Data Warehouse: Understanding Rei

John Smith Dr. Daniels 2/14/13 Chapter 5 Video Case 1. Data warehouses store current as well as historical data and are used for creating trending reports for senior management reporting such as annual and quarterly comparisons. REI is building a data warehouse because they want to better serve their customers with their products. The data ware house allows REI to make the customers experience with their company a much more fulfilling one ensuring their return. 2.Consumer cooperatives have some disadvantages in comparison to traditional firms. Consumer cooperatives require a high level of organization. Because the consumers are helping to make many decisions there are more legal responsibilities for the company. The company must listen to the consumers and also provide rules that the consumer cooperative must follow as a whole. While it is great for the consumers to be so involved, traditional firms have less of a hassle and don’t need to take so many extra steps when making d ecisions. . REI’s data warehouse will allow them to create more marketing strategies, specifically on their online shopping Website. With the use of the data warehouse, REI’s website will be able to recognize customers when they log on to the Website. By doing this, REI can tailor products or information to the customer each time they log on. 4. Some risks of creating a data warehouse would be organization.Without proper organization the company will not be able to achieve the strategic objectives set out by top management. This will make the company seem unprepared and ultimately give their customers an unpleasant experience. 5. REI chose to work with IBM data technology because IBM has very effective and organized systems that make managing the data warehouses simple and easy. This allows REI to make effective strategic objectives and marketing strategies for the company to follow and accomplish.