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Since data warehouses were first introduced during the 1990s, a large number of companies have failed when attempting to implement and use them. Many of these failures are not a result of the data warehouse itself, but rather the policies and the processes that the company used when trying to implement and utilize it.
It could be said that the early years of data warehousing was filled with trial and error. Today, a number of approaches have been devised which make using the data warehouse much easier and efficient. One approach is called the MDMP, or Management Decision Making Process system. The goal of the MDMP is to simplify the task of dealing with the data warehouse while reaching core goals.
The MDMP is a spherical model that is based on cause and effect. It can be fully broken down into four fundamental parts. The MDMP is excellent for those who approachdata warehouses from a business stand point. The first thing that an executive will want to decide with this model is how their business is doing. This is an important question, because it will give you a good idea of how you should approach adata warehousing project. In other words, you should be able to determine if your business is performing good or bad. Once you have established this, you will next want to decide why the business is performing this way.
If your business is doing well, you should know about the factors that have caused this. If your business is not doing so well, you should know about the factors that have caused this as well. The information should be detailed., and you will need to have the data summarized so that you can analyze it with simple tools. The tool that you use should allow you to get to the detailed data that will allow you to see what caused the success or failure. Once you have established why your business is performing the way it is, you will next want to deal with the "what if?" This is important, because it can set the stage which will allow you to make fundamental changes to your business.
If the business is conducted differently, any problems you're experiencing at this time can be solved. One of the most important characteristics of a data warehouse is its ability to give executives a type of forecast on how certain business moves will pan out. One of the best ways to approach this issue with your data warehouse is to set up a low, medium, and high classification for various investments dependent on their risk. Once you have completed this stage, you will now want to invest. You have the idea that can allow the company to improve, and the business manager can be given the necessary capital for the investment.
Once a company or organization has followed all the steps above, they will want to again ask themselves how their organization is performing. Within the data warehouse, it is possible to generate a memory of various initiatives that you have tried, along with the results of these initiatives. As you can imagine, this can become very beneficial for the company over the long term. While the basic premise ofdata warehousing may sound simple, the technical details of it can become exceptionally complicated. Many companies lose sight of the simple premise, and this is precisely why they fail. Remember, the goal of a data warehouse is to help management make better business decisions. You cannot lose sight of this fact.
