Hello guys,
I need expert advice, as I am about to have a meeting with our Senior Director and VP later this afternoon...
Basically, we have always been using Access databases to multiple projects in our office. In total, I think we have at least 7 MS Access databases that we use in our office (1 database per project/team within our whole office)
Majority of our databases are Job Tracking databases wherein we use the database to track the status of the loans (our Clients are different Banks) that we work on. One example is that, we have a project that completes Financial Statements Analysis from "Bank A". We receive a batch of loans to work on, and we import them into our Job Tracking database, so we can track on what stage/status a certain loan is. Whether if it's been FS Assigned to analyst, Analyst Completed, QC (Quality Control) Completed, Signed Off (meaning sent back to Client) Completed, On Hold for Issue, etc... which are date fields.
We do 3 different kinds of projects from "Bank A". (in case you're familiar with bank/real estate terms-- they are, Financial Statement Analysis Project, Lease Consents Review Project and Lockbox Triggers Analysis Project) so we have 3 seperate databases for each project. We could say that all 3 of those databases are Job Tracking Databases, which has the same concept as what I explained above, although just a different scope/business need, since it's a different type of project. Although it all has those different dates of phases/status for each loan we work on...
Now, we are now to a point that data we receive are beginning to be large, so as number of users. Which our office decided that it is time to migrate our Access databases (at least all tables) into an SQL Server. I agree with that suggestion as it will also benefit me in learning a new RDMS. But our Senior Director came up with the idea that once we migrate all tables to SQL. That we should have one giant workflow table, wherein I guess on how she briefly explained to me, that since those 3 databases we use for BankA slightly uses the same concept of using phase/status tracking. And she told me that just have one column that identifies if this loan is for the Financials Analysis Project, Lease Consents Review Project or Lockbox Trigger Analysis Project. When she said that, and although I am not a true expert in normalization in databases, I know this is not the right approach.
I feel that when we migrate tables to SQL, although it can handle hundreds of thousands of data, it is still proper to create 1 database per project and not dump all loans/table into one Master Workflow table. One main reason is that we really should properly normalize each table.
I guess I could explain to them that having a one master workflow table is not the right approach, but I need solid facts and experts opinion (thanks for your help) so that I have some back up research to explain to them. So that they won't think that I am just making stuff up and just don't want their suggestion.
I apologize for the lengthy email. And I would really appreciate your help with my problem.
Thank you
I need expert advice, as I am about to have a meeting with our Senior Director and VP later this afternoon...
Basically, we have always been using Access databases to multiple projects in our office. In total, I think we have at least 7 MS Access databases that we use in our office (1 database per project/team within our whole office)
Majority of our databases are Job Tracking databases wherein we use the database to track the status of the loans (our Clients are different Banks) that we work on. One example is that, we have a project that completes Financial Statements Analysis from "Bank A". We receive a batch of loans to work on, and we import them into our Job Tracking database, so we can track on what stage/status a certain loan is. Whether if it's been FS Assigned to analyst, Analyst Completed, QC (Quality Control) Completed, Signed Off (meaning sent back to Client) Completed, On Hold for Issue, etc... which are date fields.
We do 3 different kinds of projects from "Bank A". (in case you're familiar with bank/real estate terms-- they are, Financial Statement Analysis Project, Lease Consents Review Project and Lockbox Triggers Analysis Project) so we have 3 seperate databases for each project. We could say that all 3 of those databases are Job Tracking Databases, which has the same concept as what I explained above, although just a different scope/business need, since it's a different type of project. Although it all has those different dates of phases/status for each loan we work on...
Now, we are now to a point that data we receive are beginning to be large, so as number of users. Which our office decided that it is time to migrate our Access databases (at least all tables) into an SQL Server. I agree with that suggestion as it will also benefit me in learning a new RDMS. But our Senior Director came up with the idea that once we migrate all tables to SQL. That we should have one giant workflow table, wherein I guess on how she briefly explained to me, that since those 3 databases we use for BankA slightly uses the same concept of using phase/status tracking. And she told me that just have one column that identifies if this loan is for the Financials Analysis Project, Lease Consents Review Project or Lockbox Trigger Analysis Project. When she said that, and although I am not a true expert in normalization in databases, I know this is not the right approach.
I feel that when we migrate tables to SQL, although it can handle hundreds of thousands of data, it is still proper to create 1 database per project and not dump all loans/table into one Master Workflow table. One main reason is that we really should properly normalize each table.
I guess I could explain to them that having a one master workflow table is not the right approach, but I need solid facts and experts opinion (thanks for your help) so that I have some back up research to explain to them. So that they won't think that I am just making stuff up and just don't want their suggestion.
I apologize for the lengthy email. And I would really appreciate your help with my problem.
Thank you
