Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
how wonderful their products are and how much success their other clients
are having. You can find dozens of articles that make it seem like the entire
world has figured out how to develop an effective warehouse. This can be
intimidating and make others feel behind the times. The truth is that even
the most successful organizations face problems with their data warehouses.
Those that are able to address their problems and overcome challenges are
the organizations that are seeing the biggest results. Based upon years of
experience and the opportunity to interact with many different organizations,
I can tell you that you are definitely not alone!
Answer
It is useful to be able to put things in the right perspective. This can be
done through conversations with peers in other organizations and networking
through industry interest groups. Now that the data warehousing industry
has really come of age, many resources are available to you. Seek out industry
groups with a focus on data warehousing or related topics. There are many
IT associations that have data warehouse or business intelligence subgroups.
The Data Warehousing Institute offers major conferences, seminars, and local
chapters. Any of these provide the opportunity to meet people with similar
issues on their mind.
There is also a great deal of interest from business groups to learn more
about and discuss data warehousing. Explore business industry groups and
ask colleagues for their ideas. Check out social networking sites such as
LinkedIn. If you don't find a group, take the initiative and start one. There are
probably dozens of people who are just as interested in these topics — it only
takes one person to get something started.
There are also opportunities to meet and exchange ideas with others at
product vendor user conferences. These groups have general concerns and can
be engaged in dialogue about topics that are specific to the technology that
you are using.
You are not alone. The good news is that there are often proven techniques
to address the specific challenges facing your data warehouse. You just need
to reach out to find these proven methods.
Question: Will I get one version of the truth?
How many meetings have you sat in on and looked at a profit number on
four reports that were all different? Often, data is pulled from many different
systems, by different people, using different criteria. This results in reports
that provide different and possibly conflicting data. Too much time is spent
