Establishing a Common Operating Environment (COE).

Using Databases to Work and Mine Data. In Microsoft Office, MS Access frequently goes unused in a small business. The Access application is the database software of Microsoft Office. There are many 3rd party software applications built "ontop" of Access.

Microsoft even makes some Access templates available free on their website, offering them as shareware. Here's an excerpt from the MS Access web page, referring to a template for managing and archiving customer orders:

The Customer Order Entry database template makes it easy for you to add, change, or delete the following data:

• Company information such as contact name; phone and fax number; and street, shipping, and Web addresses.
• Customer order information such as the order and ship date, employee who took the order, and payment method.
• Details of each order such as the product purchased, quantity sold, discount percentage (if any), and total price.
• Information specific to your company such as the employees' names and your company's address.
• Shipping and payment methods such as shipping company name (like UPS) and credit card information.

All of the information listed above is contained in tables in Access and made accessible to you through an easy-to-use interface called a switchboard. By using the first four buttons on this switchboard, you can navigate to different forms, to which you can add the customer data you need (called records).

Also from the switchboard, you can click View Reports to view reports compiled on your data, such as reports on orders by customer and customer payments. At any time, you can close out of your Access database by clicking Exit Database on the main switchboard.

Of course, you could modify the template to delete fields or add any other fields that you want to keep track of in your business. The real power of an application like Access is that once you've entered your customer orders in a database, you can mine the data you've stored by making queries. You can query anything that you've stored, for any period that you've entered the data for. You might inquire of your database: "

• Who are my top 20 customers for the past 90 days?
• Which products have sold the least in quantities? In dollars?
• How many new customers did I obtain through my web site?
• How many warranty repairs have I done in the last year?
• List my vendors in the order of number of products sold.
• Would you rather run your business with the answers to these questions or without them?

You think about it: How far has your business moved along the learning continuum? Are you taking advantage of the latest technologies to codify the intellectual capital of your business? If you arrived at your office, and all your information OR all your money was gone, what would be more devastating to you?

Now, compare how you safeguard your money with the way you safeguard your information. As you digitize your workflow, be sure you have adequate back-up systems with offsite storage for all important information.

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