We at IDS know that an understanding of technology is insufficient to fulfill the knowledge needs of an enterprise. To generate knowledge from data, an understanding of business process, technology and knowledge is what is needed. We bring all these skills to bear in developing data warehouses. It is important to remember that data warehousing is not a case of implementing a technology. It involves analyzing a business requirement and delivering a methodology that can service that requirement.
The ability to convert data to knowledge. We excel in our understanding of how data can be converted to knowledge. Your operational systems are filled with data (measurements, numbers and figures) and most of your operational systems are able to give you some information (Data endowed with meaning e.g. 300 customers bought product X last month). We know how to convert this information into knowledge (actionable information e.g. Sales of product X have dropped by 10% per month for the last 3 months but inventory levels have remained constant) that will improve your profitability (reduce the product's re-order level or place the product on promotion). This excellence is due the quality of our consultants, most of whom have honed their knowledge building skills through postgraduate studies in business, finance, science or engineering.
The ability to use any technology appropriate to our clients needs. We are not bound to any one technology and will thus not be tempted to use a technology inappropriately. Too often we see technology being used to try and answer questions that is was not designed to address. Predictably this costly misuse of technology impacts negatively on staff attitude and the bottom line. Every enterprise has its own specific set of needs and future plans which will determine which technology they will find appropriate. An enterprise based on an NT network and other Microsoft products will struggle to get to grips with an Oracle data warehouse running under UNIX. By sticking with what they know best, Microsoft products, this enterprise will be able to integrate and support a data warehouse with ease if they use MS-SQL and SQL-based tools. They may find that the extra performance that Oracle / Unix may have offered was in reality unnecessary for their needs. We understand this and have the skills to implement a data warehouse on most major platforms and database systems.
An excellent knowledge of leading edge business process. We have extensive experience in creating knowledge from data as we have worked with some of South Africa's largest and most knowledge dependant companies such as Old Mutual, ABSA and Santam. Through working with these companies, we have honed our knowledge of leading edge business processes and its knowledge requirements. We are aware of the growing trends and the terminology of a number of industry sectors, our greatest experience being in the banking and insurance sectors. When a client asks for a money laundering compliance report or broker profitability report we are able understand the client's terminology and only require minimal time to acquaint ourselves with the specifics of the individual requirement.
The ability to provide skills that cover the needs of data warehousing, from inception to construction to staff training to maintenance. We view warehousing as a process and believe that if the process is to be performed successfully it must be carried out by a team that understands each step of the process and how these steps relate to each other. All our consultants have an excellent knowledge of the warehousing process and are able to perform each step of the process. We also encourage our consultants to develop their skills in as wide a range of enabling technologies as possible so that we can bring value to our clients no matter what their technology requirements are. This combination of a broad skills base and an in depth knowledge of the warehousing process means that we are able to fulfill all your warehousing requirements.
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