Benefits Of Data Warehousing
A data warehouse is a repository of an organizations data that is stored electronically. Data warehouses are characterized by standardized, clean, consistent and integrated data. The data may originate from different parts of the organization and the inputs may be in different forms, but they are organized and structured in a meaningful and standardized format to address the specific reporting and analytic requirements of the company.
The term data warehouse may signify storage of data. But data warehousing systems also have the capability to analyze, extract, transform and load data. There are several reasons why it makes sense for businesses to invest in a data warehousing system. This article discusses a few benefits that accrue to companies by having a data warehouse in place to effectively manage their data.
Data Warehousing helps decision-making.
Perhaps the most important benefit of using a data warehouse is to store and present information in such a way that business executives can retrieve it at the right time to make important decisions. Data warehouses help executives look at the organization as a whole rather than as departments.
Information from multiple sources can be analyzed effectively through data warehouses.
One of the biggest benefits of Data warehousing is that business decisions can be made by analyzing data from multiple sources. An organization may have collected valuable data and they may be stored in twenty different databases in different forms. Using a data warehouse, these data can not only be analyzed and compared but executives can also get historical data and perspective. While data warehousing fulfils all the data management requirements, an additional benefit is the historical perspective it provides. Data warehouses can be used to look at past trends of sales or customer information and can be used to predict a trend for the future.
Data warehouses accept application neutral data.
If data warehouses were not capable of receiving application neutral data they would be nothing but a group of data marts. Data that is retrieved from multiple databases is not constrained by the database tables. The data from the financial or sales system is sent to the data warehouse to be processed as application neutral data. The data from the financial system may be queried by the sales database and vice versa.
Improve productivity by using the data right.
Often, organizations see data warehouses as an expense that may be done away with. It is indeed an expense, but the value of data warehouses come from how the data stored in it is used by business analysts and executives. If a company is aiming at low costs, data warehousing may help support the strategy by tightening the grip on fraud losses, reducing the cost of reporting and providing savings in billing.
Most companies can reap huge rewards from data warehousing by having proper training imparted to users of the system and by having the right procedures in place. When the analysts who use the system are well trained, the data is used more effectively.
The term data warehouse may signify storage of data. But data warehousing systems also have the capability to analyze, extract, transform and load data. There are several reasons why it makes sense for businesses to invest in a data warehousing system. This article discusses a few benefits that accrue to companies by having a data warehouse in place to effectively manage their data.
Data Warehousing helps decision-making.
Perhaps the most important benefit of using a data warehouse is to store and present information in such a way that business executives can retrieve it at the right time to make important decisions. Data warehouses help executives look at the organization as a whole rather than as departments.
Information from multiple sources can be analyzed effectively through data warehouses.
One of the biggest benefits of Data warehousing is that business decisions can be made by analyzing data from multiple sources. An organization may have collected valuable data and they may be stored in twenty different databases in different forms. Using a data warehouse, these data can not only be analyzed and compared but executives can also get historical data and perspective. While data warehousing fulfils all the data management requirements, an additional benefit is the historical perspective it provides. Data warehouses can be used to look at past trends of sales or customer information and can be used to predict a trend for the future.
Data warehouses accept application neutral data.
If data warehouses were not capable of receiving application neutral data they would be nothing but a group of data marts. Data that is retrieved from multiple databases is not constrained by the database tables. The data from the financial or sales system is sent to the data warehouse to be processed as application neutral data. The data from the financial system may be queried by the sales database and vice versa.
Improve productivity by using the data right.
Often, organizations see data warehouses as an expense that may be done away with. It is indeed an expense, but the value of data warehouses come from how the data stored in it is used by business analysts and executives. If a company is aiming at low costs, data warehousing may help support the strategy by tightening the grip on fraud losses, reducing the cost of reporting and providing savings in billing.
Most companies can reap huge rewards from data warehousing by having proper training imparted to users of the system and by having the right procedures in place. When the analysts who use the system are well trained, the data is used more effectively.
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