If the business world were a social network, data would for sure be a trending topic, hashtag and all.  Due to the substantial role that data plays in corporate decision-making, data warehouses have relatedly become an extremely relevant tool for today’s businesses.  Whether or not this is your initial interaction with data warehouses, we understands if you have questions, simple or more in-depth.  What does management of a data warehouse entail?  Is it a tangible product?  How easy is implementation?  Are there certain reasons why a company would for sure need a data warehouse?  If these questions sound familiar, in regard to data warehousing with Intacct, this article is dedicated to delivering the answers you need, so you can better understand how a data warehouse can help you manage and analyze your company data.

What is the definition of a data warehouse?  Basically, a data warehouse is a multi-dimensional version of a database.  More specifically, they are virtual storage spaces and server-staged databases, and they can be hosted on a shared server or on their own server.  As a comparison, an external hard drive provides you the space to house multiple kinds of files and software, whereas modern data warehouses offer you a place to stage a number of diverse types of transactional and operational information.  One more way to understand a data warehouse: if you took an Excel spreadsheet and made it multiple dimensions, you could then order your transactional and operational data in more consolidated, intuitive, and streamlined ways, like a data warehouse does, eliminating issues with easy-to-use software.

Implementation?  In terms of data warehouse implementation and automation, commercial data warehouses typically come “out of the box,” which translates to an easy deployment, then replicating your key Intacct information and data from other sources.  A consultant who focuses on extracting, transferring, and loading (ETL) of your data will first install the data warehouse, then automate the ETL of your information from your data sources, like Intacct.  You also might be lucky and your BI vendor could have a pre-built integration to the Intacct Cloud.  After that, a consultant who specializes in streamlining and maximizing your financial reporting, planning, and visualization responsibilities will assist you in efficiently querying data from the warehouse, training you in the process.  Once you get your data warehouse configured and your team is trained, our favorite part about the device is that business end users across your organization can oversee the BI data store without having to involve the IT department for access to your data.

To continue learning more about data warehouses for Intacct, read the rest of this article here.