When storing and analyzing data, firms tend to use various forms of software. Two prominent but completely interlinked types of software for capturing and storing data are database programs and spreadsheet programs. Databases typically store data in a way that allows you to deal with each observation (e.g. one employee) at a time. For example, they can have a screen that displays all the data for one employee. The actual data tends to be saved in a table-based spreadsheet program as seen above, where each observation is a row. There are several specialist database programs, such as VIP and PeopleSoft for HR.

Larger companies often have special Enterprise Resource Programs (ERPs), where all the data for the whole company (HR, Finance, Purchasing etc.) is linked in one database program with various modules. Some common examples of ERPs are SAP and Oracle. These again save the data in a background data table.

Special data analysis programs like SAS then take the raw data organized by any of the above programs and do complex analyses of the data. Chapter 5 introduces SAS and Chapters 6 and beyond show you how to implement a variety of data analyses.