In its 1996 Data Warehouse Roadmap, the Data Warehouse Institute outlines a number factors which help justify investment in a data warehouse. The Institute envisions these factors as only a starting block and maintains, logically, that every organization needs to review, at greater depth, the benefits of such an investment in its own unique business environment. With this in mind, following is a look at the benefits of data warehousing, using these factors as a framework. But first, what is a data warehouse and how does it differ from a transactional database.?Data Warehouse Defined
A data warehouse is essentially a large-scale central database loaded with information from multiple operating databases, for the express purpose of easy end-user access and decision support. It consolidates disparate data sources, making available the resources to support information generation critical to making strategic business decisions.
A data warehouse differs from a transactional system in that the data it contains is static and updated in a scheduled manner in massive loads. Data from multiple and disparate operational systems is brought into a data warehouse and "normalized." In this new environment, previously prohibitive data formats are stripped away, leaving a virtually limitless, user-friendly, uniform data format. In other words, a data warehouse readies inaccessible, disparate data for transformation into usable business information. This fact alone spawns the majority of the benefits of data warehousing. These benefits include, but are not limited to, the following:
Newly Enabled Workers
Historically, employees in need of strategic information have chosen from a limited number of reports available through MIS, submitted a request, and waited for as long as 30 days to get results. In addition, most healthcare organizations have been burdened by a multitude of disjointed sources of information. With a data warehouse, all of this disparate data can be pulled together and put into the hands of users. A data warehouse is specifically developed to give users the ability to explore data in an unlimited number of ways, accommodating essentially any query a manager could dream up, and providing access to the data sources which are behind the results. A data warehouse affords this ability to an increased number of employees, reduces the MIS report load and provides improved response time.
The user-driven nature of a data warehouse allows for exploration by users with a wide range of computer literacy, providing ready views for less experienced users and drill down and open query capabilities for those with more advanced skills. This benefit is particularly relevant considering the widespread decrease in the numbers of middle managers, who historically played the role of preparing and summarizing data for upper management.
Exposure to New Business Opportunities/Improved Cost Control
There are endless ways management can utilize a data warehouse for business gain. One is user-defined investigative querying. A manager, for example, can investigate resource utilization by a particular group of doctors or for a healthplan's different lines of business. In addition, a data warehouse performs a second, and very valuable, function by examining data for trends and abnormalities which users may not know to look for. In this way, the system can lead users toward hidden business opportunities and cost centers. For example, a data warehouse could assist healthcare organizations in detecting erroneous or fraudulent billing, identify patient or provider trends or uncover seemingly insignificant pockets of loss which, over extended periods, could become significant.
Improved Customer Bond
In addition to the constant pressure to reduce costs, healthcare organizations are increasingly confronted with demands to improve the quality, of care. As is often the case, knowledge is one key to improving the quality of care and thereby improving customer satisfaction. A data warehouse can help healthcare organizations watch trends in patient care and physician practices, utilize quality care measurements, and apply this knowledge for improved customer satisfaction.
For a healthcare organization, however, the patient is only one of many customers. Others include employers, providers, and the government. A data warehouse can help an organization meet the needs of these customers as well through decreased response time and improved reporting. Whether "customers" means patients, providers or whomever, an organization stands to benefit greatly by knowing its customers better.
Precise Marketing Tools
In addition to serving customers better, the knowledge gleaned through a data warehouse can improve a healthcare organization's reach to potential customers. Data warehouse reports can provide solid proof of the benefits the plan can offer, including indications of quality and efficiency of care. These "bragging rights" can help a healthcare organization differentiate itself from its competition. A data warehouse can aid in detecting geographic or demographic segments of the marketplace which remain untapped and help show the best way to reach out to these potential members. In addition, a data warehouse can help managers anticipate changes on the business horizon and assist them in altering their marketing plan accordingly. Finally, managers can utilize a data warehouse to measure the effectiveness of a particular marketing campaign, helping further maximize marketing dollars.
The obvious result of effective marketing and improved customer satisfaction is increased revenue. By engaging in more precise marketing tactics and more effectively meeting the needs of existing customers, an organization can increase its awareness and draw in business, thereby increasing its revenue intake. Also affecting revenue is the decision to enter new markets or offer new products or services.
A data warehouse can bolster revenue in more subtle ways as well. For example, information gleaned from a data warehouse can assist a managed care plan in deciding which type of contract to offer a potential member group. After simulating costs and profitability with different contract options, a healthplan can develop a more targeted proposal for a potential client, not to mention delivering a convincing sales presentation, complete with solid evidence of the plan's merits.
Ability to Respond More Rapidly to Key Business Events
It is important to think of a data warehouse as a strategic business tool. While the warehouse system itself may fall under the heading of information technology, the purpose of, benefits of, and responsibility for a data warehouse fall to management. A data warehouse is only as good as its ability to guide management in making strategic business decisions for the organization. Rapid reporting response and unlimited access to information translate into improved ability to anticipate, guide and respond to changes in a dynamic business atmosphere.
Ability to Respond More Rapially to Market and Technology Trends
By being aware of the marketplace and future trends, a healthcare organization can take advantage of the "first mover" principle, creating ownership of new offerings in the minds of consumers by coming to market first. A data warehouse can also help a healthcare organization forecast the potential profitability of new products and services and extend the life cycles of existing ones by adapting them appropriately. This is, once again, a result of knowing the customer and the marketplace.
Conclusion
While data warehousing is a significant task to undertake, the potential benefits are tremendous. The bottom line, however, is that it can help an organization succeed financially.
Ideally, warehousing should be viewed as an ongoing activity, wherein it is essential for managers to be intricately involved in planning, to reprogram the way they do business, and to make the warehouse an indispensible advisor. By incoporating the technology fully into business practices and by seeking to further apply the information available, a healthcare organization can assure that it is realizing maximum return on its investment in data warehousing.
Data Warehousing:
What's In It For You?
* Newly Enabled Workers
* Exposure to New Business Opportunities/Improved Cost Control
* Improved Customer Bond
* Precise Marketing Tools
* Increased Revenue
* Ability to Respond More Rapidly to Key Business Events
* Ability to Respond More Rapidly to Market and Technology Trends
A data warehouse is essentially a large-scale central database loaded with information from multiple operating databases, for the express purpose of easy end-user access and decision support. It consolidates disparate data sources, making available the resources to support information generation critical to making strategic business decisions.
A data warehouse differs from a transactional system in that the data it contains is static and updated in a scheduled manner in massive loads. Data from multiple and disparate operational systems is brought into a data warehouse and "normalized." In this new environment, previously prohibitive data formats are stripped away, leaving a virtually limitless, user-friendly, uniform data format. In other words, a data warehouse readies inaccessible, disparate data for transformation into usable business information. This fact alone spawns the majority of the benefits of data warehousing. These benefits include, but are not limited to, the following:
Newly Enabled Workers
Historically, employees in need of strategic information have chosen from a limited number of reports available through MIS, submitted a request, and waited for as long as 30 days to get results. In addition, most healthcare organizations have been burdened by a multitude of disjointed sources of information. With a data warehouse, all of this disparate data can be pulled together and put into the hands of users. A data warehouse is specifically developed to give users the ability to explore data in an unlimited number of ways, accommodating essentially any query a manager could dream up, and providing access to the data sources which are behind the results. A data warehouse affords this ability to an increased number of employees, reduces the MIS report load and provides improved response time.
The user-driven nature of a data warehouse allows for exploration by users with a wide range of computer literacy, providing ready views for less experienced users and drill down and open query capabilities for those with more advanced skills. This benefit is particularly relevant considering the widespread decrease in the numbers of middle managers, who historically played the role of preparing and summarizing data for upper management.
Exposure to New Business Opportunities/Improved Cost Control
There are endless ways management can utilize a data warehouse for business gain. One is user-defined investigative querying. A manager, for example, can investigate resource utilization by a particular group of doctors or for a healthplan's different lines of business. In addition, a data warehouse performs a second, and very valuable, function by examining data for trends and abnormalities which users may not know to look for. In this way, the system can lead users toward hidden business opportunities and cost centers. For example, a data warehouse could assist healthcare organizations in detecting erroneous or fraudulent billing, identify patient or provider trends or uncover seemingly insignificant pockets of loss which, over extended periods, could become significant.
Improved Customer Bond
In addition to the constant pressure to reduce costs, healthcare organizations are increasingly confronted with demands to improve the quality, of care. As is often the case, knowledge is one key to improving the quality of care and thereby improving customer satisfaction. A data warehouse can help healthcare organizations watch trends in patient care and physician practices, utilize quality care measurements, and apply this knowledge for improved customer satisfaction.
For a healthcare organization, however, the patient is only one of many customers. Others include employers, providers, and the government. A data warehouse can help an organization meet the needs of these customers as well through decreased response time and improved reporting. Whether "customers" means patients, providers or whomever, an organization stands to benefit greatly by knowing its customers better.
Precise Marketing Tools
In addition to serving customers better, the knowledge gleaned through a data warehouse can improve a healthcare organization's reach to potential customers. Data warehouse reports can provide solid proof of the benefits the plan can offer, including indications of quality and efficiency of care. These "bragging rights" can help a healthcare organization differentiate itself from its competition. A data warehouse can aid in detecting geographic or demographic segments of the marketplace which remain untapped and help show the best way to reach out to these potential members. In addition, a data warehouse can help managers anticipate changes on the business horizon and assist them in altering their marketing plan accordingly. Finally, managers can utilize a data warehouse to measure the effectiveness of a particular marketing campaign, helping further maximize marketing dollars.
The obvious result of effective marketing and improved customer satisfaction is increased revenue. By engaging in more precise marketing tactics and more effectively meeting the needs of existing customers, an organization can increase its awareness and draw in business, thereby increasing its revenue intake. Also affecting revenue is the decision to enter new markets or offer new products or services.
A data warehouse can bolster revenue in more subtle ways as well. For example, information gleaned from a data warehouse can assist a managed care plan in deciding which type of contract to offer a potential member group. After simulating costs and profitability with different contract options, a healthplan can develop a more targeted proposal for a potential client, not to mention delivering a convincing sales presentation, complete with solid evidence of the plan's merits.
Ability to Respond More Rapidly to Key Business Events
It is important to think of a data warehouse as a strategic business tool. While the warehouse system itself may fall under the heading of information technology, the purpose of, benefits of, and responsibility for a data warehouse fall to management. A data warehouse is only as good as its ability to guide management in making strategic business decisions for the organization. Rapid reporting response and unlimited access to information translate into improved ability to anticipate, guide and respond to changes in a dynamic business atmosphere.
Ability to Respond More Rapially to Market and Technology Trends
By being aware of the marketplace and future trends, a healthcare organization can take advantage of the "first mover" principle, creating ownership of new offerings in the minds of consumers by coming to market first. A data warehouse can also help a healthcare organization forecast the potential profitability of new products and services and extend the life cycles of existing ones by adapting them appropriately. This is, once again, a result of knowing the customer and the marketplace.
Conclusion
While data warehousing is a significant task to undertake, the potential benefits are tremendous. The bottom line, however, is that it can help an organization succeed financially.
Ideally, warehousing should be viewed as an ongoing activity, wherein it is essential for managers to be intricately involved in planning, to reprogram the way they do business, and to make the warehouse an indispensible advisor. By incoporating the technology fully into business practices and by seeking to further apply the information available, a healthcare organization can assure that it is realizing maximum return on its investment in data warehousing.
Data Warehousing:
What's In It For You?
* Newly Enabled Workers
* Exposure to New Business Opportunities/Improved Cost Control
* Improved Customer Bond
* Precise Marketing Tools
* Increased Revenue
* Ability to Respond More Rapidly to Key Business Events
* Ability to Respond More Rapidly to Market and Technology Trends
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