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Database structure
The SFCRM application is backed by a single database containing all your data. Consequently,
data changes made by one user are immediately available to all users of the system anywhere in
the world, without the need to "synchronize" multiple database versions. It also enables
real-time business analytics, so that executives have access to the most current situations in
the company's sales and marketing efforts.
On the technology side, SFCRM requires a standard SQL92-compliant relational database. The application strictly adheres to using only industry-standard techniques for database access and update (SQL and JDBC) with no reliance on the feature set of any particular database vendor. This enables the application to scale smoothly from the very smallest database engine to high-end Oracle or DB2 systems. To the SFCRM user, it offers a guarantee that they will never be locked in to one vendor. Moreover, it is a simple matter to migrate the application's data from one database to another, and to reconfigure the application to use the new database. The simplicity of such a migration is also a consequence of the fact that the application is completely oblivious of vendor-specific features. SFCRM's database structure is designed to maximize data integrity and reliability. In accordance with industry-standard best practices, the database is fully normalized, so that a particular data item is stored in one and only one place. Wherever possible, data integrity is preserved via lookup tables. This means, for example, that you won't have invalid data because of mis-spelled state or country names. |
