-- Martha Rogers, Ph.D. Over the last ten years the strategic use of detailed data has changed the face of business. This change was made possible through the use of data warehouses, which are now widely accepted for their role in the delivery of decision-support and business-intelligence applications. Todays data warehouses are the critical hubs of such burgeoning strategic initiatives as e-commerce, knowledge management, database marketing, and customer relationship management. Given this, a working knowledge of the fundamentals of data warehousing is essential for todays executives, managers, and other professionals who must maximize the power of data warehousing in both existing business contexts and future strategic initiatives. Written especially for these business professionals, Turning Data into Information with Data Warehousing covers data warehousing and its surrounding technologies in a straightforward and engaging way, illustrating how companies are leveraging their data warehouses to serve a wide range of business needs. This book clearly lays out what business people should know about data warehouse implementation and the best techniques for evaluating and jus
The concept of data warehousing can be very hard to grasp at first--especially if you're not a database person. In
e-Data: Turning Data into Information with Data Warehousing, author and data warehousing expert Jill Dyché offers the big picture of data warehousing in an informative and comfortable read.
Although the title may spark notions of an Internet-specific topic, the author's term "e-data" isn't a Net-related notion at all. By e-data, she means any data that has been refined and stored in a data warehouse, whether Internet-related or not. She explains the basic concepts behind data warehousing and decision support systems in refreshingly plain English and provides real-world case study summaries of well-known corporations such as Hallmark and Bank of America, as well as the applications of data warehousing by industry segment.
Some of the technologies that make data warehousing possible are discussed, but the book is primarily targeted at managers and executives who are responsible for implementing successful marketing and data management strategies. The discussion is lifted above the technical details of how data warehousing takes place to examine why your organization should consider the approach.
There is plenty of focus on the daunting task of implementing a data warehouse, and the author provides many tips for selecting the proper consultants, technologies, and staff to do the job. This text is a great real-world introduction to the sphere of data warehousing. --Stephen W. Plain
Topics covered: Data warehouses, decision support systems, data mining, target marketing, cross-selling, sales analysis, industry applications, database tools, vendor selection, project planning, and pitfalls.
