e-Data: Turning Data Into Information With Data Warehousing [Paperback]

Jill Dyché (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201657805 | ISBN-13: 978-0201657807 | Publication Date: February 25, 2000 | Edition: 1

Data warehouse adoption is increasing 30-40% per year, and data warehouse technology is evolving rapidly to serve new requirements. e-Data: Turning Data Into Information with Data Warehousing is the complete manager's briefing on what this technology can do today, and how to achieve optimal results. Start by understanding why data warehousing has generated so much excitement throughout the business community; review four types of decision support analyses commonly performed with data warehouses; understand how data warehouses support powerful new database marketing applications; and see data warehousing at work in a wide range of industries. Next, master data warehouse technologies, understand today's best practices for implementation and staffing, and learn the tough questions to ask vendors before you make product commitments. e-Data includes detailed metrics for evaluating the success of a data warehouse; techniques for identifying both "hard" and "soft" benefits; and "from the trenches" advice on what to do next, once your data warehouse is running successfully. For IT managers, business professionals, consultants, and others who need to understand the benefits of the latest data warehousing technology.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The concept of data warehousing can be very hard to grasp at first--especially if you're not a database person. In e-Data: Turning Data into Information with Data Warehousing, author and data warehousing expert Jill Dyché offers the big picture of data warehousing in an informative and comfortable read.

Although the title may spark notions of an Internet-specific topic, the author's term "e-data" isn't a Net-related notion at all. By e-data, she means any data that has been refined and stored in a data warehouse, whether Internet-related or not. She explains the basic concepts behind data warehousing and decision support systems in refreshingly plain English and provides real-world case study summaries of well-known corporations such as Hallmark and Bank of America, as well as the applications of data warehousing by industry segment.

Some of the technologies that make data warehousing possible are discussed, but the book is primarily targeted at managers and executives who are responsible for implementing successful marketing and data management strategies. The discussion is lifted above the technical details of how data warehousing takes place to examine why your organization should consider the approach.

There is plenty of focus on the daunting task of implementing a data warehouse, and the author provides many tips for selecting the proper consultants, technologies, and staff to do the job. This text is a great real-world introduction to the sphere of data warehousing. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: Data warehouses, decision support systems, data mining, target marketing, cross-selling, sales analysis, industry applications, database tools, vendor selection, project planning, and pitfalls.

Review

"Jill Dyche does an expert job of describing the varied uses of data warehouses and data marts, not only in marketing but across lines of business." -- Martha Rogers, Ph.D.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (February 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201657805
• ISBN-13: 978-0201657807
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,169,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Business Book!, May 5, 2000

By 

Hope Jafe (New York, N.Y.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: e-Data: Turning Data Into Information With Data Warehousing (Paperback)

I learned a lot from this book..it was very timely for me and my company. I particularly liked the chapter on Data Warehousing. By industry, which reviews each industry and how it's using data warehousing for different business purposes. I work in banking and the financial services section was very up to date. I also liked the author's writing style. I bought the book for the industry and CRM chapters, but ended up enjoying the whole thing.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshingly honest, thorough and well written, June 28, 2001

By 

Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: e-Data: Turning Data Into Information With Data Warehousing (Paperback)

Ms. Dyche has managed to do the impossible by writing a book that will appeal equally to business and technical folks. More importantly, she uncovers the real business value of data warehousing, as well as exposing the technical issues surrounding their design, implementation and ongoing management. And she does it through engaging writing that makes it impossible to put the book down. I read (devoured) this book in a single [long] evening, dwelling on every fact and marvelling at the width and breadth of the author's knowledge and experience.

She begins by explaining in simple, but not condescending terms, what a data warehouse is, its value to business, and key objectives of data warehousing. While I admired her ability to describe complex facts in clear terms, I especially enjoyed the list of trite data warehousing aphorisms. Mr. Dyche's style is to always provide balance. She comes across as passionate about every topic, but is equally quick to show the darker side of things. This she does throughout the book, and it is one reason why this technical book is such a page-turner.

The next chapter is a thorough discussion of decision support that covers the mechanics, and provides illustrative examples that transform concepts and theory into the practical and achievable.

Chapter 3 is devoted to the topics of data warehouses and database marketing. This is where Ms. Dyche skillfully ties together the business and technical aspects. She also provides the most complete explanation of what exactly customer relationship management it (the term is so bandied about these days that most people have no idea what it really means). This chapter provides excellent material for marketing and MBA types, and will hopefully provide IS/IT folks with ideas on how data warehousing initiatives support business processes. The case studies in this chapter reinforces key points of facts and discussion, and also showed the bridge that needs to be built between IS/IT and business process owners. I came away with this chapter feeling as though I had a mandate to build such a bridge.

The next chapter, 4, is a panoramic view of how various industries use data warehousing to their advantage. Ms. Dyche recommends that you read them all because you'll learn much by looking beyond the borders of your own industry segment, and I completely agree with her. I couldn't resist jumping to the telecom industry first, though, and was astonished at not only how well Ms. Dyche understood and articulated the issues, but in how well they were presented in 9 pages. She gave the same thorough and insightful treatment to retail, financial, transportation, government, health care, insurance and entertainment (although the page count varied from one industry to another).

Chapter 5 delves deeper into the technology and can be easily understood by IS/IT folks who may not be data warehouse experts, as well as business process owners who don't want to be experts, but may be interested in how the moving parts fit together.

Implementation and finding the right vendors are covered in the next two chapters. I had to smile when I read the accurate portrayal of "Good vs. Evil: A tale of Two Project Plans." This is required reading for every project manager who finds her- or himself managing a data warehouse project. Here Ms. Dyche takes a poorly developed project plan that is unfortunately representative of most and shows the flaws. She then shows what a good project plan looks like. Also pay close attention to what she has to say about qualifying and selecting vendors in chapter 7. Although she herself is a consultant who works for a small firm she is not the least bit reticent about providing a balanced view of the good and bad of consultants and vendors, as well as the relative strengths and weaknesses of large firms vs. small ones. Both honesty and humor come through here.

Because I have a "thing" for cost analysis and ROI I especially liked chapter 8 that covers the data warehouse business value proposition. Like every other chapter this was one the mark and insightful. However, the real insights (not to mention a touch of wit) come in chapter 9 - the perils and pitfalls. First she discards the tired list of pitfalls that have been circulating and comes up with a fresh set of "New Top 10" pitfalls, which hit home and impart more wisdom that you can imagine. She then segues into an expose of ten dirty little secrets, which are refreshing in their frankness and insight. Ms. Dyche really steps up to the plate here. Apparently she was on a roll when writing this chapter because she caps it off with a piece on the politics of data warehousing and eight signs of data warehouse sabotage. She ends with a chapter titled, "What to Do Now" that offers yet more advice and insight about how to proceed if you need a data warehouse or if you already have one.

This book is packed with facts wrapped in wit and sparkling prose. It contains advice and wisdom that would take years to accrue, and is usually jealously guarded by consultants and vendors. Yet the author, a consultant, freely dispenses this advice and wisdom, which makes this book so valuable. It earns far more than the 5 stars available and is strongly recommended.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing definitions of key terms and concepts..., October 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: e-Data: Turning Data Into Information With Data Warehousing (Paperback)

I consider myself a data warehouse expert (or at least the end-users that I support consider me one!), but I like this book for its clear explanations of terminology and concepts that I must have run into hundreds of times but probably couldn't explain to save my life (i.e. "affinity analysis"). I already understood quite a bit of the material in this book, but credit Ms. Dyche for presenting it in a fresh and un-jaded way. I ended up buying 14 copies of this book for my end-users (who I imagine are its target audience), and they each got something out of it. e-Data fulfills its intended purpose.