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Chapter 3 • Data Warehousing 115

involving mission-critical applications rather than for the medium- and long-term decisions
associated with an EDW. An ODS is similar to short-term memory in that it stores only very
recent information. In comparison, a data warehouse is like long-term memory because it
stores permanent information. An ODS consolidates data from multiple source systems and
provides a near–real-time, integrated view of volatile, current data. The exchange, transfer,
and load (ETL) processes (discussed later in this chapter) for an ODS are identical to those
for a data warehouse. Finally, oper marts (see Imhoff, 2001) are created when operational
data needs to be analyzed multidimensionally. The data for an oper mart come from an ODS.

enterprise Data Warehouses (eDW)

An enterprise data warehouse (eDW) is a large-scale data warehouse that is used
across the enterprise for decision support. It is the type of data warehouse that Isle of
Capri developed, as described in the opening vignette. The large-scale nature provides
integration of data from many sources into a standard format for effective BI and decision
support applications. EDW are used to provide data for many types of DSS, including
CRM, supply chain management (SCM), business performance management (BPM), busi-
ness activity monitoring (BAM), product life-cycle management (PLM), revenue manage-
ment, and sometimes even knowledge management systems (KMS). Application Case 3.1
shows the variety of benefits that telecommunication companies leverage from imple-
menting data warehouse driven analytics solutions.

Metadata
metadata are data about data (e.g., see Sen, 2004; and Zhao, 2005). Metadata describe
the structure of and some meaning about data, thereby contributing to their effective or

Application Case 3.1
A Better Data Plan: Well-Established TELCOs Leverage Data Warehousing and Analytics
to Stay on Top in a Competitive Industry
Mobile service providers (i.e., Telecommunication customer retention
Companies, or TELCOs in short) that helped trigger
the explosive growth of the industry in the mid- to It’s no secret that the speed and success with which
late-1990s have long reaped the benefits of being first a provider handles service requests directly affects
to market. But to stay competitive, these companies customer satisfaction and, in turn, the propensity to
must continuously refine everything from customer churn. But getting down to which factors have the
service to plan pricing. In fact, veteran carriers face greatest impact is a challenge.
many of the same challenges that up-and-coming “If we could trace the steps involved with each
carriers do: retaining customers, decreasing costs, process, we could understand points of failure and
fine-tuning pricing models, improving customer sat- acceleration,” notes Roxanne Garcia, manager of
isfaction, acquiring new customers and understand- the Commercial Operations Center for Telefónica
ing the role of social media in customer loyalty de Argentina. “We could measure workflows both
Highly targeted data analytics play an ever- within and across functions, anticipate rather than
more-critical role in helping carriers secure or react to performance indicators, and improve the
improve their standing in an increasingly competi- overall satisfaction with onboarding new customers.”
tive marketplace. Here’s how some of the world’s The company’s solution was its traceability pro-
leading providers are creating a strong future based ject, which began with 10 dashboards in 2009. It has
on solid business and customer intelligence. since realized US$2.4 million in annualized revenues
(Continued )

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