A record can be one field to any number of fields in length. By beginning a discussion of databases in the first semester, students feel comfortable with them when they use database management products in the second semester. A statistics package can also be described as a management information system. The description need only be brief, with detailed discussion of management information systems as part of a hierarchy of systems left for the second semester. A brief description begins by explaining that the user of an MIS wants a collection of applications to be available, with the ability to design others on an ad-hoc basis.
Applications typically involve the generation of reports, including word processing and graphics.
With new relational databases available, integration becomes easier, but firms still use databases for separate functional areas of marketing, production, accounting, and so on. A main menu offers three submenus consisting of a set of 24 programs, a file manager, and a help program describing all of its menu choices. The application and model base consist of fifteen statistical methods, such as simple data description and multiple regression. There is no report writer or word processor included with the package, however, it does contain a program to generate simple plots of data for two variables only. The DBMS data definition language is covered by use of the File submenu that allows the student user to create, edit, save, retrieve, or delete files.