Although data is considered a valuable resource for organisations, its value comes from the insights and intelligence that can be produced once it is collated, processed and analysed.  Information Management professional, Liselle Ramcharan-Briscoe, discusses among other things: the types of data that could benefit from a data warehousing solution; when an organisation should consider moving to a data warehouse configuration; privacy and data protection issues that still must be considered; and why more organisations may actually need a data warehouse.

 

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Data is widely seen as the new oil, and a broad range of new professions have been emerging around interrogating and mining data to increase our understanding of specific situations, develop more robust strategies, and even influence consumer or public behaviour. To that end, the systems and processes to analyse data have become quite sophisticated, specialised and powerful, in order to process large volumes of data and produce the results envisaged.  

As organisations become more focused on drawing insights from the data they possess, there is the opportunity to consider the system they have in place for data analysis. Typically, as greater emphasis is placed on securing insights and intelligence, there is a move from an incoherent mixture of spreadsheets, databases and files, to a more cogent and specialist structure.

A well-regarded system that can be employed is a data warehouse, which is a centralised repository that integrates and optimises data from a variety of sources. In centralising the processing and analytic functions, several benefits can be realised such as having more consistent data and managed access with auditable and other controls, to ensure the integrity of the data is maintained.

In this episode, we discuss data warehousing with a focus on public sector uses, but the application is considerably wider. From a private sector perspective, for example. uses include:

  • facilitating Internet of Things integration
  • evaluating the effectiveness of sales or marketing campaigns, and
  • evaluating employee performance.

 

Introducing our guest

Liselle Ramcharan-Briscoe

Liselle Ramcharan-Briscoe is a Caribbean-born information management (IM) professional with a passion for data, project management (PM) and organisational change management (OCM). Liselle views meticulous planning and execution of IM, PM and OCM as the fundamental building blocks for a successful business.  Now a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Liselle brings over twenty years of expertise in information technology and project management, at the business, technical and consultative levels in various functional areas including insurance, finance, retail, media and telecommunications.

Liselle graduated from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine with an Honours Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a Master’s degree in Digital Systems. She earned her PMP from the Project Management Institute, as well as PM certificate and Oracle Data warehousing certificates from Humber College, Canada.

Her early years in the Caribbean as an engineering student exposed her to the importance of database modelling and database warehouse development. She then added project management and software engineering to her knowledge database, essential concepts she applied as she furthered her career journey into large-scale project management. Today, Liselle looks at solutions as end-user-focused applications that have an emphasis on functionality, usability and above all else, ensuring it supports the business in achieving success.

 

Insights into our conversation

Data warehousing is not a concept that is widely discussed in the Caribbean region, and it is likely that very few organisations are employing it. But as we become more serious about gaining insights from data, more robust systems will be essential.

In addition to discussing data warehousing and the ways in which it can be applied, we spent a fair bit of time focussing on the mindset shift that is needed around data in the region, and around governments more effectively using data. We also discussed matters related to privacy and data protection, which can sometimes get lost in our excitement to secure insight and intelligence from that source.

Below are key questions posed to Liselle during our conversation.

  1. What have you been up to?
  2. Why have you been so excited about data warehousing?
  3. How would you define data warehousing?
  4. From a Caribbean perspective, many might be thinking that we don’t have enough data for data warehousing to be viable or necessary. Is that true? What are some of the applications for which data warehousing should be considered?
  5. When might it be appropriate for an organisation to move from just having data on a few dedicated servers to a data warehouse configuration?
  6. Locating data warehouses in the Caribbean countries, and generally in the region, can be expensive – to set up, operate and maintain. However, there may also be some privacy and data protection considerations if data is stored outside a country. How can that situation be addressed?
  7. What are common challenges organisations tend to experience when adopting a data warehouse construct?
  8. What are three questions an organisation should ask to know whether it needs a data warehouse?
  9. What are three questions an organisation should ask when selecting a data warehouse solutions provider?

 

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Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.

Let’s make it happen!

 

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Images credit: L Ramcharan-Briscoe; Ugochukwu Ebu (Pixabay); Elchinator (Pixabay); Andrzej Rembowski (Pixabay)

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell

Podcast editing support:  Mayra Bonilla Lopez