Report:
Data
Warehousing
A
Quick Reminder:
By applying
the design process, infotex
helps our customers increase the value of information.
We do this by improving the way that information is collected, stored,
retrieved, and used. The result is
increased control, profits, and morale.
The
Demand:
With the proliferation of the Internet, comes the
explosion of available data. Meanwhile,
the average employee is becoming much more computer literate, and thus creating
more data. Office suites such as
Microsoft Office 2000 is making the creation of data easier.
Data in its
raw form has no value. Data that is
stored correctly is Information, and Information is Capital.
A
Key Strategic Asset
What do we mean by “stored correctly?”
Information collected in the routine operation of a business is now more
valuable to the business owner than to the IRS . . . ONLY if it is usable.
(Those boxes in your warehouse are not usable!)
For
information to be usable, it must be available and retrievable.
The typical office of thirty people has millions of sheets of paper filed
neatly in file cabinets. Though the
company has paid a high price--in clerical salaries, office floor space, and
file cabinets--to make this information available, it is useless, because it is
not easily retrieved in a usable format. How
often do you see your customer service representatives heading to the file
cabinet before calling a customer? Data
must be at our fingertips, or we won’t use it.
And
What is Data Warehousing?
To infotex,
a data warehouse is the result of focusing the design process on the way a
company stores data. A data warehouse is a system that allows users easy-access to
data.
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Information
is stored and retrieved digitally.
|
|
Reports
are easily customized and created instantly.
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Information
is delivered immediately. No
more waiting until next quarter for last quarter’s information.
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Data
is Integrated. Information
created in a wide variety of sources is available from one entry point.
Integrating data from Order Entry, Point of Sale, Shipping, Customer
Service, and Inventory gives the decision-maker a much more complete
perspective. Trends are
noticed. Decisions are based on
facts.
|
| The
storage of information is less costly, more secure, and easier on the eye!
Office space is dedicated to humans, not file cabinets.
Staff hired to process information can now use it! |
The
Cost of Storing Your Data:
A network
consultant may calculate that the cost of storing your data would include the
cost of a mirrored set of file server hard drives, adequate backup protection,
and a recordable CD-ROM drive.
The
design process reveals that the cost of storing data goes far beyond that.
A systemic look at the Information System, not just the computer network,
identifies many sources of wasteful spending in a typical office of 30
employees.
In
a typical office, the cost of storing data is far greater than the cost of the
file server’s hard drives.
Somebody’s
Knocking at the Door!
Of course, we can’t forget
about the intangible costs of not being able to USE that information.
Most companies are storing information on behalf of the IRS, not their
customers.
Work
for Yourself, not the IRS!
The good news is that when infotex
finishes a design process on your
Information Systems, we develop a data warehousing scheme that saves on
warehousing costs and increases the availability and retrievability of your
Information.
We turn data into
Information!
The way this often
materializes is with a planned component of your Information Technology plan
that calls for an imaging system, a systems development project for creating an
indexing system, and/or an Intranet design project.
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To learn more about infotex,
visit us at
www.infotex.ws,
or call us at (800) 466-9939.
Fax to (765) 236-2333!
infotex
. . . we make IT work!
(an affiliate of Bucheri McCarty & Metz LLP)
