Databases > Using Databases

Using your database

By Nicole Aebi-Moyo

Databases bear the brunt of much criticism in the workplace, but often the problem lies with the way the database is used, rather than the database itself. This article outlines the steps you can take to make sure your database works effectively.

Roles and Responsibilities

Every organisation will manage its database differently depending on how many staff there are and who needs to have access to the data. Generally though, every organisation needs to have a database manager - someone who takes responsibility on a day by day basis for the database. Their responsibilities should include:

1. Problem solving – identifying common problems from incorrectly entered data to reports and queries that have been set up badly.
2. Training – they might not actually train people in using the database, but they should identify training needs and ensure new staff have training in their induction plan
3. Data integrity – checking for duplicates and missing information on a monthly basis (more on this later)
4. Producing manuals – including a set of Golden Rules (more later)
5. Being the database administrator – creating new users and deleting old ones (more later)

Golden rules

With lots of people entering data, it is very easy to end up with a whole variety of formats and styles. One way to avoid this is to have a series of golden rules. For data formats, your rules might include:

• Don’t use abbreviations for organisation names, unless that’s how they are known (LASA for example)
• Don’t put ‘The’ at the start of an organisation’s name as this can make it hard to search. Don’t put ‘The Women’s Resource Centre’, for example.
• Use capital letters for names e.g. Jo Blogs, not jo blogs.
• Fill in the post code. If you don’t know the postcode, use the Post Office postcode finder
• Put all of the address information in the correct spaces. MOST IMPORTANTLY, put the TOWN in the TOWN box.

You might also have some general rules such as:

• Always log on as yourself and ensure volunteers do likewise.
• Before adding any new organisations or individuals, make sure they’re not already on the database. Check by name, postcode and organisation name.
• When accessing a person’s record, always check that all their information is up to date – e.g. telephone dialling codes, their salutation, etc.
• If you are unsure, ASK, never guess.

The rules you develop will be specific to your organisation and may change as you spot common mistakes or patterns. Make sure you let people know every time you change the rules though!

Security

The level at which someone can access and modify the information contained in a database can all be controlled by the security settings.

In most organisations, several people will need to access the database: some might just need to search for contact details; others might need to add new people or make changes to records; and some might need to do more complex things such as creating reports.

By creating groups of users, you can usually control access very easily. For example, you might have:

• Visitors – perhaps your database is available to service users. This group might only be able to see certain information, such as names and addresses of organisations that provide support in the area.
• Users – this might be staff who can search for, and create or modify records.
• Reporters – this might be people who need to write reports and do other high level data work
• Administrator – this will be your database manager, the person responsible for the database on a day-to-day basis. This person will have the highest level of security clearance.

Security also plays a role in data protection.

Data protection

If you keep people’s information in a database, chances are you need to be registered under the Data Protection Act. It’s quick, (fairly) easy and not too expensive. You can find out more from the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

The Data Protection Act gives individuals the right to know what information is held about them. It also provides a framework to ensure that personal information is handled properly.

Anyone who processes personal information must comply with eight principles, which make sure that personal information is:

1. Fairly and lawfully processed
2. Processed for limited purposes
3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive
4. Accurate and up to date
5. Not kept for longer than is necessary
6. Processed in line with your rights
7. Secure
8. Not transferred to other countries without adequate protection

But what do these mean in practice? Data protection isn’t just about databases and can impact on other areas of your organisation’s work. There are several Knowledgebase articles just on data protection alone so we won’t go into too much detail here but in practice these principles mean:

1. Fairly and lawfully processed – this is the fundamental aim of the act. Is what you’re doing fair? Would you like it if someone did it to you?
2. Processed for limited purposes – if someone gave you their address because they wanted a copy of your resource pack on sexual violence, it’s NOT OK for you to send them information on becoming a member.
3. Adequate, relevant and not excessive – don’t ask for people’s date of birth or inside leg measurement if you don’t need to know it.
4. Accurate and up to date – tricky to achieve but it helps you as much as it helps your contacts.
5. Not kept for longer than is necessary – if someone stops being a member or supporter of your organisation, is it OK to keep their name and address for years and years? At what point do you delete or archive their records?
6. Processed in line with your rights –if you hold sensitive information about people (such as their racial or ethnic origin) you have to be sure not to infringe their legal rights by how you handle their data.
7. Secure – make sure no one but your staff can access the data.
8. Not transferred to other countries – not likely to be a problem for smaller organisations, but for international organisations, this might be an issue.

You can find out more about data protection in action from the following Knowledgebase articles:

Introduction to the Data Protection Act

Make Sure your Data Protection Compliance is in Order

Data Protection Policies

Training and induction

Anyone who uses your database needs training. The depth and level of that training will vary depending on how much they’re going to use the database. The question is, where do you get that training from? Do you go with training delivered by the company that developed your database or do you do it yourself?

If you have the resources and the skills, doing in-house training on specific tasks related to your database might make more sense than sending new staff off to generic training by a large company.

And what about creating a database super-user: someone who knows the database inside and out, perhaps the person who uses it the most. They might need additional training to get them started.

What you decide to do will probably be determined by budgets, how many new staff you have and what you think of the training options available!

Manuals

Wherever you got your database from, you should have got a manual. The question is, how useful is it? Is it specific to your organisation’s needs? Does it cover the tasks you do on a regular basis? If yes, excellent; if no, then maybe you need to think about writing your own.

For example, if you use your database to record whether people are members of your organisation or not, you could create step by step instructions to process membership renewals and so on. You could also include a schedule of regular tasks so that people know what’s happening when.

Databases are ‘mission critical’, you need to make sure yours can function no matter what. Having clear instructions specific to your organisation will help should the person usually responsible for a certain task gets run over by a bus or decide to leave your organisation.

Getting information out of your database

Once you’ve put it in, you’ll want to do something with the data in your database other than just looking up a phone number, For example, you might want to send a letter to a particular group of people or find out how many service users contacted you in the first quarter of the year.

Usually you can create reports (or queries) to get information out of your database. You’ll probably want to create some standard reports for tasks you do on a regular basis (perhaps membership renewals) but you’ll also want to know how to create custom reports for one-off tasks.

Creating reports can be difficult and requires a good knowledge of your data and usually some training. Make sure those that might need to create reports, know how. Because creating reports can be tricky, people will also need to be able to spot when things have gone wrong and work out how to correct them.

Data integrity

People make mistakes, the question is how do you deal with them? The answer: by setting up systems to check and monitor things on a regular basis. For example, people might not always fill in the postcode if they don’t know it (and don’t have time to look it up) or they might create a new record on the database for someone that’s already there, creating duplicates. Someone needs to be responsible for checking for mistakes like this. Usually this is the responsibility of the database administrator.

Think about the mistakes people make, or might make, and create a report to check for these mistakes. Your database might already have a report for checking common errors, but you should think about customising it.

Once your report is in place, work out a schedule for running it, perhaps once a month. When you run it, keep a look out for common mistakes so you can remind people about how to do things correctly. The patterns you spot should tell you what to include in your training and your manual.

Summary

Here are the key things that will help you love your database:

• Make someone in charge
• Set up some Golden Rules for your organisation
• Make sure security settings only allow people to do what they need to
• Think about how Data Protection rules affect your organisation and make sure everyone knows
• Set up training programmes for people based on their needs Write your own manual if you need to and update it as necessary
• Check your data every month to spot patterns of mistakes and feed these back into the training programme and manuals.

Put all of these in place and you might actually begin to appreciate your database and what it can do for your work!