Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised May 27, 2026

Operational system

An operational system is a term used in data warehousing to refer to a system that is used to process the day-to-day transactions of an organization. These systems are designed in a manner that processing of day-to-day transactions is performed efficiently and the integrity of the transactional data is preserved.

Last revised
May 27, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
215 w
Citations
1
Source

An operational system is a term used in data warehousing to refer to a system that is used to process the day-to-day transactions of an organization. These systems are designed in a manner that processing of day-to-day transactions is performed efficiently and the integrity of the transactional data is preserved.1

Synonyms

Sometimes operational systems are referred to as operational databases, transaction processing systems, or online transaction processing systems (OLTP). However, the use of the last two terms as synonyms may be confusing, because operational systems can be batch processing systems as well.

Any enterprise must necessarily maintain a lot of data about its operation.

Organization Probably
Manufacturing Company Product data
Bank Account Data
Hospital Patient Data
University Student Data
Government Department Planning data
See also

See also

References

References

  1. Hughes, Ralph (2016). "Essential DW/BI Background and Definitions". Agile Data Warehousing for the Enterprise. pp. 59–84. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-396464-9.00004-7. ISBN 978-0-12-396464-9. A company's 'operational systems' are those systems needed to execute the company's daily commercial transactions and all subsequent data processing needed to complete business obligations. These systems are often called the company's 'transaction capture' systems and also 'online transaction processing' (OLTP) applications.