A Manager's Guide to Data Warehousing

Chapter 11. Data Delivery: What you Finally See

Data delivery is one of the most exciting parts of the entire DW project. You finally get to see the results of all the hard work. All of the input that went into gathering requirements and developing the data model fed into the construction of the database finally comes together. As soon as some sample data is loaded, the team can start building reports and screens where you can see the data. Excitement begins to build because the finished product is within sight. In many cases, this is what was "sold" as the data warehouse project result. Delivery of the data can take many different forms depending upon the job function and the need for data to support that work. In this chapter you will learn about the following:

• Business intelligence (BI)—what is it?

• The basic building blocks of a BI application

• Understanding different levels of use

• Building a BI application

• Planning for a successful launch

This chapter provides an introduction to these concepts but it is not intended to be a complete reference guide for BI. To get started, let's take a look at what BI is and how it can work.

What Is Business Intelligence?

Business intelligence is a broad all-encompassing term that is used to describe a wide variety of different types of data access. Business intelligence is the collection of one or more reports or analyses that provide insight into performance of a business organization. These reports and analyses are typically interactive to enable further ...