Sunday, November 7, 2010

Different Functions And Advantages Of Data Warehousing

By Andy Steer

Data warehousing can simply be defined as the collecting process of the organization's information to the data warehouse. A data warehouse has multiple uses and multiple benefits. Data is normally stored in this warehouse in a manner that facilitates the easy retrieval and analysis of the data.

The most proclaimed advantage of the warehousing process is the simplification it offers to the process of retrieval and reporting of data. In this process, data is assembled together at a central point rather than in multiple locations. A person with a particular need for a type of data related to any part of the organization will obtain the data from the warehouse. This warehouse carries diverse information. In a business concern, the information in a warehouse will include accounting information like sales reports and purchase reports, marketing information contained in marketing reports among other types of information.

The process of data assembly and warehousing functions independently from the operating systems. At any moment during the collection and retrieval of data, the operating system's performance will not be slowed down in any manner. These warehouses work independently from operating systems but they boast the functioning of the operating system.

The production of reports is one activity of operational systems supported by these warehouses. In production of reports, budget figures and figures of actual performance stored in the warehouse are normally retrieved for the purposes of preparing comprehensive reports. Exceptional reports and trend reports are some of the reports prepared by most business concerns. The functioning of CRM (Customer Relationship management) systems in business organizations is normally supported by these warehouses.

Another benefit of warehousing process is that the information in the warehouse is read only; therefore it cannot be modified making it stable over a period of time. However, one can download the reports from this warehouse and transfer it to a program like Microsoft Excel, from where it can be formatted. To download reports from the warehouse, one has first to bring the data to the screen using a query tool. After bringing the data to the screen, it can be exported to Microsoft Excel from where it can be manipulated. To create a custom report, one may need to combine the downloaded report exported to Microsoft Excel with other personal data and information in one's computer.

The process of preparation of custom and non custom reports will be greatly enhanced by this warehouse. When preparing custom reports, one may need advice and help from staff with expert knowledge of the warehousing activity. This staff is to be found in different organizations which deal with large volumes of data.

If the preparation of a custom report requires data with significantly high number of rows, following some guidelines will make the whole process of downloading the data easy. The response time after requesting for a particular set of data from the warehouse no matter the size of the data is usually fast. The data warehouse takes a few simple minutes to respond to any request for data.

Data warehousing has multiple benefits and multiple uses. The major benefit of the activity of warehousing of data is that it simplifies the process of data reporting, retrieval and analysis. A data warehouse is normally used to prepare custom reports.

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