Business Rules: The Promise of Data Warehousing

In the Beginning: Formulating Business Rules

• The Business Objectives • The Promise (Data Warehousing)

– What Exactly is Data Warehousing? – How Data Warehousing overcomes those obstacles

• The Map – Planning – Discover Business Needs – Model the Business

• The Business Rules • The Future

– Active Data Warehousing • The Conclusion

– Delivering on the Promise

Key Business Objectives

• Improve Business Efficiency • Flexibility to develop new revenue streams • Improve the Customer Experience • Promote brand strength and market position

Business Imperatives

• Must get closer to the customer ! • Must improve productivity of knowledge workers ! • Must be able to integrate new technologies

quickly ! • Must become flexible to facilitate rapid market

changes !

BUSINESS RULES are a foundational element of achieving these objectives.

Obstacles to Meeting Business Objective

Getting the Wrong Answer...

The Solution: A Single Source...

The Problem: Incomplete Answers

The Solution: Integrated Historical Data

The Solution: Integrated Historical Data

The Promise of Data Warehousing

• One Corporate Version of the Truth – Speaking one language – No dueling numbers

• Single Source – One stop shopping – Saves user time by eliminating need to obtain multiple

interfaces and files • Accessibility and timeliness of information – Allows End-User access without IT dependence – Reporting takes minutes or hours not weeks or months

The Promise of Data Warehousing

• Cost avoidance – Multiple applications access the same data – Offloads Legacy systems for DSS reporting – Avoids development of standalone applications to address

specific data needs – Eliminates redundant systems

• Infrastructure to integrate future corporate acquisitions and data growth – Platform proven, highly scalable

• Ability to anticipate and respond to changes in the competitive marketplace

Attributes of the Optimum Solution

What is an Enterprise Data Warehouse?

Business Analysis – Which Environment supports your Business Objectives?

Data Warehouse Core Issues

• Scalability – Ability to meet increasing demands for:

• Data Volumes • Concurrent Users • Complex Queries

• Accessibility – Ability to ask any question, at any time, of any data– Currency of data to meet demands

• Manageability – Low maintenance requirements – Integrated, parallel utilities

Where Do I Start?

Types of Business Rules

• Constrains information on the behalf of the business event – Constraints are mandatory – Guidelines are suggestive

• Enables other action on behalf of the business event – Action enabling rules

• Creates new information on the behalf of the business event– Computations – Inferences

Definitions

• Term: A noun or noun phrase with an agreed upon definition– Customer – Credit Rating Code – Female – Days of the American work week

• Fact: A statement that connects terms, through prepositions and verbs, into sensible business relevant observations – Customer can place order – Order is for line item – Line item is for order – customer qualifies for customer credit rating code

Definitions and Examples of Rules

Model the Business

• Business information MODELING – Determined by BUSINESS RULES & VISION – The ER MODEL NEVER changes UNLESS

• Underlying way of doing business changes, or • Adding NEW subject areas to MODEL will not impact existing

model

What is a Logical Data Model (LDM)?

• A Logical Data Model (LDM) is the result of information modeling

• A LDM is a diagram which shows: – Entities (data of importance to the organization)– Attributes (properties of the data) – Relationships between entities

• LDMs are completely technology independent of any particular database or hardware platform

A schematic view of the environment and a mock-up representation of something in the real world.

Opportunity Analysis

Information Evolution in an Active Data Warehouse Environment

What Drives Active Data Warehouse Evolution?

• Customer Relationship Management is the primary relationship driving the next generation of data warehousing… business rules are critically important in a CRM environment.

A Complex Operational Topology

An Enterprise Active Warehouse