Accounting Information Systems 8th Edition by James Hall

Exercise 45

OLTP VERSUS OLAP SERVERS
For each of the following processes, state whether OLTP or OLAP is appropriate, and why.
a. An order entry system that retrieves customer information, invoice information, and inventory information for local sales.
b. An order entry system that retrieves customer information, invoice information, inventory information, and several years of sales information about both the customer and the inventory items.
c. An order entry system that retrieves customer information, invoice information, inventory information, and information to compare the current sale to sales across several geographic regions.
d. An order entry system that retrieves customer information, invoice information, inventory information, and accounts receivable information for sales within one marketing region.
e. An insurance company requires a system that will allow it to determine total claims by region, whether a relationship exists between claims and meteorological phenomena, and why one region seems to be more profitable than another.
f. A manufacturing company has only one factory, but that factory employs several thousand people and has nearly $1 billion in revenue each year. The company has seen no reason to make comparisons about its operations from year to year or from process to process. Its information needs focus primarily on operations, but it has maintained backup of prior-year operations activities. Examination of prior-year financial reports has shown that the company, while profitable, is not growing, and return on investment is decreasing. The owners are not satisfied with this situation.