BASICS: The Information Supply Chain   >   Overview

Enlarge Info Supply Chain Diagram ISC Components: Overview Raw Inputs The Factory The Distribution Channel Problems

Value-Driven data warehousing is a different approach to DW / BI (data warehousing / Business Intelligence) than what is employed in many enterprises. This section on the Information Supply Chain is intended to demonstrate how traditional DW / BI systems work, what the two different terms “DW” and “BI” mean, and how they are functionally related to one another, so as to clarify concepts for those new or less experienced in the field, and to explain what makes the VDDW approach different.

 

The terms “DW” or “EDW” (enterprise data warehouse) and “BI” are often slippery to define. Different parties may use the terms in slightly different ways, and it’s often unclear where one field ends and the other begins, or precisely how they overlap, though almost anyone in either field would concede that they each need the other.

 

To help explain what these two concepts are all about, how they connect with each other and where they diverge, the metaphor of an Information Supply Chain is helpful. Like the brick-and-mortar world, where actual, physical products are produced and sold, the world of enterprise information management can be thought of as having a supply chain. In the brick-and-mortar world, a product goes through many stages and hand-offs before it finally ends up in a consumer’s hands. Raw materials must be procured. Those materials must be refined and assembled, typically in mass quantities, by a factory that employs sophisticated processes against them so as to produce a finished good. Finally, a network of distributors and retail outlets help disseminate the product and get it into the consumer’s hands.

 

Similarly, enterprise information has a supply chain. That chain begins with Operational Systems whose core goal is data collection and process enablement. These systems are the wellhead for enterprise data, and supply the raw ingredients to the chain. Next comes the Data Warehouse, which has been likened to a factory (most notably by Bill Inmon who wrote a book entitled The Corporate Information Factory), wherein the raw data supplied by the operational systems is staged, integrated, processed and refined so as to produce a finished good called corporate information. Finally, BI tools act as the distribution channel for that information content. They provide a mechanism for disseminating that content to end users in attractive, manageable chunks. Analogically explained and defined, the two concepts “DW” and “BI” are symbiotically related like a Factory and Distribution Channel – each with different jobs, each needing the other.

 

Finally, many companies that employ DW / BI suffer a common frustration of being rich in data volumes but poor in actionable information, despite significant investments in their DW / BI infrastructure. This prevalent issue is what VDDW is designed to address. It is a recommended approach for building an information supply chain that yields far greater and more obvious ROI than traditional approaches, while simultaneously streamlining the ISC.

 

Learn More: VDDW Architecture & Design How VDDW Streamlines the ISC VDDW and Corporate Performance Management How VDDW Delivers Results VDDW Distinctives