Data Warehousing Fundamentals for IT Professionals

CHAPTER 1

THE COMPELLING NEED FOR DATA WAREHOUSING

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

• Understand the desperate need for strategic information
• Recognize the information crisis at every enterprise
• Distinguish between operational and informational systems
• Learn why all past attempts to provide strategic information failed
• Clearly see why data warehousing is the viable solution
• Understand business intelligence for an enterprise

As an information technology (IT) professional, you have worked on computer applications as an analyst, programmer, designer, developer, database administrator, or project manager. You have been involved in the design, implementation, and maintenance of systems that support day-to-day business operations. Depending on the industries you have worked in, you must have been involved in applications such as order processing, general ledger, inventory, human resources, payroll, in-patient billing, checking accounts, insurance claims, and so on.

These applications are important systems that run businesses. They process orders, maintain inventory, keep the accounting books, service the clients, receive payments, and process claims. Without these computer systems, no modern business can survive. Companies started building and using these systems in the 1960s and have become completely dependent on them. As an enterprise grows larger, hundreds of computer applications are needed to support the various business processes. These applications are effective in what they are designed to ...