Growth Aided by Data Warehousing Adaptability of data warehousing to changes

Using existing data effectively can lead to growth

Uses of data warehouses for Public Service

Getting investment through data warehouse

Using Data Warehouse for Business Information

Ongoing changes in Data Warehousing

The Origin of Data Warehousing and its current importance

Relationship between new operating system and data warehousing

Developing Organizations through Data Warehousing

Telephone and Data Warehousing

Choose your own partner

Data Warehousing for Societal Causes

Updating inaccessible data

Data warehousing for investors

Usefulness of Data warehouses for fashion industry

Section7 -- Conclusion

Data Warehouses must expand to meet user needs

Costs of IT projects

Developing Software

Usefulness of Data mining

Business Information from Data Warehousing

Business Information is a step beyond Data Warehouse

Development of Data Warehousing into management tools

Data warehousing for e-business

Section8 -- Bibliography

Section9 -- Personal Evaluation

DATA WAREHOUSE: A STRATEGIC WEAPON OF AN ORGANIZATION

ABSTRACT

This is a summary of the business of data warehousing to day. We have highlighted the meaning of the term "data warehouse." Then the discussion has been on the different aspects of data warehouse including the differences between the uses of data in the operation of data in business. A few very recent instances where data warehouses have been used successfully have then been given. These cases have shown that data warehouses are used by practically every type of business - including hardcore engineering, banks, consumer soft like apparels and outdoor gear, consumer services like Airlines and telephones, public service industries like cancer research organizations, for the collection of investment by better projection of the organization to potential investors, etc. One of the great qualities of data warehousing in that it makes accessible data of the company in forms that are no longer used in the company can be brought back to life with this technique. Of course, like any other business tool this is not magic and cannot solve all possible problems of the organization.

After this the problems faced by organizations with data warehouses have been dealt. The major difficulty that has been noticed is that data warehouses are often under- budgeted and this results in the requirement of rapid expansion. This is expensive, but essential, as most organizations after implementation or revamping of data warehousing projects have had an overflow of users. Many of them are new users and try to use the resource in such a manner that it requires too much of computer time and other resources to answer their queries. This however should be seen as a positive feedback on the use of data warehouses rather than a failure. Some new techniques have also come up in the profession that allows other uses of the data warehouse. These uses are mainly for business applications. All this is only an indication that the use of data warehouses is still an important and useful technique for most businesses. It is also a relatively recent technique, and may develop further in the years to come.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Data Warehousing is one of the newest tools that have been made available to business. This was impossible in the paper information storage days. Then the information could have been available in the various files in different places, but it was difficult for the data to be retrieved and analyzed. Limitations of the medium and the human mind came into play. Today, the data is stored in electronic bits, which are consolidated into "bytes." This data can freely be transported over wire, over previously unthinkable distances. This has resulted in data being available to everybody, who wants it. The speed of the collection of data is also fantastic and easily available on the telephone, over the Internet.

A little more than ten years have passed since this was first started. At that time, the main component of the data revolution, the computer was much more primitive than they are today. This was in terms of processing speed, storage capacities, and data transfers - almost everything. The Internet was also in its infancy and the concept began more as an experiment than a serious attempt to modify the way of doing business. Today, it has become much more important to business and many businesses are being affected and others infected. Many have succeeded in using these tools to improve the quality of...

This has affected all areas of business including the holiest cow of decision-making. Profits and competitiveness are being affected and businesses are using this new tool for their survival and development. We have made a study of this in many cases. These will be dealt with in the discussion about results.
One must remember and continue to remember that the existence of this tool is development of the new age information technology. This has gone ahead at incredible speeds. About ten years back, the random access memory of a standard PC or personal computer was 4, 8, or 16 MB or million bytes. Today, the memory is in the range of 256, 512 or 1024 MB. This is a jump of 64 times. The processor speeds have increased from around 500 MHZ or million cycles about three years back to nearly 2,400 MHZ today. The hard disk memory has increased by a similar amount of 4 times. It is said that computer components are getting outdated in less than a year. The other part of data warehousing is the speed of transfer of data. This is dependent on the communication links and basically the telephone links. These also have been developing at a very rapid rate, due to the improvement in links through the satellites and undersea cables. Technological developments in the production of cables and transfers of information technology have empowered similar sized cables to carry much more data.

The financial support for this expansion is coming not only from the U.S. But from all over the world. Often the data can be transferred from one point to another point through a number of routes, and it is first decided how the data would be transferred depending on which links are available free. The Internet has developed from a military technology to an every home tool. The customer is using these tools to make decisions on his purchases and thus the role and affectivity of the sales man has gone down to the point where he now redundant in many businesses. On the business side, these tools had pushed up the effective use of data warehousing, but new forms are beginning to emerge. These are right now a quantitative change, but may soon develop further and take us to a stage where the concept of data warehousing it self may change. These are dealt with in our section on The Problems to be Answered and Possible Solutions. The results are the findings with reference to the targets that we have set up for ourselves in this section.

LITERATURE REVIEW

It has become very popular among organizations that are trying to get their hands on information fast and quick to implement data warehousing. (Adhikari, 1996;Kador, 1995). The term 'Data Warehousing" was first framed by William Inmon in 1990 (Hackthorn, 1995;Kador, 1995) and since then most of the IS managers and vendors have found it attractive. (Francett, 1994; Parsons, 1995). A survey conducted by the Meta Group stated that nearly 95% of the two hundred and fifty companies who were contacted planned to introduce or use date warehousing during the forth-coming year. Considering that only the previous year only 15% people used this it was a spectacular change. (Bull, 1995b).

Another survey conducted by the Forest Research Inc., that nearly 96 of the senior IS managers at these Fortune 1000 firms who were surveyed had intentions of using data warehouses. Out of which nearly 60% had expectations that data warehousing would improve and would increase the overall access to the corporate data. And 32% felt that date warehousing was a way to broaden their corporate strategies and also to increase their business process, along with an improvement in customer support and also enabling individuals to be acquainted with new prospects coming their way. (Adhikari, 1996). Furthermore many vendors when they realized this decided to manufacture software, hardware and tools in order to be able the functions related to data warehousing more effectively, thus tying to bring an increase in their profit. (Francett, 1994; Parsons, 1995,). A study by the Meta Group stated that data warehousing is expected to grow to nearly eight million dollars by 1998. (Barney, 1995). Though people have shown an interest in data warehousing not much academic research has been conducted or published.

The basic advantage of using data warehousing is said to be the fact that it is very 'simple'. This concept is said to be simple because it one outlook of the business on the whole by the assimilation of data. Data warehousing helps in creating the legacy or inheritance system to continue maneuvers in merging data from various legacy systems. This is intended to form one rational conclusion and to also gain benefits from important information regarding the current operation of the organization. (Hackathorn,1995;Wallace,1994a). These current operations can also be contrasted and evaluated in terms of the old…