Databases Power Dynamic Websites

You may ask, “Why do I need a database???”

If you want your site to be updated at will, apply different appearances, show product or inventory changes real time or need your site to track information, you need a database..

Databases can provide a means of control by displaying a template of information to the user. We’ve all seen this, log into a website and the world opens up to us; we have been empowered to buy or sell or view hidden material all with the use of a password. Databases allow this. In many organizations, the need to have progressively greater access is needed for those in management; we call this Levels of Access.

What do levels of access mean to you and your organization?

Most of us think about levels of access in relation to back end operations but it also means that

• The entire look of your website can change depending on who is looking at it
• or that Product Lines will display differently and will have a different price structure if a customer is linked from different referring websites (like your resellers)
• Employees or customers can be given access to varying amounts of information or different tools and services depending on some external factor on the front end
• Databases can hold templates of access, product displays and any number of other variables for your website.

Databases open up the world, save you time and make you, your employees and your business more profitable.

Databases are a Storage Tool

Traditionally, we think of databases as a way to amass vast amounts of information for future use. This is certainly also true for websites because we can gather generic information about our visitors which, when analyzed, helps us to improve their experience but giving them more of what they want or need.

Financially, we can analyze our products, prices and demand. We can easily extract a range of information giving us better control of our processes. Just as the website feeds in information, we can also upload information easily to the website databases to expand a product line or customer base.