Re: On the subject of Data Warehouses, Data Cubes & OLAP....

From: John Keeley <duvinrouge_at_servihoo.com>
Date: 17 Oct 2003 07:55:22 -0700
Message-ID: <542fe31c.0310170655.427700d7_at_posting.google.com>


Stuart,

The great irony in all this is there is little rationality in the decision to buy decison support systems, when rationality is what a decision support system is all about.

Such is the nature of humanity!

I previously worked in insurance & had to put up with an IT director making statements like "I can't see any use for cubes" & "I want to move away from analysts using Excel".

What do you do?
I just carried on doing what I knew was right.

Maybe you should try spreading the message that you can do just what this expensive software can do at a fraction of the cost. Assuming you are confident you can.

Indeed, SQL Server 2k, Analysis Services & a decent Excel add-in can do most of what is needed.

I work for a consultancy called MIS - maybe we can convince you IT director.
Look at www.misag.com

Regards,

John

stuartjordan_at_synovusmortgage.com (Will) wrote in message news:<4edac88f.0310151032.7a6c1376_at_posting.google.com>...
> Funny you should mention insurance...cause I work for an HMO. We've
> been talking to a company called Metadata Corporation I think. Anywho
> their product is called Metadata Blah Blah. For the most part it is
> NOTHING we don't already own. We have the SQL Server licensing and
> two rough data warehouse models up and running. Instead of sinking
> the two and sharing a link using a VPN the VP wishes to blow away all
> that we have and start over from scratch. While he's at it he wants
> to blow a million bucks!
>
> How's that for marketing? The marketing reps throw some buzzwords at
> him and now he's hypnotized into believing what they have to offer is
> "magic". Don't know whether to laugh or cry ;)
>
> What's your take? Are you in insurance?
>
> Stu
>
> duvinrouge_at_servihoo.com (John Keeley) wrote in message news:<542fe31c.0310150158.4b307324_at_posting.google.com>...
> > A very challenging post.
> > Nothing wrong with a bit of scepticism!
> >
> > You are right about there being a huge amount of marketing hype.
> > Some people I suspect are not getting a return on their
> > datawarehouse/olap investment.
> > There are people (mainly sales people) in the Business Intelligence
> > industry who have little business intelligence.
> >
> > However, despite saying this there is indeed a good case for having a
> > datawarehouse & olap.
> >
> > Take a insurance company for instance.
> > They have a huge amount of data collected in their transactional
> > systems.
> > The money comes in over a certain time period & the money going out in
> > claims goes out over a longer time period.
> > Insurance companies can easily think they are doing better than they
> > really are unless they are analysing their data well.
> >
> > The first point is the transactional data is usually in more than one
> > system - the data needs to be brought together.
> > The classic EXTRACT, TRANSFORM & LOAD.
> > This is no mean task bringing all the data together in a coherent way.
> > Often it is done wrongly, but the rewards are there if done well.
> > The reward can be a high as ensuring the survival of the business.
> > Sure, this datawarehouse is just a database, but it is a database
> > built for decision making.
> >
> > And the second point is when making decisions, the analysis of the
> > data is done at a highly aggregated level - OLAP.
> > Yes, just another database, but a multidimensional one for speed
> > (pre-aggregates) & ease of end user navigation.
> >
> > Many years ago when I first worked in a Management Information team we
> > just used spreadsheets for storing the data. Then we used an Access
> > database. Then we used OLAP; specifically TM1. The advantages were
> > big. The management could ask for just about anything & we could do it
> > in minutes. Now there is Microsofts SQL Server 2k & Analysis Services
> > bringing together the datawarehouse & OLAP. A powerful way of working.
> > Have you not looked at it?
> >
> > I suggest you get a copy of Analysis Services & Reed Jacobson's book
> > "Analysis Services: Step by Step" play with it for a couple of weeks &
> > then see if you think ALL datawarehousing & olap is a con or not.
> >
> > I wonder what brand of datawarehousing/olap you have come up against?
> > Name names!
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > John
> >
> > www.johnkeeley.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > stuartjordan_at_synovusmortgage.com (Will) wrote in message news:<4edac88f.0310140700.75cace07_at_posting.google.com>...
> > > On the subject of Data Warehouses, Data Cubes & OLAP&#8230;.
> > >
> > > I would like to speak frankly about Data Warehouses, Data Cubes and
> > > OLAP (on-line analytical processing). Has it dawned on anyone else
> > > that these buzz words were created by some geek who decided to take a
> > > stab at marketing? Knowing that to the backwoods manager who knows
> > > little of technology that new innovative names for old concepts would
> > > help to sale their products.
> > >
> > > I mean seriously, what is the story here? In a nut shell, and please
> > > stop me if you disagree, but isn&#8217;t a data warehouse simply a
> > > database? Can&#8217;t you do everything on a conventional database
> > > like SQL Server, Oracle or DB2 that you can do on these new
> > > proprietary Data Warehouse constructs? I mean who are they trying to
> > > fool?
> > >
> > > Take a look, for instance, at Data Cubes. Who hasn&#8217;t noticed
> > > the striking similarity between data cubes and views used in all the
> > > more robust databases? Also, what about OLAP? OLAP is nothing more
> > > than a report generator. There&#8217;s nothing you can do with these
> > > million dollar price tagged Data Warehouse total solution packages
> > > that I can&#8217;t do with SQL Server, Oracle or DB2&#8230;for that
> > > matter Microsoft Access.
> > >
> > > As an example some sales people for Metadata Corporation has the Vice
> > > President of I.T. in Nashville, for Healthspring, sold on their total
> > > solution data respository which is such a scam. All they had to do
> > > was throw a couple of buzzwords at him and they have him hypnotized.
> > >
> > > Personally, I feel that these kinds of marketing practices undermine
> > > our industry. It helps to unravel what little standards or
> > > consistency we have. What do you guys think?
> > >
> > > Stuart
Received on Fri Oct 17 2003 - 16:55:22 CEST

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