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Enterprise Data Warehousing Services |
Welcome to the hub of Capstone's Enterprise Data Warehousing services. Capstone's BI and data architects
are standing by to help you with one of the most important part of your business intelligence application —
the data. For many companies, data is little more than a liability. The department that makes widgets does
it pretty well. The department that sells them is top notch. Delivery happens. R&D works. You have
effective marketing. But even though this is all true, margins are still narrowing and competition is increasingly
fierce. This is a sign of the times; the change-motivating reality of the 21st century.
And on top of that, a whole new breed of complex questions has begun to surface in executive management
meetings:
- How do we identify projects that are likely to go nowhere and stop investing in them earlier?
- What if we focused more on this geography or demographic?
- What if we combined these two marketing campaigns in a different channel?
- How can I correlate research, manufacturing and marketing costs?
- What's the return on my investment for this set of research trials or that sales expense?
Even with sophisticated ERP, CRM, or other systems in place (which promised magic answers to every
conceivable question), these challenges are still real. As great as these systems are, they still have
not stopped the onslaught of a shrinking world and a globalizing economy. The truth is that these systems —
along with countless other less-mainstream, less-monolithic others — each contain their own special brand of
(incredibly necessary and useful) knowledge. But you're moving beyond the point where this works. Answering
your latest questions, overcoming your newest challenges, requires the sharing and combination of this
information in an analytical environment.
Your proprietary corporate information is one of your most valuable strategic assets. Behind your people,
what's more important than your information — from intellectual property to undiscovered actionable trends
in your order fulfillment data? The data warehouse is a very important tool for collecting, combining and
correlating your corporate data using methods and in an environment optimized for online analytic processing
(abbreviated "OLAP").
Why OLAP?
You want to know what your data has to tell you. If new competitive advantages are in there just waiting to be
discovered, wouldn't you like to know? Or, if you could learn things from the past to guide decision making
into the future, wouldn't that be valuable? OLAP is how you accomplish these things, and a data warehouse
is how you accomplish OLAP.
What is an Enterprise Data Warehouse?
Great question. There is a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation out there about what data warehouses
really are. Some think that if you just make a copy of your operational systems' data so that you can run
reports without impacting the production of your CRM, then you have a data warehouse. Not so. Others think
that if your data is running on a beefy enough server/appliance to allow you to run relatively fast queries
which combine multiple data sources, then you're set. Not really. Still others think that an installation of
SharePoint or two will magically get you OLAP, or at least data "cubes" you can use to build it, so you're done.
That's dangerous thinking. Lastly, some assume that a data warehouse, by definition, is so monolithic or
idealistic that it's unachievable and unreasonably expensive. It doesn't have to be that way!
A data warehouse is a very specialized data repository. In order to reach your organization's potential and
fulfill your (likely very lofty) goals, it must be build methodically, according to industry standards and best
practices that exist for a reason. How will your data be governed? What data is created by your organization's
key business processes? What information in your organization is "bedrock" data that rarely changes, and what
is changing all the time? How will you agree on key definitions, on terms like "customer" or "product"? Who
creates unique identifiers and how do you ensure that they are globally unique and authoritative?
To be effective, data warehousing has to address all these things, not just be a great big database. Capstone
understands the
people, plan, process, data, and technology
required to build the right data warehouse for your
unique organization. From governance to architecture, tool selection to security, let Capstone bring our
skills and experience in-house at your business to maximize your return on your investment in your data.
If you want to unleash the power of your data, Capstone can help you. Our enterprise data warehousing
services are broad and deep. Let us put together the right engagement to meet your needs:
- Data Strategy. Understand the costs and benefits of BI. Capstone can help you put
together the business case and value statement for your initiative. Align your IT investment with your
organization's key performance indicators, and build strategic goals and KPI's for your BI/DW initiative.
- Data Governance. Organize your people and create the processes necessary to effectively
govern your data. Through developing effective governance, you will address key topics such as access rights,
data ownership, security, data stewardship, and much more.
- Data Modeling. Dimensionally modeling your data prepares it for the unique requirements
of data analysis, including trend analysis, predictive analytics, statistical modeling, etc. Understanding
the differences between the dimensional model and operationally-focused normalized models is key to building
a successful data warehouse.
- Data Mining. Deeply examine your data, looking for trends and statistical anomalies.
Ask it questions about your business. Who knows what kind of buried treasures exist there.
- Identify Information Needs. Interview staff, observe user behavior, assess status of
current systems and initiatives, and identify needs going forward. Capstone will document these
ideas, producing a manageable, realistic plan for achieving your goals. Learn more about
Capstone's
assessment service offerings.
- Tool Selection. Understanding your unique needs for BI, Capstone will help you compare
and contrast and ultimately select the right tools to help you build your data warehouse.
- Design and Build the Data Warehouse. Setup a data warehousing initiative, identify core
"bedrock" data, gather requirements, and begin building your data warehousing solution.
Capstone can manage the program or mentor your staff to take the reigns when they're ready.
Maintain the Data Warehouse. Capstone understands that most companies want to focus their
limited IT resources on innovation and moving forward. Capstone can
offload maintenance and support responsibilities
to make your team more productive.- And much more. Contact us to setup
a brief, no-obligation conversation with one of Capstone's principal consultants.
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