Read the data fineprint

Updated on: Monday, December 07, 2009

Today's businesses realise that to manage, maintain and accurately analyse the sea of data generated on an everyday basis, and then take various decisions to run the businesses better, is a challenge. The challenge is two-fold: one, to collect the data required at one place and second, to analyse using various methods resulting in better decision making. Many studies have proven that decision-making on the basis of gut-feel or tribal knowledge will result in sub-optimal results.

The foundation for these analytical systems is Data Warehouses, where the data across an organisation (and sometime external data) is captured, cleaned, stored and maintained.

With most businesses automating their processes by means of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRM) and other transactional systems, the competitive differentiation between them is getting lower by the day. This is when the next competitiveness is achieved through the use of Analytics.

“There will be a continual demand for Data Warehousing (DW) and Business Intelligence (BI) professionals, just like there was demand for business automation software like SAP,” says Surya Putchala, vice-president of The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI), India chapter.

Students may refer to the following websites to know the latest in the field:

www.tdwi.org, www.dama.org, www.tdan.com, www.dmreview.com, www.bettermanagement.com, www.b-eye-network.com and www.intelligententerprise.com.

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