The world’s largest data warehouses commonly use the superior technology of NCR’sTeradata relational database management system (RDBMS). A data warehouse isnormally loaded directly from operational data. The majority, if not all of this data will becollected on-line as a result of normal business operations. The data warehousetherefore acts as a central repository of the data that reflects the effectiveness of themethodologies used in running a business.

As a result, the data loaded into the warehouse is mostly historic in nature. To get atrue representation of the business, normally this data is not changed once it is loaded.Instead, it is interrogated repeatedly to transform data into useful information, todiscover trends and the effectiveness of operational procedures. This interrogation isbased on business rules to determine such aspects as profitability, return on investmentand evaluation of risk.

For example, an airline might load all of its maintenance activity on every aircraft intothe database. Subsequent investigation of the data could indicate the frequency atwhich certain parts tend to fail. Further analysis might show that the parts are failingmore often on certain models of aircraft. The first benefit of the new found knowledgeregards the ability to plan for the next failure and maybe even the type of airplane onwhich the part will fail. Therefore, the part can be on hand when and maybe where it isneeded, or the part might be proactively changed prior to its failure.

If the information reveals that the part is failing more frequently on a particular model ofaircraft, this could be an indication that the aircraft manufacturer has a problem with thedesign or production of that aircraft. Another possible cause is that the maintenancecrew is doing something incorrectly and contributing to the situation. Either way, youcannot fix a problem if you do not know that a problem exists. There is incredible powerand savings in this type of knowledge.

Another business area where the Teradata database excels is in retail. It provides anenvironment that can store billions of sales. This is a critical capability when you arerecording and analyzing the sales of every item in every store around the world.Whether it is used for inventory control, marketing research or credit analysis, the dataprovides an insight into the business. This type of knowledge is not easily attainablewithout detailed data that records every aspect of the business. Tracking inventoryturns, stock replenishment, or predicting the number of goods needed in a particularstore yields a priceless perspective into the operation of a retail outlet. This informationis what enables one retailer to thrive while others go out of business.

Teradata is flourishing with the realization that detail data is critical to the survival of abusiness in a competitive, lower margin environment. Continually, businesses areforced to do more with less. Therefore, it is vital to maximize the efforts that work wellto improve profit and minimize or correct those that do not work.

One computer vendor used these same techniques to determine that it cost more to sell

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into the desktop environment than was realized in profit. Prior to this realization, thesales effort had attempted to make up the loss by selling more computers.Unfortunately, increased sales meant increased losses. Today, that company is doingmuch better and has made a huge step into profitability by discontinuing the smallcomputer line.

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