Услуга · Data and analytics

A corporate data warehouse

A warehouse is needed when the figures are scattered across several systems and a report has to be glued together by hand in a spreadsheet. It does not replace the accounting systems; it assembles a consolidated picture from them that can be analysed.

One place
for every report
We do not get in the way
the live systems
History
does not go away
Datasets
for specific questions

What the work includes

We start from what the management wants to know: the list of reports first, and only then the data model to support it.

Discuss the scope

We gather the questions

What question the report must answer and who will look at it.

We identify the sources

The accounting system, the website, the CRM, spreadsheets. We decide what comes from where.

The common structure

A single model where products and counterparties are matched across the different systems.

Loading

The data is pulled on a schedule that does not disturb people working during the day.

Datasets

The data for each report is calculated in advance, so it opens without delay.

Presentation

Dashboards with charts or an export into the familiar spreadsheet format.

How it goes

The first dataset appears in a month to six weeks. The next ones come faster, as the foundation is already there.

01

We choose the first one

We start with the two reports that take the most time to assemble by hand.

02

We design

The structure, mapping the reference data between systems, the refresh schedule.

03

We build

The load, the dataset and a reconciliation of the result against the manual calculation.

04

We extend it

New datasets as requests come in, on the foundation already built.

The first test of a data warehouse is matching the manual report. If the figures differ by so much as a penny there will be no trust: staff will quietly carry on with their own files. So a reconciliation against the old calculation is always done, and any discrepancy is explained before go-live.

Questions and answers

Built-in reports show only that system's own data. As soon as you need to combine sales with site traffic and enquiries from the CRM, the standard tools fall short. Heavy queries against the live database also slow everyone down.

At the start you can do without one. Ready datasets are easy to deliver as spreadsheets: people know them and no training is needed. A specialised product is required where a wide circle of staff look at the reports and each needs to change the slices themselves.

Management reports usually need one refresh overnight. Continuous streaming is rarely necessary, costs more and puts extra load on the live databases. It is sensible to start with a daily cycle and add frequency only where it is genuinely needed.

We will build the warehouse

List the reports currently assembled by hand and the source systems. We will build the first dataset and reconcile it against your own calculation.