Seeking Business Intelligence

In a prior post, we looked at a hands-on example of examining data in a star schema.  Suppose an analyst on the business side does some manual analysis each quarter to determine who deserves the top performer award.  You are interested in showing her how the data warehouse can be used to easily answer this question without the need for a lot of manual analysis.  Using this star, see if you can answer these questions…

    1.)    Who was the highest performer in terms of  dollars in the first quarter? 

    2.)    Who was the highest performer in terms of volume in the first quarter? 

The value of the data warehouse is rising in the eyes of the business community to the point that it is being used more and more for information.  The business experts, after looking at some high-level data, speculate that a product may have been applied to a line item with the incorrect dollar amount.  Using this star, see if you can identify where that may have happened.  By asking these questions (or others), you are using the data warehouse to seek intelligence about your business or organization. 

Spend some time answering these questions and in a future post we will examine the solutions.  If you find yourself enjoying this exercise that’s probably a tell-tale sign that you enjoy business intelligence.

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