Business Data Warehouse

The retailing giant Wal-Mart owes its success to the efficient use of information technology in its operations. One of the noteworthy advances made by Wal-Mart is the development of the data warehouse which gives the company a strategic advantage over its competitors. In this chapter, the planning and implementation of the Wal-Mart data warehouse is described and its integration with the operational systems is discussed. The chapter also highlights some of the problems encountered in the developmental process of the data warehouse. The implications of the recent advances in technologies such as RFID, which is likely to play an important role in the Wal-Mart data warehouse in future, is also detailed in this chapter. IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING This paper appears in the book, Database Modeling for Industrial Data Management:Emerging Technologies and Applications edited by Zongmin Ma © 2006, Idea Group Inc. 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200, Hershey PA 17033-1240, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com ITB11973 Business Data Warehouse: The Case of Wal-Mart 245 Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. Introduction Data warehousing has become an important technology to integrate data sources in recent decades which enables knowledge workers (executives, managers, and analysts) to make better and faster decisions (SCN Education, 2001). From a technological perspective, Wal-Mart, as a pioneer in adopting data warehousing technology, has always adopted new technology quickly and successfully. A study of the applications and issues of data warehousing in the retailing industry based on Wal-Mart is launched. By investigating the WalMart data warehouse from various perspectives, we review some of the critical areas which are crucial to the implementation of a data warehouse. In this chapter, the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Wal-Mart data warehouse is described, together with an assessment of the factors responsible for deployment of a successful data warehouse.