1. In the current case, there are a number of items that currently are running under various databases. Moreover, all these items and information are sought under the one single corporate-wide critical sales perspective and this is intended to give a clear opinion or status about the best-selling products in terms of key clients, trends in sales in various geographies among others. There are a myriad range of issues that are faced by the organization currently as the current data base problems might create a burdensome situation to evaluate the items in a comprehensive manner as it encompasses a wide variety of things like Product ID, Description of the product, Number of units sold, Price per unit, the Division, ID of the client and various other things that are mandatory to be mentioned in order to have a comprehensive information about the product. Thus, considering all these, there is an imminent need for a single standard view which encompasses all the above mentioned components which also enables judging the products in a single take.
2. Having the database under a single standard format is much easier in terms of working comfort as it would enable storage of data of two systems under one while encompassing all the various products listed under both the systems. In addition, a single standard format would also help employees to locate a specific data under a particular heading thus easing the troubles that the current situation is posing to the employees as well as the organization.
3. The current problems that are being faced by the organization are not so critical that they need specialists to attend to those issues. These problems can be handles with ease with the personnel within the organization who have the required expertise and do not necessitate any external party intervention.
4. The authority of finalizing the single standard format to be implemented on an organization wide basis lies with many people. However, the final authority lies with the CEO of the organization and it is recommended that the CEO takes into consideration all the various suggestions and opinions sought through the meetings that were held as there are number of minds that work rather than one and this is always great.
5. IBM Mainframe is the best option for the organization for the purpose of data warehousing as IBM Mainframe is an epitome of virtualization and thus is a perfect platform.
Option B
6. The three cases that have been chosen with relevance to the current case are listed below with discussion of the main points having been presented:
- Using Data Warehousing in Strategic Decision-Making – Strategic decisions mean spending a lot of money on various aspects including acquiring new resources, be it mechanical, technical, or personnel. Not all companies use data warehousing for the purpose of data warehousing, rather it is generally used at a later stage for post decision monitoring purposes. However, there are a few data warehouse that are used for strategic decision making and they also yield in better profits for the organization. The amount of time spent on data warehousing are measurable and they also pay off when compared to other canned reporting systems. It is very essential that the Information systems needs to done the business hat and then arrive at a decision what actually is the need of the hour.
- Performing Data Warehouse Software Evaluations – It is very important, with respect to evaluation data warehouse software, not to rely on suggestions given by parties that are external to the organization. There is no single technology which is the ultimate and best. Irrespective of how best the software is promoted, it is highly important that the company planning to go in for data warehouse software evaluates the software.
- Aspects of Data Warehouse Architecture – Architecture, in the context of Data Warehousing is more of a system design decision which does not get changed very often. This is because of the extensive amount of money, work as well as politics that are involved. Data consistency is one important thing that is of very high significance in this case. Likewise, other important things that are of crucial importance are Data modelling architecture and data tool architecture. However, in the long-run, decisions pertaining to data consistency architecture play a pivotal role as they have a very profound influence on the Return on Investment (ROI) of the organization.
7. The three ideal vendors chosen for the current case are SAP, Teradata, and Cloudera. All these three vendors are masters in terms of offering analytic data platforms and data warehouse solutions that are customized to suit individual organizational requirement. Most of the products offered by these vendors are intended to consolidate data from a wide variety of sources and then make them available. Cloudera markets itself has having the ability to help its clients into becoming a data-driven enterprise with the help of the products and services that it offers. Likewise, SAP is one of the earliest companies to have revolutionized technology by developing innovative solution to help business enterprises in a manner like never before. SAP is a market leader in enterprise application software.
8. The other websites that were research was a website named 1KeyData. This website offers extensive details about Data warehousing basics and tools (http://www.1keydata.com/datawarehousing/tooletl.html).
Works Cited
1Keydata. Data Warehousing - ETL Tool Selection. 2014. 18 May 2014 <http://www.1keydata.com/datawarehousing/tooletl.html>.
Greenfield. Aspects of Data Warehouse Architecture. n.d. 18 mAY 2014 <http://www.dwinfocenter.org/architect.html>.
Greenfield. Performing Data Warehouse Software Evaluation. n.d. 18 May 2014 <http://www.dwinfocenter.org/evals.html>.
Greenfield, Larry. Using Data Warehousing in Strategic Decision-making. n.d. 18 May 2014 <http://www.dwinfocenter.org/strategy.html>.
