Quiz January, 2012 – The Dreaded Time Zone Question

WARNING: This month’s quiz is harder than it seems at first!  Are you up to it?

We recently worked with a client that does business all around the world. They capture millions of transactions which they then bring into a dimensional data warehouse for analysis.

The problem is that this company, and their customers, need to analyze their data indexed to any time zone. So, for example, if a transaction takes place in Mumbai at 0200, it might be analyzed in the Mumbai time zone as 0200 or the New York time zone as 1530 or as any other time zone in the world.

Now the question; assuming a standard relational database, what is the best way to model this data to provide correct time and date results as well as adequate query response time?

HINT: In formulating your answer, consider the impact of date, not just time. 

 

Client-facing Project Lead / DW Architect

OVERVIEW:	Are you an undeniably strong BI & DW expert who can play a senior-level role as we expand our professional consulting business?  Do you want to build a BI / DW career in an environment with similarly-focused professionals?  Are you excited by the prospect of letting your true value drive your compensation?
RESPONSI-BILITIES:	Design & implement data warehouse & business intelligence systems Manage project teams Interface with clients Contribute to Dataspace sales and marketing efforts Develop skills in new technologies
SUCCESS CRITERIA:	Satisfied clients Successful completion of projects on budget & schedule Recurring work Account growth Flexibility and team orientation
LOCATION:	Ann Arbor, MI base preferred but not required Possible  travel 4 – 5 days / week on billable assignments
START DATE:	1 July 2011
REQUIRED SKILLS:	Data modeling (normalized & denormalized) DW Architecture design Implementation of BI & DW tools Workplan development and management Client interface skills
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE:	DW architecture design and development Overall design Requirements gathering Report design Src – tgt mapping Data model development (normalized & denormalized) Use of at least one BI tool Use of at least one ETL tool Project team management
OTHER REQUIRE-MENTS:	Bachelor’s degree
DESIRED SKILLS:	QlikView development
DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE:	Consulting experience
DESIRABLE CERTIFICATIONS:	CBIP BI and / or ETL tool certifications PMP
BACKGROUND INFORMATION	Dataspace serves customers in both strategic BI consulting and BI project staffing .  We have identified a number of opportunities to expand the consulting side of our practice and are looking for an accomplished, energetic consultant to help us manage and deliver on these opportunities.
APPLICATIONS	To apply, please send your resume, cover letter, immigration status, and contact information to: recruiting@dataspace.com.

The Ten Commandments of Business Intelligence (with all due credit to Moses and his Supervisor)

I. If you’re not omnipotent, business intelligence is the closest you’re going to get.

Business intelligence, properly implemented, provides all stakeholders in an organization with a common view of what has happened, and with advanced analytics capabilities, can even predict the future.

II. It’s ok – there are many business intelligence technologies, and they serve varying purposes.

Unlike monotheism, we preach, uh, polytechnologism – the concept that there is no one right technology for all users, and that in fact, an optimal business intelligence implementation may use different technologies to meet the needs of different users. (More)

III. You shall make for yourself a data model (or we can do it for you, if that’s easier).

The true value of business intelligence comes from integrating data originating in disparate sources.  To do this correctly, you’ll need to identify the data sources and how they relate.  We’ve co-authored many books on this topic, and can help you realize the true value that can be derived from looking at your data in new ways.

IV. Remember to backup your data.

And the Sabbath day’s not a bad time to do it, since, after all, we’re not working, right?

V. Honor your transactional systems.

The most effective reporting and analysis comes from data that has been sourced from transactional systems, then cleansed (to remove erroneous data) and integrated.  We can report directly off of operating systems as a starting point, though we never put at risk mission critical applications.

VI. You shall not kill your executives by inundating them with unnecessary detail.

We can build for you an executive scorecard that displays key performance indicators in a nice, graphical display.  No need to be the “I’ll just manage in the dark” type any longer.

VII. You shall not commit business adultery.

Select one business intelligence vendor (Dataspace, perhaps) and let us help you determine which technologies will meet all your reporting and analysis needs.

VIII. You shall not steal.

And neither shall your employees.  We can find any that do.  We’ve used our technologies to uncover those lying, ne’er-do-wells, and provided the documentation to take action.  Unfortunately, any children you have in this category are beyond our expertise…

IX. You shall not bear false witness.

Here’s the crazy thing – you may be doing this already, albeit unintentionally.  We’ll help you look at what your data really says, and organize it so you can put it to use.

X. You shall not covet your competitor’s business intelligence systems.

Do you wonder how a particular competitor seems to ‘get it right’ time-after-time?  It’s not clairvoyance – it’s likely that they’re using the same type of technology we can implement for you.  And, with recent advances, we can do it for little up-front cost and a low monthly subscription.

Contact us to discuss further.  You’ll have to use a phone or email, praying alone probably won’t get through to us.

(The Ten Commandments here.)