Next is access

Once you have found the person who can do the analysis, and you have provided the software, the next thing is access to the data.

Your organization maintains a wealth of data, but at the moment it is just that - data. There is no information and no knowledge can be created and no wealth generated. It is the ability to use this data, and the first step is access.

Data is maintained in massive databases, data warehouses, and other behemoth structures that are deemed by many to be off-limits, outside the corporate applications that managed the data.

Yes these applications also report on the data, but the reports are only derived from the previous experience of what someone thinks your organization needs. The information generated from these reports is generally weak, when trying to create knowledge.

So one needs access outside the limits of the corporate applications and the severe limitations of a database management structure.

One needs to SEE the data. (More on this in a later entry.)

You can't see the data unless you have access to it. And by access I don't mean the trivial level of being able to manipulate data cubes. (More on those later as well!)

When analyzing and playing with the data in a database, one has to be able to see the data into a step, and see the results out of the step. (Boy more topics just come to mind as I write this.)

A true analyst will spend some time just looking up and down the rows of data. What is in there? How will it react to various tests? What happens when I do this? Why is that strange value there? etc. etc. etc.

Without access to the raw data, thes questions are impossible. Though it is these questions that are at the heart of developing a data rich, information rich organization.

Therefore granting access to your chosen analyst, and affording the opportunity to see and play with the data, will begin the transformation to data rich, information rich.

The final word of this blog entry is read-only. That is all one needs. Manipulation happens outside the data structures and causes no harm to the database.