Considering Relational Data Models in Process Automation

Q: What is the significance of relational data models?

Edward Wilson: Again, the…(you know) fundamental things like a relational model, there are still questions that I ask, which is like hold on, “Am I getting this right?”

EW: Why do you actually need, you know, these two objects to be related in a model? There are very specific reasons as to why you would relate two things together.

EW: Let’s say you have a corpus of 10,000 claims and of those 10,000 claimants, they are represented by a mix of 1,000 solicitors. So, any one of those 1,000 solicitors could represent, you know, a bunch of these 10,000 claimants. So, if we took any one of those solicitors and said, “Ok, that particular solicitor represents 223 of our 10,000 claims.”

EW: Now, if you didn’t have a relational model where you’d related from the get-go that solicitor’s record to those 223 claimants, then every time you updated that solicitor’s details you would have to go and enter in those details correctly 223 times because there’s no relationship there that just automatically updates.

EW: In a flat model, you have a 1-to-1 relationship. So, you would actually need 223 copies of that solicitor’s record to achieve the same thing. So what becomes very important when you’re running processes against it is to consider when you need a rational model versus not.

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