User Database
This feature encourages group members to pool their knowledge resulting in more thorough information processing and better decision making. Your user database is a section of our database that is exclusively accessible to your user group. It is accessed with both products Benchum myData and Benchum Decision.
User group
A user group is a community that shares the same user database. The group is established with a registration key that we distribute for our online services. Each new user is assigned to a user group. If you register without providing a registration key, we will always create a new group for you. Otherwise you are assigned to the user group associated with the key you entered. All current members are notified by email that you have joined their group. You can track online how many users have registered in the group and disable unused accounts, if necessary. Please note that you can not re-enable online any account but only by contacting us.
User database
Each user group owns its unique user database. Here, you can add your own data, for instance by using the write-back feature: Just replace the data you retrieved or type in a new entry, and the system will save the new value in your local user database. You might enter prices projections and metrics from other consultants (or we might do this for you) to compare the input from different sources. In addition, we can provide extra information for your particular issues, which is not stored in the central database.
When retrieving information, our application will first look in your user database. Only if not sufficient results are returned, it will then investigate the central database. Although the original data is not deleted, the only possibility to re-obtain it is discarding your changes.
Maximum security
Your user database is completely secure and separated from the central database. For example, each logged-on user gets a separate address space on our Internet server, so that they can not hamper the session of any other users. In addition, each data access is verified for the correct user group, so there is no unauthorized access at all. Your user database is only shared with your colleagues in the same user group.
Improve the group collaboration
People working in groups and teams understand that effective collaboration is mandatory for success in today's business environment. Benchum Decision assists you to organize and disseminate information across the team.
Depending on the version of Benchum Decision you are using, your user database can be stored in different locations: your PC or laptop, your network or web host server, or our web host server. There are several ways to share this information within a group:
• You can synchronize the user database between your PC and our web host www.benchum.com. Your colleagues in the same user group can access all results from wherever they are in the world. Furthermore, they might download the incremental changes from the web host to their local hard disks.
• If you are using the web host version, you can synchronize the user database between your PC and your own intranet web host server.
• With the network version the program can be installed onto your network server. This allows multiple user databases to be distributed across the network, copying data between locations and synchronizing changes automatically between different copies of the database.
Database synchronization
The synchronization guarantees that all database copies within a user group are always consistent and that no data is lost. In particular, data synchronization works as follows:
1) For each data entry the date (timestamp) and username of the last modification are maintained.
2) The data entry with the newest date always overwrites an older data field with the same contents on the server.
3) When synchronizing the local copy on your hard disk, the program determines if any of your data entries have recently been modified by other users. If so, you are asked to confirm either to overwrite or to keep your original values.
4) If you decide keeping your value, it will get the current timestamp and overwrite, at next synchronization time, the value stored on the server to ensure data integrity.
You can use the synchronization feature to improve the quality of communications between team members.
Learn more about the versions of Benchum Decision.