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The University of Iowa Data Warehouse
 

What is the University of Iowa Data Warehouse?

A data warehouse is a copy of transaction data specifically designed to give decision makers instant access to information through the usage of query and reporting tools, enabling knowledge tools such as analysis, forecasting and trending.
The University of Iowa Data Warehouse is a collection of integrated institutional data which can be accessed by authorized Faculty, Staff, Administrators, Researchers, and Associated Personnel with a business need to know.
The University Data Warehouse receives its data from business transactional systems such as Millenium General Ledger, Peoplesoft HRIS and Financials, and Information Technology Services systems such as Admissions Master System ADMS.

Data Warehouse Philosophy

Partnership
The data warehouse is a collaborative effort between the Data Owner,  ITS and the end user.   Without the commitment, involvement and contribution of all parties, the data warehouse could not be a success.
Iterative Development
Our plan has been, and will continue to be, to develop iterative, locally planned, globally designed, subject areas within the datawarehouse.  This improves our time to delivery and allow us to focus on the critical need areas.
Integrated Access
The end user is empowered to develop their own reports and ad-hoc queries.  The end user determines how little, or how much, he wants to take advantage of the knowledge contained within the data warehouse.
Our warehouse is designed with relationships across all subject areas considered.  Conformance to standards, end user aggregate views, and centrally managed data all support global data access.
Variety of Access Techniques
ITS and our data stewards support the notion that the end user is most comfortable with the tool of their choice.  We do not limit or constrain the tool sets that you utilize to access the Data Warehouse.  We are continually looking at options and opportunities that will allow you to access the data, and more importantly, the information to do your job.  To this end, we see a multitude of tools ranging from MS Access, MS Excel, MS Query, Perl Reports, PHP, and Cold Fusion utilized.

How to increate the Value of the University Data Warehouse

Breadth of Usage
Make the resource available to more people.  The Web is a medium that will allow us to expand access to University Faculty and Staff, High School Counselors, and other external partners.
Increase Depth of Usage
The data warehouse allows us to ask new questions in different ways.  We need to equip our decision makers with the data and the tools to create predictive models and perform data mining to guide us in budgetary and process decisions.
Enhance Data Stewardship
Business users own the data, the meta data, and the service level agreements.  TO this end we could form an information management advisor group to guide the deliverable and support services of the Data Warehouse.
Manage for Change
The warehouse needs to continue to be flexible in its architecture and to be able to respond quickly to users needs and changes in their business processes and data specifications.
Robust Distributed Training
End users need to be equipped with the knowledge and support to utilize the tools and interpret the data available in the data warehouse.

Technical Overview

Operating Server:     Unix AIX
Data Server:                Oracle 8i
Storage Medium:       Storage Area Network (SAN)
Middleware:                Oracle SQL Net

Copyright © 2002 The University of Iowa. All rights reserved. Last updated on February 07, 2002 11:20 AM Questions or concerns about this webpage contact:  its-webmaster@uiowa.edu Search provided courtesy of Google.com