ISAS - Strategic Business Systems Group

Data Warehouses

and

Business Information Quality

John Shelton

Strategic Business Systems Group Manager

Presentation Objectives

• Roles of the operational databases vs data warehouse within the organisation

• Low quality MIS vs high quality MIS

• ETL processing

• Quality data vs quality information

• Steps to implement a data warehouse

• MIS software demonstration

Operational Reporting

Live Student Records

Live Finance Records

Live HR/PR Records

OperationalReports

OperationalReports

OperationalReports

Drawbacks of Operational Reports

• Reports often have to be against current / live data sets i.e. immediate and up to date

• Performance implications due to :– Database Design being transaction based– Impact on Live System i.e. clashes with users

activity during the day

• Result of above = overnight reporting

DMU MIS Requirements

• Information needed to make informed business decisions

• Acceptable response times

• Ability to Report over multiple time periods

• Drill down analysis

• Flexible reporting parameters

• To present information so that it can be understood and easily assimilated

Current - Low Quality MIS Information

Local Data

Create Retrieve

Not Again!Not Again !

LocalData

LocalData

GeorgeJim

Low quality informationresults in :

• Badly informed decisions and often resulting in unrecoverable damage

• staff performing work over and over again

• unnecessary time to investigate the integrity of the data before it can be used

• reformatting of data before it can be used

• miscommunication within the business

• missing business opportunities

Need - High Quality Information

Trusted Data Warehouse

WOW !

Create once

Retrieve once

GeorgeJim

Data Warehouse benefits

• Off-line reports not impacting live systems• Can pull data from many sources to add value• Data structured for fast reporting not

transaction processing i.e. de-normalised• Allows pre-processing of data• Summarised data over multiple time periods• Reliable and trusted information

The MIS data warehouse

(Live)QL

Students

(Live)QL

Finance

(Operational / Transaction based Databases)

ETLProcessing

MIS Reports

(Off-line)Data

Warehouse

(Pre-processed snap-shot data)

ExternalData

source

Data Warehousing Success Factors

• The success of a data warehouse is dependent on collecting, managing, and dis-seminating quality management information that supports the strategic and tactical business processes.

• Without quality information, the data warehouse will fail

What is Quality ?(exercise)

What is Quality ?

“Consistently meeting customer’s expectations”

Improving the things customers care about and that make their lives easier and more worthwhile

What is Information ?

Is this Quality Data ? How do I know ?

59CICD504

Because it matches the specified Data Definition of :

D2 +A1 +A3 +D3

59 C ICD 504

What is Information ?

When does it become Information ?

When it is meaningfully presented

(59CICD504)

• Department code 59 (ISAS)

• Capital or Revenue C (Capital)

• Project Code ICD (WebFocus)

• Expense code 504 (Consultancy)

Information can be represented as

Information =

(Data + Definition + Presentation)

Information Quality is :

“The right data, with the right completeness, in the right context, with the right accuracy, in the right format, at the right time, at the right place, for the right purpose”

Information Quality

• The Right data• Right Completeness• Right Context• Right Accuracy• Right Format• Right Time• Right Place• Right Purpose

• The data I need• All the data I need• Data I understand• Data I can trust• I can use it easily• When I need it• Where I need it• To meet my objectives

How to deliver the Data warehouse

• Project Sponsor

• Getting the right people with the right knowledge to develop a specification

• Agreeing business definitions (exercise !)

• Agreeing and owning and signing off the specification

• Producing the Technical design

• Development of ETL process and reports

How to deliver the data warehouse

• Performance of the software

• Pilot the system before live production

• Have ‘champions’ within the user base

• Provide user training

• Provide clear and precise user documentation

• Provide on-going development and support

FACT

If the data warehouse does not deliver reliable information that supports the customers decisions and strategic processes to their satisfaction, then history will repeat itself

Quality quotations :

• “People forget how fast you did a job - but they remember how well you did it” - Howard Newton

• “One accurate measurement is worth a 100 expert opinions”-

US Admiral

Recap / summary

• Roles of the operational databases vs data warehouse within the organisation

• Low quality MIS vs high quality MIS

• Value added by ETL processing

• Quality data vs quality information

• Importance of clarity of definitions

• Steps to implement a data warehouse

MIS Demonstration