Research results of a new study among Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) members, shows that while most companies have well-established data warehouse systems, adoption is still limited within their organizations. The survey, underwritten by Oracle, and conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc., included input from 421 data managers and professionals. The findings are detailed in a new report, "A New Dimension to Data Warehousing: 2011 IOUG Data Warehousing Survey."
According to the survey, while companies do recognize the analytical power that a data warehouse foundation provides, the technology is not as widely used across the enterprise as it could be. Data warehouses serve as the foundation for business intelligence and analytics applications across 66% of the companies in the survey, but in many cases, they remain isolated from mainstream business operations.
To be of value, this data needs to be available in real time not only to the traditional users of data warehouses, such as analysts with Ph.D.s, but also to a wider set of employees throughout an organization. But according to the survey's findings, most are in-house, customized systems that are mainly used by analysts and top decision makers, and only 33% of respondent's companies enable access to their marketing and sales departments - critical areas where data warehouse value could be realized.
While companies are conservative in their plans for data warehouse upgrades, there is movement toward implementation of ready-to-run data solutions, and respondents expect to see benefits from these implementation efforts, including better performance and greater insights for decision makers. Close to 40% of respondents expect to see more convergence between data warehouse systems and production environments as data warehouses become more closely embedded with the rest of their IT infrastructures.
The Executive Summary of "A New Dimension to Data Warehousing: 2011 IOUG Data Warehousing Survey" is available to all visitors to the IOUG web site. The full 31-page report is available to members of the IOUG. IOUG members can download the full report here by scrolling to the bottom of the page and logging in.