What Are the Benefits of a Data Warehouse for Business Intelligence?
What is a Data Warehouse?
Data Warehouse (DW) is the process of gathering data from different sources and managing it for purposes of informing business decisions. In a data warehouse, businesses typically connect and analyze various sources of business data. Data warehouse services is a core part of a business intelligence system which enables report generation and data analysis.
Data management involves a blend of technologies and components that enable data to be used strategically. The process of storing large amounts of information electronically by a company is designed for query and analysis rather than transactionally. The process involves transforming data into information and making it available to users in a timely manner to enable them to take action.
It is highly important for organizations to have high-quality information on hand when making decisions. It is common practice in today’s hypercompetitive business environment to require agile access to a data storage warehouse that is arranged in such a way as to produce fast, accurate, and relevant insights.
Nowadays, Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing are closely linked to organizational decision-making. Businesses — big and small — can take swift, tactical, and outcome-driven decisions through large-scale data analytics based on knowledge workers (Senior Executives, data owners, and analysts). There is no longer a need for DBMS systems for storing, assimilation, processing and retrieving information.
In order to ensure customer-centric business operations, data from multiple sources is currently required to be processed concurrently, and immediate results need to be presented and worked upon. Companies in vertical industries such as and government organizations, healthcare providers, BFSI, utilities, and utilities, etc., are leveraging Data Warehousing to remain competitive.
Types of Data Warehouse
Data Warehouses (DWH) are classified into three types:
1. Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW):
EDW (Enterprise Data Warehouse) is a centralized warehouse. Enterprise-wide decision support services are provided by the company. It provides a unified approach to organizing and Data representation. Likewise, the system provides the option for classifying data by subject and making it accessible based on those divisions.
2. Operational Data Store:
Operational Data Stores, or ODS, are nothing more than data stores required when neither Data Warehouses nor OLTP systems meet an organization’s reporting needs. Data warehouses are refreshed in real time in ODS. Thus, it is widely used for routine activities such as storing employee records.
3. Data Mart:
Data marts are subsets of data warehouses. Specifically designed for one area of business, such as sales or finance. The data can be collected directly from sources in an independent data mart.
Concepts of Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence
Data warehousing and Business Intelligence often go hand-in-hand because BI tools make use of the data provided by DWs. BI tools such as Tableau, Qlik, Power BI, etc., use data from the DWs for purposes such as data mining, analytics, and reporting.
BI services are integral to the smooth and cost-effective functioning of any organization. By providing operational efficiency and tracking KPIs, systems reporting, risk management, logistics, costing, etc., BI is helpful in all aspects of operations. In addition, it assists with customer interaction, such as sales forecasting, segmentation, and sales analysis, as well as customer profitability campaign planning.
If a user needs data related to the query — when did an order ship? Which products were sold this month? And so on. OLTP is used to access the traditional database. This type of data retrieval is used whenever you require information to answer a direct question.
Therefore, if you want data on more holistic and subjective queries such as the contribution of each product line to gross profits, factors affecting order processing times, and more, DWs are used.
Companies should know that DWs aggregate data store and use processes which is the answer to the questions mentioned above. BI tools require such data from DWs. OLAP is used to analyze the data. OLAP and DW are quite different from the old decision-making applications that rely on OLTP. Hence, virtually all of the companies these days use OLAP and data warehouses.
BI Platforms and data warehouses — how do they work together?
Data warehouses store data, while BI platforms analyze it. Businesses can achieve significant benefits from BI when these two systems can work seamlessly together.
BI tools fulfill the “data analysis” stage of Business Intelligence, but their name comes from the fact that they are the culmination of data wrangling and data storage.
To begin with, BI tools integrate with many different sources, including data warehouses. They then offer an easy way to query data to extract information and discover trends. In addition, they enable users to visualize and share their data using dashboards and reports.
These three steps, developed on top of a strong DW foundation, will enable companies to implement BI more effectively by providing everyone within the organization with the ability to understand and act on data.
An overview of the current situation of business intelligence and data warehousing
Technological advancements are constantly occurring, and alternatives to data warehousing have also appeared. Data lakes, ELT, and automated data warehouses support swift data analysis and processing.
Data lakes and technologies like Hadoop use ELT, a more flexible approach. Our Business Intelligence software, when it calls for data, uses the data lakes and then transforms it to conduct analysis. However, organizations still need data warehouse consulting services for analysis, which require structured and processed data.
Conclusion
As such, data warehousing and business intelligence are two of the key elements to a company’s survival. It provides information on key elements like ERP, CRM, products, supply chain, and customers.
Information on the present situation of organizations and information on the current state of the business are provided by BI and DW technologies, enabling the organization to take the necessary steps and make the best possible decisions for growth.
