The Way Forward 1. Business in much of world depends on database technology. The London stock exchange relies on computer systems for recording buying and selling of stock which happens very quickly and in large quantities. The amount of money involved in these transactions is enormous. The airlines all use online seat reservation systems and have systems for scheduling aircraft, for building and maintaining timetables, for handling the in-flight catering and for mechanical servicing of the planes.
Similar systems exist for rail, sea and road transport.
They all use database technology extensively. Epidemiology utilises database technology to hold and organise key information from many patients in order to allow statistical processing to detect trends and to alert medical practitioners to possible epidemics. More recently, data mining techniques have been applied to this area - relying again on database technology. Modern retailers use advanced data mining techniques to determine trends in sales and consumer preference to optimise stock control, retail performance, customer convenience and profit. There is not enough time in the presentation to describe in any detail how DB technology is used in these application areas.