By: David J. Wardell

© 2001 By: David J. Wardell.  Reproduction or redistribution in any form without written permission is strictly prohibited.

In travel distribution, a simplified definition of data warehousing is the organization and normalization of the mass of transaction data agencies generate in ways that facilitate practical, useful queries and enhanced reports. The broader descriptions sometimes suggested by data warehousing purists follow as these essentials are understood and put in place.

Within this definition, the way data are collected and physically stored is less relevant than access and usability. Various information system tools are frequently termed "data warehousing" regardless of how well adapted they are to the tasks at hand.

It is perhaps helpful to visualize the data as being "warehoused" in that they are readied and stored in anticipation of specific user or reporting requirements. In this way access to the data is greatly facilitated and the likelihood of producing usable business decision support improved.

A useful illustration of the challenges and opportunities attending travel data warehousing is SatoTravel’s "InfoInsight," which is by far the most sophisticated such system in the travel distribution sector.

SatoTravel, based in Arlington, Virginia has for many years focused upon some of the world’s most demanding customers, including the military and government sector and multinational corporations. The agency had already created many of the tools needed to sustain the data correction and normalization required for data warehousing prior to its implementation last year, as a result of its ongoing customer commitments.

Built upon MicroStrategy’s widely used toolset, InfoInsight uses data from the agency’s proprietary back office system, SatoStar, which have been reconciled and normalized. InfoInsight is then used to produce a variety of reports that can be displayed at will on the user’s desktop.

All reporting activity takes place on the InfoInsight server. Users require only standard Internet access and browser technology, thus eliminating the need for specialized and expensive hardware or software to be deployed.

Key to the success of InfoInsight is its support of exceedingly flexible queries and reports.

Many data warehousing implementations require highly defined "standard" reports. Even where some reporting flexibility is offered, such systems require developers to anticipate the analysis users will perform. When users want to define wholly new reports or queries that were not considered by the developers, they are precluded from so doing without fundamental system changes even though the data exist in the database.

InfoInsight conversely allows any data in the database to be used for query and reporting purposes, including the ability to define wholly new reports at will. Users may also change the ways in which data are represented in queries and reports.

While construction and maintenance of InfoInsight’s dimensional database requires more centralized maintenance than competing approaches, one important advantage is that the agency need only support a single database and update process. Data warehousing strategies requiring extensive advance report definition frequently involve supporting multiple maintenance processes simultaneously, based upon customer requirements.

Agencies and their customers considering the potential benefits of data warehousing should investigate the real differences in approach and implementation of such tools. An optimized, efficient, and useful data warehouse is not synonymous with a "database" and requires significant investments in tools, planning, and development.

This emerging technology is an important step toward performing the business analysis that is the foundation for moving travel distribution to the next level of operational and planning efficiency.