We must make sure that there is value added to our organization in all
that we do, so how do we accomplish that with data warehouses and the
Internet?
The data warehouse provides value by storing transformed data that can
be mined for new knowledge. For example, if an analysis at a bank mined
the data and found that there were two common trends that occurred
before someone declared bankruptcy - a wild change in buying pattern
amounts and changes in payment patterns - then that might help them
identify potential problems.
Do you think that would add value to the bank? Of course! The issue
then becomes how that information is shared across the organization, and
what happens if it isn't.
A non-deterministic, generic formula
The Value of Data Warehouse = Quality of Knowledge times
Organizational Reach
provides some insight on what needs to be accomplished to have a valued
data warehouse.
The quality of knowledge is determined by how the knowledge can be used
to provide value to the organization. If you determine a new trend that
can be used to increase the value of your organization, then this is a
good thing. Taking the same bank example, what if a new piece of
knowledge was found - large (in terms of money and quantity) purchases
of clothes occur right before bankruptcy is declared. Would that be good
information for many people to know? You bet!
What is more important is how many people can gain access to that
knowledge and how fast that knowledge can be placed into production
systems as a new business rule.
The Internet provides the organizational reach. The Internet and portal
software provides a strong mechanism to share knowledge with the people
within your organization. Again, if a new trend is discovered, but only
the one who "discovered" it knows of it, what value is it? And if there
is no sharing of this knowledge, then what good is a data warehouse? It
certainly lessens.
As always, we must make sure that this new knowledge is true before
making it widely known, but once it has been determined to be true, then
we need to have a way to provide that new knowledge to every one in the
organization that needs it. That is how the data warehouse and the
Internet can provide tremendous value to your organization.
