The VDDW Basics section describes in greater detail what a traditional Data Warehouse entails and how it fits in with the Information Supply Chain. Regardless of the design approach taken (normalized or dimensional), the traditional DW will contain data that can generally be classified into one of two categories: master data or transaction data.
Within the traditional DW, performance analysis at a gross margin level is typically easy to achieve, owing to the fact that the accounting and operational systems from which the DW pulls do a good job of tracking the connections between financials and operational data at a COGS-level.
In the traditional DW, all of a company’s operating expenses are typically captured by GL account, even down to individual journal entries, but these entries are not typically connected directly to operational transaction data like shipments or invoices, and therefore aren’t usually associated with products or trading partners either. They exist as as an unapportioned schmeer of overhead, categorized only by accounts or cost centers, with no ready join path to the rest of the DW.
