Data Warehousing

Data Warehousing Challenges

As companies grow, they find themselves in a very common dilemma: consolidation of information within their enterprise. Suppliers in one system, vendors in another, clients in yet another ... and don't forget the back office, support, accounting, and marketing systems; not to mention all the statistics from the web site ... it's enough to give management a rather large headache. Disparate data sources leads to a lack of complete understanding of your business. Having a complete, consolidated, 360 degree view of where you stand as a company (whether it be with vendors or clients or internal systems) can literally take your business to the next level. This is why the successful implementation of a Data Warehouse will help a company make significant efficiencies and is critical in meeting its strategic goals.

And Data Warehousing is no longer a grandiose solution for the large company. With low-cost hardware/infrastructure, grid systems, and competitive licensing models, Data Warehouse implementations have become much more feasible to smaller companies. This allows even the youngest of companies to quickly gain competitive advantage by making both tactical and strategic decisions based on a consolidated view of their operations.

The Surfliner Approach

At Surfliner, we believe in the power of Data Warehousing solutions and we believe that a successful implementation includes the following areas of consultation:

Education: we believe in educating clients on what a Data Warehouse really is - an ongoing, constantly changing entity. A proper understanding of this will lead to a highly successful engagement.
Strategy: our goal is to help you understand your vision and then build a system to meet that vision.
Project Planning: planning and prioritization of warehousing components and reporting is critical for a successful implementation. We utilize a phased-approach to warehousing, allowing our clients to "see" the success at key milestones while keeping the overall solution scalable and cost-effective.
Implementation: we at Surfliner bring in expertise in very large warehouse implementations. Our consultants have real-world experience in implementing solutions which fit the specific needs of our clients.
Long-term Training: a Data Warehouse project doesn't end with the implementation. Surfliner is dedicated in building long-term success for our clients and we strive to provide proper education and support for your ongoing needs.

Our core Data Warehouse competencies include:

Information Acquisition

Sometimes referred to as ETL (Extraction, Transformation, and Loading). Each enterprise has unique systems (relational databases, web log activity, custom vendor data, and so on) with unique data extraction and parsing needs. Surfliner keeps a strong emphasis on deploying the most appropriate tools to extract, cleanse, and manipulate large volumes of information from disparate data sources. The transformation and cleansing processes ensure the Warehouse receives high-quality, commonly formatted data for use in reporting, data mining, and analytics.

Information Consolidation

Surfliner is highly experienced in building scalable solutions to store information for varying purposes. We are competent in building data stores, relational data warehouses, click stream (aka web) warehouses, and specialized data marts.

Performance Tuning

A critical component to any Data Warehouse solution is the ability to quickly and effectively retrieve data, while keeping technical infrastructure at cost-effective levels. Surfliner specializes in tuning information acquisition processes as well as relational databases in order to produce high-quality reporting and analytics quickly and in high volumes.

Administration

Without proper administration, Data Warehouse systems cannot scale. Surfliner brings a wealth of knowledge in archiving, backup and recovery procedures (both for relational databases and customized data solutions), auditing, and benchmarking. Proper administration will lead to optimal ongoing results and a lower TCO.

Information Retrieval

Successful Data Warehouses allow for more than high-quality dashboard reporting. Data mining and analytics are a critical component to understanding the depths of your information. Surfliner consultants have vast experience in these areas. Not only do we implement mining and analytic solutions, but we have the knowledge base on staff to help understand the value of the information. A relationship with Surfliner brings in both technical and analytic minds to provide a completely successful engagement.

Learn More

To find out more about how Surfliner can help with your data warehousing needs, email us at info@surflinerservices.com. Or, to read more about our solutions, navigate here: