Data Warehousing For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 8. An Intelligent Look at Business Intelligence

In This Chapter

• Understanding the different kinds of business intelligence

• Using business intelligence in data warehousing

In Chapters 5 and 6, I discuss the various types of database management systems (DBMSs) that are suitable for data warehousing. In the early days of data warehousing, controversy swirled around what type of DBMS to use — the focus was very technical, not solution-oriented. At times, the controversy stemmed from the lack of understanding of a new technology form and the immaturity of data warehousing architectures.

It is now understood that you can make the generalization that you create a data warehouse for the purposes of business intelligence. One variety of business intelligence includes query, reporting, and OLAP functionality.

Warning

If you build a data warehouse without clearly understanding what types of business intelligence your organization needs, you're almost certain to build and put into use something that doesn't even come close to providing the business value you're seeking, regardless of how error-free your data, how sophisticated your user tools, and how wonderful your environment's performance.

This chapter helps you make sense of the business intelligence quandary. (Note: Much of the information in this chapter is explored in-depth in the other chapters in this part of the book. This chapter, however, provides a place where you can skim through the descriptions of each of these categories to ...