By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    data analytics in sports industry
    Here’s How Data Analytics In Sports Is Changing The Game
    6 Min Read
    data analytics on nursing career
    Advances in Data Analytics Are Rapidly Transforming Nursing
    8 Min Read
    data analytics reveals the benefits of MBA
    Data Analytics Technology Proves Benefits of an MBA
    9 Min Read
    data-driven image seo
    Data Analytics Helps Marketers Substantially Boost Image SEO
    8 Min Read
    construction analytics
    5 Benefits of Analytics to Manage Commercial Construction
    5 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Reinventing the BI Solution You Already Have – A Series of Unfortunate Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence Events #1
Share
Notification Show More
Latest News
data analytics in sports industry
Here’s How Data Analytics In Sports Is Changing The Game
Big Data
data analytics on nursing career
Advances in Data Analytics Are Rapidly Transforming Nursing
Analytics
data analytics reveals the benefits of MBA
Data Analytics Technology Proves Benefits of an MBA
Analytics
anti-spoofing tips
Anti-Spoofing is Crucial for Data-Driven Businesses
Security
ai in software development
3 AI-Based Strategies to Develop Software in Uncertain Times
Software
Aa
SmartData Collective
Aa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Big Data > Data Warehousing > Reinventing the BI Solution You Already Have – A Series of Unfortunate Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence Events #1
Business IntelligenceData Warehousing

Reinventing the BI Solution You Already Have – A Series of Unfortunate Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence Events #1

RickSherman
Last updated: 2010/06/16 at 5:27 PM
RickSherman
5 Min Read
SHARE

(This is part of our ongoing Series of Unfortunate Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence Events. Click for the complete series, so far.)

Series_unfortunate A fundamental flaw of many business intelligence solutions is recreating what the company is already using for reporting and analysis. This takes one of two paths:

1)    The data warehouse is built using essentially the source systems’ data model. It may be “cleaned up” with new names and use only a subset of the source data, but it is really just a retread of what you already have.

It does shift your reporting from the source systems to a DW, but you have not taken advantage of the advanced dimensional modeling techniques that have grown to provide superior analytic performance. An entity-relationship (ER) model or third normal form (3NF) is indeed best practice for transactional systems, but not for business intelligence or data integration. IT knows 3NF and hence figures that is what they should do; many experienced practitioners starting off using 3NF and they continue to do so.

More Read

internet of things and business intelligence

How IoT Can Be Connected to Business Intelligence

14 Brands Using Mobile Apps Instead of Ads to Build Customer Loyalty
5 Vital Business Intelligence Tips All Companies Should Embrace
Impressive Ways that AI Improves Business Analytics Insights
What Data Methods Can Businesses Invest In to Get Better Consumer Results?

The cost is longer development times and more labor-intensive maintenance. It also performs slower than best practice design, so …


(This is part of our ongoing Series of Unfortunate Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence Events. Click for the complete series, so far.)

Series_unfortunate A fundamental flaw of many business intelligence solutions is recreating what the company is already using for reporting and analysis. This takes one of two paths:

1)    The data warehouse is built using essentially the source systems’ data model. It may be “cleaned up” with new names and use only a subset of the source data, but it is really just a retread of what you already have.

It does shift your reporting from the source systems to a DW, but you have not taken advantage of the advanced dimensional modeling techniques that have grown to provide superior analytic performance. An entity-relationship (ER) model or third normal form (3NF) is indeed best practice for transactional systems, but not for business intelligence or data integration. IT knows 3NF and hence figures that is what they should do; many experienced practitioners starting off using 3NF and they continue to do so.

The cost is longer development times and more labor-intensive maintenance. It also performs slower than best practice design, so many companies compensate by buying more infrastructure such as CPUs, memory, storage and network bandwidth. If you sell or resell hardware then using this design is fine, but for the consumers of BI solutions you should try another way.

2)    The other end of the spectrum from 3NF is recreating your current reporting solutions, often data shadow systems or spreadmarts, that basically flatten out the data. It is easy to see why people recreate the spreadsheets the business people are using for reporting, but it leads to inflexible reports that require more and more reports to be built every time the business changes or expands their reporting requirements.

The fundamental concept behind dimensional modeling and OLAP (online analytical processing) design was to provide business people with the flexibility in their reporting and analysis. This is how a company can enable business self-service reporting rather than have a large group of BI developers designing, building and maintaining dozens or hundreds of custom reports.

Just as with 3NF the “flat world” approach to data mart design results in a much higher TCO and the huge queue of report development one sees at many BI implementations. Most assume that queue and costs come with the territory, but it does not have to be that way.

I will follow up with more unfortunate events I have observed. Feel free to e-mail with the unfortunate events you have seen.
Link to original post

TAGGED: business intelligence, data warehousing
RickSherman June 16, 2010
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

data analytics in sports industry
Here’s How Data Analytics In Sports Is Changing The Game
Big Data
data analytics on nursing career
Advances in Data Analytics Are Rapidly Transforming Nursing
Analytics
data analytics reveals the benefits of MBA
Data Analytics Technology Proves Benefits of an MBA
Analytics
anti-spoofing tips
Anti-Spoofing is Crucial for Data-Driven Businesses
Security

Stay Connected

1.2k Followers Like
33.7k Followers Follow
222 Followers Pin

You Might also Like

internet of things and business intelligence
Internet of Things

How IoT Can Be Connected to Business Intelligence

6 Min Read
businesses using mobiles app for success
Big Data

14 Brands Using Mobile Apps Instead of Ads to Build Customer Loyalty

19 Min Read
tips for making the most of business intelligence
Business Intelligence

5 Vital Business Intelligence Tips All Companies Should Embrace

7 Min Read
ai is beneficial for making sounds business analytics insights
Analytics

Impressive Ways that AI Improves Business Analytics Insights

5 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

AI and chatbots
Chatbots and SEO: How Can Chatbots Improve Your SEO Ranking?
Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Exclusive
ai in ecommerce
Artificial Intelligence for eCommerce: A Closer Look
Artificial Intelligence

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US

© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?