Carl,
This is difficult without knowing more. Everyone has their own preferences however I have worked with two extremely talented database gurus (one of whom is on the Active Club Management team). They have taught me a few things.
#1 - GRANULAR - The one important thing to know is that the need for information will change. Keeping information in a “granular” way is important. Here is what I mean by granular.
If a person’s name is Mary Smith on 1 Main Street, Pleasanton, CA 95555, USE 925-555-1212.
I would recommend storing the information by each individual piece. First name, last name, street address, city, State, Country, ZIP, phone number, etc.
#2 – BACK-UP YOUR DATA Off-SITE: Back-up your data at a secondary location. If your business were to burn and you lose all you product, you could recover quicker if you had your customer database. This is often low on the list of things to do but it is highly important.
#3 – STORAGE LIMITATIONS: Invest in and select a storage tool that fits your needs. If you use Excel, Microsoft Access, SQL, or other solution you should have an idea of the limitations of each. A simple POS system stores or shopping cart stores a nominal amount of data, unless you have a significant amount of traffic.
Also, Club Programs are much more demanding than POS and Shopping carts. It is important to understand that tracking hundreds or thousands of sales each year, along with the communications, shipping, and all the other information that is stored with club programs can overload the Excel or Access options.
Example: We had one client who was using an Access based solution for their club. The database was overloaded and would not function. He was stuck trying to process his club shipments and the solution would not work. He switched to a SQL based solution and it worked.
Even though he had not added any new clients he reported a 15% increase in sales. It turned out that before the Access database broke it was overloaded and dropped quite a few of the sales. Getting the right storage solution for your data is critical and costly if you choose the wrong one.
Good Luck!
Theresa Dorr
Active Club Management
925-447-CLUB (2582)
www.activeclubmanagement.com
www.acmwineclubsoftware.com
www.wineclubsoftware.net
Edited by Theresa (Sat Aug 18 2007 11:13 AM)
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