of structure for data. The number one reason why you should implement a data warehouse is so that employees or end users can access the data warehouse and use the data for reports, analysis and decision making. Using the data in a warehouse can help you locate trends, focus on relationships and help you understand more about the environment that your business operates in. Data warehouses also increase the consistency of the data and allows it to be checked over and over to determine how relevant it is. Because most data warehouses are integrated, you can pull data from many different areas of your business, for instance human resources, finance, IT, accounting, etc. While there are plenty of reasons why you should have a data warehouse, it should be noted that there are a few negatives of having a data warehouse including the fact that it is time consuming to create and to keep operating. You might also have a problem with current systems being incompatible with your data. It is also important to consider future equipment and software upgrades; these may also need to be compatible with you data. Finally, security might be a huge concern, especially if your data is accessible over an open network such as the internet. You do not want your data to be viewed by your competitor or worse hacked and destroyed. What is SQL? SQL (Structured Query Language) is the most common standardized language used to access databases. SQL was originally developed by IBM in the 1970's for their DB2 RDBMS. SQL version 3 is officially defined by the American National Standards Instititute (ANSI) in the ANSI SQL:1999 standard. Most existing DBMS's currently conform to the earlier ANSI SQL92 standard. SQL is a nonprocedural language. Oracle produces a procedural version of SQL which it calls PL/SQL. SQL is supported by every major database system in use today, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Berkeley DB, Oracle, DB2, Sybase , Informix, and Microsoft SQL . SQL is often pronounced "sequel".

What is Data Mining? Data mining is usually defined as searching, analyzing and sifting through large amounts of data to find relationships, patterns, or any significant statistical correlations. With the advent of computers, large databases and the internet, it is easier than ever to collect millions, billions and even trillions of pieces of data that can then be systematically analyzed to help look for relationships and to seek solutions to difficult problems. Besides governmental uses, many marketers use data mining to find strong consumer patterns and relationships. Large organizations and educational institutions also data mine to find significant correlations that can enhance our society. While data mining is amoral in the fact that it only looks for strong statistical correlations or relationships, it can be used for either good or not so good purposes. For instance, many government organizations depend on data mining to help them create solutions for many societal problems. Marketers use data mining to help them pin point and focus their attention on certain segments of the market to sell to, and in some cases black hat hackers can use data mining to steal and scam thousands of people. How does data mining work? Well the quick answer is that large amounts of data are collected. Usually most entities that perform data mining are large corporations and government agencies. They have been collecting data for decades and they have lots of data to sift through. If you are a fairly new business or individual, you can purchase certain types of data in order to mine for your own purposes. In addition, data can also be stolen from large depositories by hackers by hacking their way into a large database or simply stealing laptops that are ill protected. If you are interested in a small case study on how data mining is collected, used and profited off of, you can look at your local supermarket. Your supermarket is usually an extremely lean and organized entity that relies on data mining to make sure that it is profitable. Usually your supermarket employs a POS (Point Of Sale) system that collects data from each item that is purchased. The POS system collects data on the item brand name, category, size, time and date of the purchase and at what price the item was purchased at. In addition, the supermarket usually has a customer rewards program, which also is input into the POS system. This information can directly link the products purchased with an individual. All this data for every purchase made for years and years is stored in a database in a computer by the supermarket. Now that you have a database with millions upon millions of data fields and records what are you going to do with it? Well, you data mine it. Knowledge is power and with so much data you can uncover trends, statistical correlations, relationships and patterns that can help your business become more efficient, effective and streamlined. The supermarket can now figure out which brands sell the most, what time of the day, week, month or year is the most busiest, what products do consumers buy with certain items. For instance, if a person buys white bread, what other item would they be inclined to buy? Typically we can find its peanut butter and jelly. There is so much good information that a supermarket can use just by data mining their own data that they have collected. What is ERP?

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning . ERP is a way to integrate the data and processes of an organization into one single system. Usually ERP systems will have many components including hardware and software, in order to achieve integration, most ERP systems use a unified database to store data for various functions found throughout the organization. The term ERP originally referred to how a large organization planned to use organizational wide resources. In the past, ERP systems were used in larger more industrial types of companies. However, the use of ERP has changed and is extremely comprehensive, today the term can refer to any type of company, no matter what industry it falls in. In fact, ERP systems are used in almost any type of organization - large or small. In order for a software system to be considered ERP, it must provide an organization with functionality for two or more systems. While some ERP packages exist that only cover two functions for an organization (QuickBooks: Payroll & Accounting), most ERP systems cover several functions. Today's ERP systems can cover a wide range of functions and integrate them into one unified database. For instance, functions such as Human Resources, Supply Chain Management, Customer Relations Management, Financials, Manufacturing functions and Warehouse Management functions were all once stand alone software applications, usually housed with their own database and network, today, they can all fit under one umbrella - the ERP system . Integration is Key to ERP Integration is an extremely important part to ERP's. ERP's main goal is to integrate data and processes from all areas of an organization and unify it for easy access and work flow. ERP's usually accomplish integration by creating one single database that employs multiple software modules providing different areas of an organization with various business functions. Although the ideal configuration would be one ERP system for an entire organization, many larger organizations usually create and ERP system and then build upon the system and external interface for other stand alone systems which might be more powerful and perform better in fulfilling an organizations needs. Usually this type of configuration can be time consuming and does require lots of labor hours. The Ideal ERP System An ideal ERP system is when a single database is utilized and contains all data for various software modules. These software modules can include: Manufacturing: Some of the functions include; engineering, capacity, workflow management, quality control, bills of material, manufacturing process, etc. Financials: Accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets, general ledger and cash management, etc. Human Resources: Benefits, training, payroll, time and attendance, etc

Supply Chain Management: Inventory, supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, claim processing, order entry, purchasing, etc. Projects: Costing, billing, activity management, time and expense, etc. Customer Relationship Management: sales and marketing, service, commissions, customer contact, calls center support, etc. Data Warehouse: Usually this is a module that can be accessed by an organizations customers, suppliers and employees. ERP Improves Productivity Before ERP systems, each department in an organization would most likely have their own computer system, data and database. Unfortunately, many of these systems would not be able to communicate with one another or need to store or rewrite data to make it possible for cross computer system communication. For instance, the financials of a company were on a separate computer system than the HR system, making it more intensive and complicated to process certain functions. Once an ERP system is in place, usually all aspects of an organization can work in harmony instead of every single system needing to be compatible with each other. For large organizations, increased productivity and less types of software are a result. Implementation of an ERP System Implementing an ERP system is not an easy task to achieve, in fact it takes lots of planning, consulting and in most cases 3 months to 1 year +. ERP systems are extraordinary wide in scope and for many larger organizations can be extremely complex. Implementing an ERP system will ultimately require significant changes on staff and work practices. While it may seem reasonable for an in house IT staff to head the project, it is widely advised that ERP implementation consultants be used, due to the fact that consultants are usually more cost effective and are specifically trained in implementing these types of systems. One of the most important traits that an organization should have when implementing an ERP system is ownership of the project. Because so many changes take place and its broad effect on almost every individual in the organization, it is important to make sure that everyone is on board and will help make the project and using the new ERP system a success. Usually organizations use ERP vendors or consulting companies to implement their customized ERP system. There are three types of professional services that are provided when implementing an ERP system, they are Consulting, Customization and Support. Consulting Services - usually consulting services are responsible for the initial stages of ERP implementation, they help an organization go live with their new system, with product training, workflow, improve ERP's use in the specific organization, etc. Customization Services - Customization services work by extending the use of the new ERP system or changing its use by creating customized interfaces and/or underlying application

code. While ERP systems are made for many core routines, there are still some needs that need to be built or customized for an organization. Support Services- Support services include both support and maintenance of ERP systems. For instance, trouble shooting and assistance with ERP issues. Advantages of ERP Systems There are many advantages of implementing an EPR system; here are a few of them:

A totally integrated system The ability to streamline different processes and workflows The ability to easily share data across various departments in an organization Improved efficiency and productivity levels Better tracking and forecasting Lower costs Improved customer service

Disadvantages of ERP Systems While advantages usually outweigh disadvantages for most organizations implementing an ERP system, here are some of the most common obstacles experienced: Usually many obstacles can be prevented if adequate investment is made and adequate training is involved, however, success does depend on skills and the experience of the workforce to quickly adapt to the new system.

Customization in many situations is limited The need to reengineer business processes ERP systems can be cost prohibitive to install and run Technical support can be shoddy ERP's may be too rigid for specific organizations that are either new or want to move in a new direction in the near future.

What is Business Intelligence? Business Intelligence is a broad field of study. The major thrust of business intelligence theory looks at certain factors to make high quality decisions. These factors include customers, competitors, business partners, economic environment and internal operations. Here is some more information on how these factors help businesses make quality decisions. Customers: Without customers a business can't survive. Businesses need to sell their products and services. Business intelligence helps businesses understand their customers better, looking at their preferences, helping businesses adapt to their customers demand. Business intelligence is used to collect data from customers usually within the marketplace. There are many ways to collect data from your customers; it can be as easy as a POS system (point of sale), collecting data on what customers are buying and which products they are not interested in, collecting data on customer habits and preferences by asking them in surveys or polls. There are even marketplace specialists that watch customers behavior in the

marketplace and report back to the companies giving them insight into how their customer respond to stores, personnel and product and services that a business sells. Once this data is collected, it is up to an organization to use this data appropriately. Business intelligence is a process in which vast amounts of data can be viewed and vetted giving managers and business owner's important information that can be resourceful. Competitors: Not only do businesses have to keep customers satisfied buying their products, they also have to compete with competitors that are constantly looking to poach a businesses customers and make them their own. Businesses today must constantly evaluate the effectiveness of their competitors and choose smart strategies that not only hold their competitors at bay, but also grow their own businesses market share. Business intelligence can help a business determine the strategies that your competitors are using to steal customers away, as well as help your own business to differentiate itself from others, effectively growing a larger and more profitable customer base. Business Partners: Business partners are essential to any business, whether it is suppliers, payment processing companies, customer support companies or delivery companies that help your business throughout its cycle, it is important to make sure that all businesses partners associated with your business are in balance with you. Having a supplier that isn't able to keep up with your demand or having a customer service contractor that is unable to help you with certain support problems can cause your business to fail. If you want your business to work smoothly and effectively, all business partners must be in line with each other. For instance, today many businesses share key data with their suppliers so that their suppliers can anticipate present and future inventory levels and make adjustments, which inevitably help your business. Sharing information is key and being able to gather information and sharing appropriate information is where business intelligence is important. Economic Environment: Another way that business intelligence can help an organization is by taking into consideration key economic indicators such as consumer spending, inflation, unemployment, upturns and downturns in the economy, etc. Without business intelligence, your organization can't process information effectively in order to modify strategies that fit the current economy. Internal Operations: Internal operations are usually defined as the on going day to day activities of a business or organization. If your want your business to be successful, you need to be able to view your business's strengths and weaknesses on a daily basis. You also need to see at any moment, just how much profit your business is making and your liabilities. Without decent foresight, you might make hasty decisions such as commit to new spending or paying off debt when your business could allocate those funds some where else. Business intelligence is extremely important to gauge your current state of business, as well as all parts that constitute the whole of the business together to see where funds are needed, what part of a business is weak and what parts of your business is strong. Once businesses know what to look at to give them information that they need to analyze, it is important to gather this data and then use business intelligence methodologies to sift through the data to provide solutions to common everyday business problems. One of the ways to accomplish these tasks is with Key Performance Indicators. KPI, are a way that business intelligence can analyze and evaluate the current state of a business and then use this information to choose a strategy and then execute this strategy.

Some businesses track Key Performance Indicators each year or quarter, some each month or week and if you have the means, many corporations try to track specific data daily in order to fine tune or tweak their strategies. Computers, databases and a group of analysts usually work on business intelligence's methodology. Usually each company has their own business intelligence methodology that fit their specific needs. Some of the more popular ways to create Key Performance Indicators are through Goal Alignment Queries, Baseline Queries and Metrics related Queries. Goal Alignment Queries are a way to determine what your businesses goals are in using Business Intelligence. Is it your businesses goal to grow more market share, to make more profit per item, to start a new revenue stream, to find new manufacturer or suppliers, etc. Baseline Queries help you understand your current approach to collecting data and whether or not this approach is satisfactory, where its weaknesses are and what its strengths are. For instance, if you would like to monitor your customers actions more closely, what are the current tools in place (POS systems, surveys, market research, etc), how do these current tools perform, which are weak, which ones need tweaking and what tools can be added. Metrics Related Queries are extremely important in the Business Intelligence process, because data can only be beneficial to a company if you can come up with a way to measure it. Metrics related queries looks at data and comes up with solutions to accurately measure data to meet businesses needs. Once data is measurable, you can easily analyze it and determine what is working and what is not. Business intelligence is a very broad topic of study, however If you would like your business to succeed, it is extremely important to understand the factors of business intelligence and learn how analyze and use the data created by this methodology. What is OLAP? A growing business of a company brings lots of effects with it and huge amount of data that needs to be stored and tracked is one of them. So, in order to deal with this data, new and sophisticated methods of data processing are required and OLAP or as others say, "On Line Analytical Processing", is one of them. Well, it is really difficult to describe what OLAP really is, but in a nutshell, one can say that On Line Analytical Processing is a class of software technology that allows managers, executives and analysts to gain insight into information that has been transmuted from raw data through different ways. For example, trend analysis, planning, simulating, and budgeting. What makes OLAP stand out is its ability to perform multi-dimensional calculations, thus allowing wide variety of reports. As we all know, bigger the business, bigger are the reports and this is where multidimensional calculations help. Such calculations help colossal business to finish in seconds. And how is this possible? A database configured for OLAP exerts a multi-dimensional model which allows for intricate analytical queries with a rapid execution time.

The main component of OLAP is the OLAP server which is a high capacity, multi-user manipulation engine designed to operate multi-dimensional data and it sits between a client and database management systems or DBMS. An OLAP server is designed to support fast extemporized information in any alignment and also designed for rapid calculations. Following are some of the benefits of OLAP 1. The main benefit of the OLAP is its steadiness in calculations. The reporting is always represented in a coherent presentation irrespective of how fast data is deal with through the OLAP server or software and thus allows the executives and analysts to know exactly to look for where. 2. The other convenience of OLAP is that it allows the manager to tear down data from OLAP database in specific or broad terms. In layman's term, the report can be as simple of comparing two columns or as complex of analyzing a huge amount of data. Moreover, it also helps to realize relationships that were forgotten earlier. The term, On Line Analytical Processing, was coined in 1993 by Ted Codd who is referred as, ""the father of the relational database". Express was the first software that performed OLAP queries and was released in 1970 but later acquired by Oracle in 1995. But OLAP was not a mainstream product until 1998, when Microsoft, released its own OLAP server called, Microsoft Analysis Services. OLAP never had wide spread APIs which were enjoyed by other relational databases until 1997, when Microsoft, introduced the first real API, OLE DB for OLAP or ODBO and also introduced Multidimensional Expressions or MDX query language. MDX provides powerful syntax for manipulating the multi-dimensional data. Following are the types of OLAP systems 1. MOLAP - Multidimensional Online Analytical Processing or MOLAP is considered to be main form of OLAP and thus sometimes just referred as OLAP. It is known for its fast query performance which is because of optimized storage, multidimensional indexing and caching. One of the advantage of MOLAP is that array model provides natural indexing. The main disadvantage is that it introduces data redundancy. 2. ROLAP - Relational Online Analytical Processing is an alternative to the MOLAP and works directly with relational databases. The main difference between MOLAP and ROLAP is that it doesn't require storage of information. One advantage of ROLAP is that data stored in database can be accessed through SQL tool. But it is considered to be slower than MOLAP tools by industry people. Some other types of OLAP which are not wide-spread are WOLAP, DOLAP, and RTOLAP. What are POS Systems? POS stands for Point of Sale; POS technology is used mainly at retail locations such as stores, supermarkets, restaurant, etc. When a customer would like to purchase an item or pay a bill a POS system is extremely useful to register the purchase, keep track of inventory, purchase details such as time, date and store location and input all this data into a database which then can be used for data mining purposes.

POS systems have changed the face of retail. Now, a small or large business can easily keep track of what products customers buy. A business can keep data of all purchases and compare this data from a year earlier or other stores that they own within or outside of a region. POS systems usually work via infrared bar code readers, a register and bar code reader are hooked into a computer terminal. For instance, when you go to a supermarket, you place your items on a conveyer belt, the register assistant then scans your item with the use of the infrared bar code reader. At this time, you see the price of the item and it is added to the total of all items purchased, however on the backend of the system, lots of data including all the information about the product (the price, size, brand name, etc) and the time and date of the purchase is recorded onto the computer for later analysis. With POS systems everybody wins. The consumer wins because the check out is fast, reliable and accurate. The retailers win because they are able to keep track of sales easily, inventory and have tons of data available for further analysis. POS systems continue to become more powerful. Many supermarkets now keep track of their customers by starting customer rewards program. Most supermarket customers join the rewards programs and they receive a small key fob with a barcode to distinguish them in the computer. Now supermarkets are not only able to keep track of which items are purchased, but who purchased them. The same can be said about store credit cards. When a store has your personal information, they can easily keep track of certain customers and the purchases they make. These innovations have made marketing to customers extremely focused and profitable. Bar Codes are part of the POS process. A bar code is a bunch of vertical lines that an infrared reader can read and interpret as data. The bar code includes a UPC number which stands for Universal Product Code. Most items that are sold in a retail environment have their own UPC so they can be purchased and tracked efficiently by the POS and computer system. Besides bar code readers, a UPC can also be input directly into the cash register or computer. Sometimes if a bar code is unreadable, the assistant will manually input the code using a keypad. What is Change Management? If you work in a corporation or with a large organization, you might have heard the phrase "change management" used from time to time. Change management has been around for a while, but has become extremely popular with organizations or corporations that would like to initiate significant change to processes that can include both work tasks and culture. A common definition used for change management is a set of processes that is employed to ensure that significant changes are implemented in an orderly, controlled and systematic fashion to effect organizational change. One of the goals of change management is with regards to the human aspects of overcoming resistance to change in order for organizational members to buy into change and achieve the organization's goal of an orderly and effective transformation. The ADKAR Model

Change management has been developed over a period of time and one of the models that have played an influence in change management is the ADKAR model. ADKAR was a model developed by Prosci. In this model, there are five specific stages that must be realized in order for an organization or an individual to successfully change. They include: Awareness - An individual or organization must know why a specific change or series of changes are needed. Desire - Either the individual or organizational members must have the motivation and desire to participate in the called for change or changes. Knowledge - Knowing why one must change is not enough; an individual or organization must know how to change. Ability - Every individual and organization that truly wants to change must implement new skills and behaviors to make the necessary changes happen. Reinforcement - Individuals and organizations must be reinforced to sustain any changes making them the new behavior, if not; an individual or organization will probably revert back to their old behavior. Organizational Change Management Organizational change management takes into consideration both the processes and tools that managers use to make changes at an organizational level. Most organizations want change implemented with the least resistance and with the most buy-in as possible. For this to occur, change must be applied with a structured approach so that transition from one type of behavior to another organization wide will be smooth. Management's Role in the Organizational Change In most cases, management's first responsibility is to identify processes or behaviors that are not proficient and come up with new behaviors, processes, etc that are more effective within an organization. Once changes are identified, it is important for managers to estimate the impact that they will have to the organization and individual employee on many levels including technology, employee behavior, work processes, etc. At this point management should assess the employee's reaction to an implemented change and try to understand the reaction to it. In many cases, change can be extremely beneficial with lots of positives; however certain changes do sometimes produce a tremendous amount of resistance. It is the job of management to help support workers through the process of these changes, which are at times very difficult. The end result is that management must help employees accept change and help them become well adjusted and effective once these changes have been implemented. The Importance of Buy In For an individual or organization to achieve change effectively, it is important that individuals in the organization that will need to make modifications to their behavior exhibit buy in. Buy

in means that the organization as a whole understands that the changes that need to be made are ultimately beneficial to both the individual and the organization. In addition, each individual and the organization as a whole will have to work hard to make the necessary behavior modifications. If an organization tries to make changes which are inherently bad or are not received positively by an organization, it will be much more difficult or close to impossible to implement these changes without significant resistance. You can enhance buy in by first explaining the changes you would like to make, citing issues with current procedures and then communicating the benefits for both the individual and organization.