NEWS Data warehousing proves a driving force for Rover

Multi-million project cuts costs and rationalises data marts for car maker

WHEN it comes to data warehousing, there is not much room for naysayers at the IT shop run by Rover Group?s information architecture manager Kim Hathrell, writes Lisa Kelly.

Although the car manufacturer?s massive data warehouse is still under construction after two-and-a-half years and #2 million in costs, Hathrell is sure the project has paid for itself.

Hathrell said: ?It?s a long time in some people?s eyes, but it involved a big programme change with no knowledge of data management in the company.?

Hathrell would not reveal in detail Rover?s return on its investment, but said: ?A company with a #6.5 billion turnover like Rover must look for the 0.1% savings opportunities. On the surface it looks like silly decimal points, but it translates to a #6.5 million saving.?

Hathrell said the data has already enabled the rationalisation of Rover?s suppliers and allowed the company to put its supply directory online, wiping out annual printing costs of #6,000.

She said: ?Our biggest mistake was not involving the business people early enough ? the people who know the business, the data, the systems and the unwritten rules of business processes.?

Hathrell said quality of data was another issue. ?You must have enough data of good quality so you can apply the extra level of business intelligence and online analytical processing tools on top of a stable, well-understood set of data,? she said.

Back in 1994-95, Rover?s old-style stand-alone Teradata data marts ? departmental or application specific databases ? were bedevilled by uncertain data quality and mixed support and management processes.

Now the data warehouse programme continues to create new databases within a formal architecture while also providing some links with the legacy databases in the Teradata environment.

?People are now free to exploit the information in their systems,? said Hathrell.