Data Warehouse

The data warehouse can take many forms these days, from the enterprise-wide scope, through to a line-of-business scope to a functional-area scope. While what can be achieved from these different types of data warehouse from a business perspective will vary, the underlying concepts that should be put in place are similar.

We have developed a data warehouse architecture that can encompass each of these types, and which can be tailored to address the business requirements of the day, while being flexible enough to evolve to accommodate tomorrow’s requirements. Another feature of this architecture is that it accommodates the increasing demands for the data warehouse to service multiple purposes in order to provide pay-back for the investment being made.

During the implementation of numerous data warehouses over the years, we have established, and continue to refine, a methodology that can be tailored to suit your environment. This ranges from the associated analysis, designs, builds and implementations around the source data extracts, the conforming and transformation rules that need to be applied, and the load processes.

In addition, we place a heavy emphasis on metadata and reconciliations. On too many occasions, we have come into a site to be confronted with an environment that has not achieved expectations because the business don’t know what data is being held, or they do not have confidence that the data is a true reflection of their business.

Health Check

One of the offerings that we provide which covers each of the services is a Health Check. This may be provided as a one-off, or a periodic health-check of an organisation’s data warehouse or reporting environment. These services range from a review of the high-level strategy, the business benefits being achieved, through to examining the data warehouse operational support.

The Health-Check Report provides an insight into the overall condition of the data warehouse. Areas of risk are highlighted, and recommendations presented. Potential opportunities are also identified for the strategic direction of the data warehouse.