To citizen and government agencies alike, data warehouses offer the tantalizing prospect of providing instantaneous, fingertip access to information that has been electronically converted and stored. Once that infrastructure is built, the next logical step is how to effectively use the information you've collected. When you build a data warehouse, you can do a lot of things with it. In a recent report, Eckerson noted that the hallmark of a successful electronic enterprise, in government or out, will be the ability of implementers to bring information directly and individually to users, while linking internal systems to those of suppliers, distributors and other necessary parties. These companies will integrate e-commerce and business intelligence capabilities to optimize customer interactions through both online and offline channels, and speed the flow of information and products across an extended supply chain.
Data warehousing is more than creating a simple repository of information, however.
Given steady, sometimes spectacular technological advance, electronic storage is perhaps the simplest task confronting warehousing designers. Much more difficult are the tasks of data standardization, mining, analysis and leveraging. Planning and care must be taken as the information in hard-copy documents is either typed or scanned, and existing electronic archives are transferred to a single data repository. Start small and grow. Bite off more than you can chew, and you won't be able to achieve the results you want and need.