THE COMPELLING NEED

FOR DATA WAREHOUSING

 Objectives
2

 Understand the desperate need for strategic

information
 Recognize the information crisis at every enterprise
 Distinguish between operational and informational
systems
 Learn why all past attempts to provide strategic
information failed
 Clearly see why data warehousing is the viable
solution
3

 How Organizations take decisions?

 which product lines to expand
 which markets they should strengthen

 where to build the next warehouse

 Need of Data Warehouse
4

 The operational computer systems did provide

information to run the day-to-day operations.
 But what the executives needed were different
kinds of information that could be readily used to
make strategic decisions.
 Data warehousing is a new paradigm specifically
intended to provide vital strategic information.
 Need of Data Warehouse (Cont…)
5

 Strategic information is not for running the day-to-

day operations of the business.
 It is not intended to produce an invoice, make a
shipment, settle a claim, or post a withdrawal from
a bank account.
 Strategic information is far more important for the
continued health and survival of the corporation.
 Characteristics of Strategic Information
6
 Examples of Data Warehouse
7
 The Information Crisis
8

 Most companies are faced with an information crisis

not because of lack of sufficient data, but because
the available data is not readily usable for
strategic decision making.
 The data of an enterprise is spread across many
types of incompatible structures and systems.
 Data needed for strategic decision making must be
in a format suitable for analyzing trends.
 Opportunities
9

 In the case of a large health management

organization, significant improvements in health
care programs are realized, resulting in a 22%
decrease in emergency room visits, 29% decrease
in hospital admissions for asthmatic children,
potentially sight saving screenings for hundreds of
diabetics, improved vaccination rates, and more
than 100,000 performance reports created
annually for physicians and pharmacists.
 History of Decision-Support systems
10

 Ad Hoc Reports
 Special Extract Programs
 Small Applications
 Information Centers
 Decision-Support Systems
 Executive Information Systems
 History of Decision Support Systems
11
(Cont…)

Inadequate attempts by IT to provide strategic information.

 Technology Trends
12
 Operational Systems
13
 Decision Support Systems
14
 Operational vs. Information Systems
15
 A New Type System Environment
16

 Database designed for analytical tasks

 Data from multiple applications
 Easy to use and conducive to long interactive sessions by
users
 Read-intensive data usage
 Direct interaction with the system by the users without IT
assistance
 Content updated periodically and stable
 Content to include current and historical data
 Ability for users to run queries and get results online
 Ability for users to initiate reports
 Processing Requirements in the New
Environment
17

 Running of simple queries and reports against

current and historical data
 Ability to perform “what if ” analysis in many
different ways
 Ability to query, step back, analyze, and then
continue the process to any desired length
 Spot historical trends and apply them for future
results
 Data Warehouse Defined
18

The data warehouse is an informational environment

that
 Provides an integrated and total view of the enterprise

 Makes the enterprise’s current and historical information

easily available for decision making
 Makes decision-support transactions possible without
hindering operational systems
 Renders the organization’s information consistent

 Presents a flexible and interactive source of strategic

information
 Data Warehouse Defined (Cont…)
19

 The data warehouse exists to provide business users

with direct access to data,
 To provide a single unified version of the
performance indicators,
 To record the past accurately,
 And to provide the ability to view the data from
many different perspectives.
 Business Intelligence at Data
20
Warehouse
 Process of Data Warehousing
21

 Take all the data from the operational systems

 Where necessary, include relevant data from
outside, such as industry benchmark indicators
 Integrate all the data from the various sources
 Remove inconsistencies and transform the data
 Store the data in formats suitable for easy access
for decision making
 Basic Functions
22

 Data extraction,
 Transforming the data,
 Storing the data,
 And providing user interfaces.
 An Environment, Not a Product
23

 A data warehouse is not a single software or hardware

product you purchase to provide
strategic information.

 It is, rather, a computing environment where users can

find strategic information, an environment where users
are put directly in touch with the data they need
to make better decisions.

Fiaz Majeed (Department of IT, UOG)

 Blend of Technologies
24
 Blend of Technologies (Cont…)
25

 Although many technologies are in use, they all

work together in a data warehouse.
 The end result is the creation of a new computing
environment for the purpose of providing the
strategic information every enterprise needs
desperately.
 There are several vendor tools available in each of
these technologies. You do not have to build your
data warehouse from scratch.
 A Simple Concept…
26

 Data warehousing is really a simple concept:

 Take all the data you already have in the
organization,
 clean and transform it,
 and then provide useful strategic information.

 What could be simpler than that?

Fiaz Majeed (Department of IT, UOG)

 Summary
27

 Companies are desperate for strategic information to

counter fiercer competition, extend market share, and
improve profitability.
 In spite of tons of data accumulated by enterprises over
the past decades, every enterprise is caught in the
middle of an information crisis. Information needed for
strategic decision making is not readily available.
 All the past attempts by IT to provide strategic
information have been failures. This was mainly because
IT has been trying to provide strategic information from
operational systems.
 Summary (Cont…)
28

 Informational systems are different from the

traditional operational systems. Operational
systems are not designed for strategic information.
 We need a new type of computing environment to
provide strategic information.
 The data warehouse promises to be this new
computing environment.