Vendor DW packages 1

[sweetleaf]

Hi,

The company I work for is considering buying (instead of building) a DW package from a vendor that specializes in building DW's for financial services companies.

I attended a demo for the product and yes it is slick. That is the web gui had neat ad hoc querying capabilities, and it appeared quite scalable etc.. etc..

Nonetheless, at the heart of it all DW's are nothing more than specialized databases. In my mind, a vendor pkg DW will at most offer a robust data model. If a company already has its own data architects, specializing in each line of business, and ETL and BI teams, what would be the advantage of going out and buying a pkg DW? Has any body experienced something similar?

Any insights or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[johnherman]

Conventional wisdom says:
"If you buy an off the shelf system available to everyone else, you will obtain no competivite advantage from that system."

That being said, it's time to consider THIS situation. First, you are dealing with financial data. This data is somewhat regulated by laws, Wall Street expectations, and Generally Accepted Accounting Practices. So, maybe there isn't much competitive advantage to be gained.

Next, consider whether you will be given the capability to customize the model and process. If yes, and you have data architects on the payroll, you can use the purchased package as a starting point.

I currently work in Insurance, a business similar to finance in that it is regulated and there are generally accepted terminology and practices. Yet, we rejected the idea of going with a major vendor and their Insurance Information Model solution because we felt it was too general and would lock us into their solution.

One advantage of the package solution is that you can potentially reduce headcount because of the availabilty of a proven, documented data model and ETL process. But if your company is anything like mine, it will simply free up those resources to be used on other projects.

-------------------------
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw

 

[sweetleaf]

Thanks johnherman, as usual you're very insightful.
Yes, I didn't like the prospect of having to stretch an off the shelf product to the point where we might as have done the whole things ourselves.. while being locked into their technologies etc.
Headcount, like you'd mentioned, would simply be reallocated. I'm quickly beginning to think that the appeal of a pkg solution may be if there is no resident DW skill set in house.
Thanks again.