Data Warehouse Articles

Advanced Reporting: An Expert Guide

Nearly all business software includes the ability to generate reports that summarize important data and help companies keep tabs on operations. However, those reporting capabilities can vary widely, from basic to…

Data Drilling Defined: Drill Down Analysis for Business

Whether examining reports of sales revenue, production output or administrative expenses, it’s often valuable to examine the underlying data in more detail. That’s what data drilling is all…

Data Mart Defined: What It Is, Types & How to Implement

A significant hurdle for many companies is effective and useful data management. It can be difficult to comb through vast amounts of data to find meaningful information, it’s often siloed, queries can be time consuming…

Data Modeling Explained: Types & Benefits

When the first bits were dropped on the first hard-disk drive, it’s not likely that computer scientists imagined the onslaught of data just 50 years would bring. But those pioneers probably recognized that data management…

Data Storytelling: Next-Level Analytics Skills

Hard numbers are the basis of most good business decisions, but it’s not always easy to draw insights just by looking at a spreadsheet or table. Data storytelling takes raw data and turns it into a narrative that any manager…

Everything You Need to Know About Embedded Analytics

Discover how embedded analytics drives data-driven workflows. Plus, access resources, use cases and a decision tree to see if it’s right for your company.…

Extensibility in Business Intelligence Defined

Worldwide, organizations of every shape and size rely on software to help them solve the challenges of today while anticipating the opportunities of tomorrow. While the concept of agility may get more attention…

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Defined

LDAP is a standard way to get information into and out of a digital directory. It plays a key role in cybersecurity, especially authentication and authorization.

MOLAP Defined: Architecture, Advantages & Disadvantages

MOLAP systems store data in “cubes” that make business analytics fast — as long as analysts' queries can be anticipated. Here are the pros, cons and trade-offs.

Multi-Tenancy Defined

Today, most businesses use at least some cloud-based software, whether for personal productivity, enterprise resource planning (ERP) or videoconferencing. Some key business benefits of those cloud-based applications…

Open Architecture Defined: Advantages & When to Consider

An open architecture makes it easier for different computer systems to share software and data. That translates into major benefits for software developers and businesses.

Open Database Connectivity: What Is ODBC?

How ODBC lets you connect any application to different databases, how it works, its value for business intelligence and common misconceptions.

Operational Reporting: Types, Examples and Best Practices

Learn how leaders use operational reports to gather, process, and share data to make fast daily decisions. Plus, examples and best practices.

Pie Chart Defined: A Guide for Businesses

“The only worse design than a pie chart is several of them,” says Edward Tufte, noted statistician and professor emeritus of political science, statistics and computer science at Yale University. His 1983 book, “The Visual…

The Data Warehouse Defined: What It Is and How It Works

Deep data analysis has become indispensable to businesses. To remain competitive, companies of all sizes rely on analytics tools to glean insights from disparate data, monitor their KPIs and provide reports to support sound…

What Is a Data Lake? Types, Elements & Best Practices

Gleaning business insights through data analysis can help companies outperform competitors in a fast-changing business landscape. Vast amounts of data available to many companies makes data analysis even…

What Is a Data Scientist? What Do They Do?

A data scientist is a technical expert able to analyze and work with large data sets to solve complex business problems. They dig deep into massive amounts of information to identify what issues need to be addressed.…

What Is an API (Application Programming Interface)?

Application programming interfaces (APIs) are standardized methods for one software program to get information and services from another software program. They are a simple idea that has led to enormous…

What Is Actionable Reporting?

Given the ever-rising importance of data, it’s no question that reports play a crucial role in communicating insights gleaned from analyzing that information. Reports can provide clear key performance indicators (KPIs)…

What Is Ad Hoc Reporting & Analysis? Definition, Benefits & Goals

As the volume of data grows, so does its role in business decision-making. But for organizations to truly harness data’s value at any given moment, it must be easily accessible, accurate and up-to-date. Only then will decision-…

What Is Business Analytics?

Data-driven decision-making is essential for success in a competitive business environment. That’s why business analytics, which comprises the tools, processes and skills used to inform business decisions, is…

What Is Data Integration? Definition, Benefits & FAQs

Companies accumulate vast amounts of data. Take customer information, for instance, which is often stored in a variety of discrete places across an organization, from customer relationship management (CRM) systems and…

What Is Data Mining? How It Works, Techniques & Examples

In daily operations, a business collects data about sales, customers, production, employees, marketing activities and more. Data mining can help businesses extract more value from that critical company asset. The…

What Is Data Profiling? Benefits, Practices & Tools

Nearly all business software includes the ability to generate reports that summarize important data and help companies keep tabs on operations. However, those reporting capabilities can vary widely, from basic to…

What Is Diagnostic Analytics? How It Works and Examples

Determining the root causes of trends and events is critical to business success. Diagnostic analytics is designed to achieve that goal. It helps businesses delve into data to understand what’s driving trends and anomalies, such…

What Is HTML? An Intro to HyperText Markup Language

Any business that publishes content online can benefit from learning HTML, which tells web browsers how to render a page. This guide explains the fundamentals.…

What Is Metadata & Why Is It Important?

This guide explains how metadata provides additional information to help assets be located and used more efficiently, and explains its implications for usages rights, information sharing, and content reuse.…

What Is Metadata Management?

It’s the paradox of big data: The more you have, the more difficult it can be to locate and use it effectively. This is where metadata can help. Metadata is “data describing context, content and structure of records and their…