Columns
Editorial: Volume 1, number 1
- By Michael W. Bucken
- October 3, 2002
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Data Insight,
a joint effort of the staffs of Application Development Trends and our
sister group, TDWI. In this publication, we hope to
provide some impartial insight into the value of data warehouse systems and the
tools and technologies used to build, implement and maintain them. Perhaps most
important in this day and age, we hope to shed some light on how such projects
can be kept within tight budgets and cut long-term costs significantly.
In this issue, we'll take a look at data warehousing issues from a variety of
perspectives of importance to ADT readers, TDWI members and to readers
of our sister publication, Enterprise Systems. The content combines the
expertise of the highly regarded Data Warehousing Institute with insight from
the journalists and experts who regularly contribute to ADT.
Clearly, data and the straightforward access to it has become vital to
corporations throughout the world. Technologies and data warehouse tool
suppliers have come and gone over the past several years, but demand for viable
warehouse solutions is as strong as ever. Executives, managers and workers alike
need access to specific data to do their jobs.
Our
lead story features the widely acknowledged know-how of Wayne Eckerson,
director of education and research at TDWI, on the importance of data quality to
a corporation's bottom line. Eckerson's story expands on a piece he contributed
to the May issue of ADT, ''Data quality and the bottom
line.''
Eckerson provides an in-depth description of a sound methodology for
cleansing data and ensuring that data quality remains. Studies conducted by TDWI
have found the cost of poor-quality data to be at least in the several hundreds
of millions of dollars. The steps Eckerson describes aren't easy for any company
to follow, but implementing a corporate data-quality method is critical because,
as the author notes, dirty data can ultimately be the ruin of a company.
We also take a look at how corporate users are
implementing different types of data warehouse systems
, and sound out managers on the implementation process
and whether the systems meet the initial promise of relatively easy access to
high-quality data.
And finally, we've compiled a listing of tools and
technologies for planning,
building and implementing a corporate data warehouse. Regular contributors Lana
Gates and Donna Sussman worked long hours to make the list as comprehensive and
up-to-date as possible.
Related stories:
Delivering high-quality data
by Wayne W. Eckerson
From the field: Data warehouse
implementations by Rich Seeley, Jack Vaughan and Michael W. Bucken
Data Insight product guide
compiled by Lana Gates and Donna Sussman
About the Author
Mike Bucken is former Editor-in-Chief of Application Development Trends magazine.