Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
the data warehouse support team, but the primary emphasis must be from
business management.
Several things can be done to help encourage use of the data warehouse,
including the following:
Communicate when and how the data warehouse was used to address
specific business situations that have come up. Highlight situations where
the use went beyond creating a new report to performing an analysis that
yielded new insight.
Openly share situations in which executives and senior management
have tapped into and benefited from the results of the data warehouse.
If an executive dashboard has been built, then make the effort to use it
yourself. This sends a clear message that it is important.
Reward those who are using the data warehouse environment for their
work. Take it a step further by providing incentives to those who actively
participate in ways that make it better. People can be rewarded for
identifying enhancements, developing business processes that utilize the
data warehouse, or improving data quality.
In addition to the business support, the data warehouse manager can also
sponsor a variety of activities to encourage use of the data warehouse:
Create interest groups that communicate regularly and meet periodically.
These can be business users who want to create maps from the output
of their analyses, people who want to learn more about the BI tool, or a
group of IT developers who want to swap techniques for dealing with
changes in the source systems. These can be started using a social network
such as Facebook, and then the groups can meet in person.
Offer ''Lunch and Learn'' sessions to offer informal education on specific
topics. Interested staff can bring their lunch to a conference room to learn
about new reports that are available, how to use specific parts of the
data, how to interact with reports, and how to perform more advanced
analyses. Offer a range of sessions and topics, from introductory through
advanced, including some with a strong business focus and others that
provide in-depth technical content. Once this format is established, the
participants can determine what topics are needed.
Create short articles and notices that can be placed on the organization's
intranet and company or departmental newsletters. This is an extension
of the marketing that is done to launch the data warehouse. Additional
marketing efforts are needed to let others in the organization know how
the data warehouse is being used.
Encouraging or requiring use of the data warehouse/BI application must
come from business management. No matter how desperately the IT people
