IBS Journal April 2016


Strategic decisions in data warehousing programmes


The ability to derive insights from enter- prise data is a key determinant of effective decision-making in business. However, over the last two decades businesses have not made sufficient investments to develop this capability. The focus of technology investments has been on functional capabilities developed in silos by specific applications. This has resulted in a fragmented data landscape plagued by the following issues:


• • • • •


Disparate source systems leading to duplicate, inconsistent data


Limited and inconsistent data cleansing and harmonisation


Rudimentary reporting with no data analytics to support deci- sions


Multiple captive MIS teams lead- ing to operational inefficiency


Local data sources and silo reporting is a risk to data integrity and security


With rapid technology improvements


in data storage and processing capabili- ties, data warehouse (DWH) platforms have significantly improved in delivering return on investment. Businesses are examin- ing their current data management land- scape and recognising the need for a data warehouse. However, one does not need to look too hard to find projects that have not achieved their desired objectives. The root causes of these failures can often be tracked back to faulty design decisions. This article outlines key data warehouse components and the factors that should drive DWH design decisions


Data warehouse – journey from data to insights


Independent of the nature of business, data is transformed into insights through four stages. Data from multiple sources is extracted, transformed and loaded into a single data repository. Data is sliced and diced across multiple dimensions and business insights are delivered through a reporting tool.


Informal and Formal Data Sources


Data from sources is loaded into an Extract, Transform and Load Tool


Consolidated data in Stored in Data Repository


Information is provided to users through suitable platform


Design decisions in data warehouse


For each layer of the data warehouse, the CIO needs to carefully examine the various design options and determine the best approach. The options available to the CIO are given below:


38 © IBS Intelligence 2016 www.ibsintelligence.com


data warehousing


news


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48