A data warehouse is the repository of a company’s electronically stored data. It is designed to facilitate reporting and analyzing tasks. Apart from analyzing and reporting a data warehouse has the tools to extract, transform and load data, manage and retrieve Meta data.

You cannot purchase or install a data warehouse by yourself. Many times a data warehouse consultant is needed. For implementing a data warehouse, you will have to integrate the implementation of many products. Here are some steps of data warehouse implementation:

• Collecting and analyzing business requirements.

• Creating a data model, physical design and deciding the appropriate hardware platform for the data warehouse.

• Defining data sources.

• Choosing DBMS and software platform for the data warehouse.

• Steps like extracting the data from operational data sources, translating it, cleaning and loading it into the data warehouse model.

• Choosing the right database access and reporting tools.

• Finalizing the data analysis (OLAP) and presentation (client GUI) software’s.

• Periodic refreshing of the data warehouse.

Choosing Access Tools

Without SAS, no data warehouse vendor can provide a comprehensive single-window software tool that is capable of handling different aspects of data warehousing project implementation. SAS not only has its own database but also has the capability of importing data from any vendor DBMS software. Thus you can implement a data warehousing and mining solution individually with SAS.

While you are choosing the tools, the best way is to understand the capability and compatibility of available options for the type of access you want. Here is the type of access and reporting:

• Time series analysis.

• General statistical analysis.

• Data visualization, graphics, charting and pivoting.

• Ad-hoc user specific queries.

• Artificial intelligence features like identification and validation of data, trends discovery and more.

• Predefined repeatable queries.

• Text mining.

• Reporting the analysis by drilling down.

• Queries with multilevel sub-queries, multiple table forces and sophisticated search criteria.

When we talk of big organizations, there are chances of the user requirement exceeding the capability of available tools. If you are facing a similar problem, it is better to search for other tools in the market. There are ample options that will enable the ordinary user to make customized reports by composing and executing ad-hoc queries. You don’t need to have specific knowledge about the design details, technology, SQL or data model to work with these tools.

When you are getting a data warehouse for your organization, it is important to consider all these points for getting flawless results. Investing on a data warehouse  is not an easy thing therefore you have every right to pick and choose the options depending on the nature of your business and how much user friendly application you want. This is why the industry has seen a rise in data warehousing consulting due to the complex nature of the product and the implementation.

Tags: Data Warehouse Consultant, Data Warehouse Consultants, Data Warehouse Consulting

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