Data warehouse

A decision support database that is maintained separately from the organization’s operational database

Support information processing by providing a solid platform of consolidated, historical data for analysis.

“A data warehouse is a subject-oriented, integrated, time-variant, and nonvolatile collection of data in support of management’s decision-making process.”—W. H. Inmon

The process of constructing and using data warehouses Definition
Data warehousing is the process of integrating enterprise-wide corporate data into a single repository. The resulting data warehouse may then support a variety of decision analysis functions as well as strategic operational functions. This data often originates from a variety of sources (different types of databases), formats, and types and is generally consolidated, transformed, and loaded into one or more instances of a database management system to facilitate a broad range of analytical applications. The data warehouse may consist of a single large enterprise-wide database, to which users and administrators connect directly, or it may incorporate several smaller systems, called data marts, each of which addresses a specific subject area within the overall warehouse. As a technology, data warehousing is the foundation of the business intelligence capabilities that enable customer acquisition, customer care, and fraud prevention.


Systems that provide directed background data and reporting tools to support and improve the decision-making process.
Business Intelligence provides business roadmaps to deliver solutions for business analysis which includes data models, meta-data and analytical applications. By having these roadmaps, we deliver superior business value through improved return on investment, time value by enabling fast solution delivery, and technical value through open database enablement.

A term which represents those systems that help companies understand what makes the wheels of the corporation turn and to help predict the future impact of current decisions. These systems place a key role in strategic planning process of the corporation. Systems that exemplify business intelligence include medical research, customer profiling, market basket analysis, customer contact analysis, market segmentation, scoring, product profitability, and inventory movement.

An interactive process of analyzing and exploring structured, domain-specific information (often stored in a data warehouse) to discern trends or patterns, thereby deriving insights and drawing conclusions. The BI process includes communicating findings and effecting change. BI domains include customers, products, services or competitors.

Business intelligence (BI) is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. Usage of timely and accurate information to base decisions upon. Typically, includes a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data. Activities include decision support, query and reporting, online analytical processing, statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining.