Batch processing systems process offline jobs that do not have any end-user component.
The following tasks are typical jobs for this kind of system:
* Daily refresh of data
Some decision support systems require data to be reloaded every night,
and batch processing systems often automate this task.
* Data transformation
This task is similar to data refresh, but the data is transformed.
* Data cleansing
This task accomplishes things like removing duplicate accounts from the database.
* Offline billing
This task could consist of performing nightly billing of customers.
Batch processing systems typically have no users waiting for their jobs to finish,
but they also typically have a certain time frame in which they must conclude the tasks.
For example, overnight loads of data cannot overlap morning logins.
Source:
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Administrator's Companion eBook