What is a Database?

A database is a structured way to organize digital data. The data is usually stored in a series of rows and columns on multiple tables, designed to maximize the efficiency of accessing, querying, updating, manipulating or deleting the data. A database is controlled by a database management system (DBMS) and managed by a database administrator (DBA), who is responsible for the continuous maintenance, tuning and backing up of the database.

A database may be associated with a specific business application that is used to access and update the information in the database. In a contact center, the customer database associated with the customer relationship management (CRM) system plays an important role in delivering an exceptional customer experience. It houses account and contact information about the customer, as well as maintaining, or linking to, records about purchase and contact history. This allows agents to access critical information about callers and update information that has changed.

Databases are also used to house the massive amounts of data produced by contact centers. There may be a reporting database that consolidates data from numerous systems in order to enable holistic reporting and analytics. In such a data-driven environment, efficiently structured and well managed databases are critical to success.