Wizard Creek Consulting
Wizard Creek Case Study: Data Warehouse
Client industry:
Names of business units affected:
- Management and knowledge workers
Description of the problem situation:
- The client was a successful enterprise with sophisticated systems and
customer loyalty programs which created a need for more detailed information to
make precise decisions about products, stores and marketing.
Description of the steps used to resolve the problem:
- Determined that the best solution was to build a Data Warehouse from the vast
amounts of data the supermarket chain kept, and to train the client 's knowledge
workers in how to access the data warehouse using sophisticated tools.
- Decided to start with a prototype as proof of concept and committed to
delivery in 6 weeks.
- Put together a Data Warehouse team comprised of hardware, software, data, and
subject matter experts.
- The Data Warehouse team analyzed the data, built a data model, and determined
reporting requirements.
- The team built systems to scrub the data, load data into the Data Warehouse,
and trained the client 's knowledge workers to access the data.
Description of the outcome:
- At the end of the 6 weeks, the company loaded up the corporate jet with all
the key executives and flew to the Data Warehouse site for a series of
presentations.
- The executives were presented with report after report detailing precise
product, store and market information. One example was a report showing the
executives for the first time what the most profitable item in each store was,
which incidentally was a bag of ice.
Description of the benefits realized by the client:
- Company proceeded with a full Data Warehouse plan.
