Chapter 3

1. The term “OLAP” is variously understood by software producers. Some associate it directly with the physical organization of data in a data warehouse, whereas others refer to it as tools that are designed for business reporting. Those tools are integrated into the data warehouse, sometimes even directly into the source systems, and have their own built-in data storage mechanisms. In this book, this term is used in reference to tools devised for business reporting and analysis, which are integrated with the properly designed and optimized data warehouse.

2. Codd, Codd, and Salley (1993).

3. http://www.olapreport.com/fasmi.htm.

4. This book does not discuss the implementation of star schema in various data models, which are called ROLAP, MOLAP, and HOLAP. For further details, see the recommended literature.

5. This is a data description language, according to the terminology of database management systems.

6. This is a data manipulation language, according to the terminology of database management systems.

7. In general, aggregation might be done by sum, average, count, and so on.

8. Formally, hierarchies within dimensions are modeled by so-called snowflakes.

9. Stoner, Freelman, and Gilbert (1995).

10. Stefanowicz (2007).

11. It is connected with the Aristotelian concept of hylomorphism, in which he assumes that a being consists of matter (gr. hyle, or “material”) and form (gr. morph, or “shape”).

12. Strategic management is usually defined as a process that consists of three stages (Johnson, Scholes, & Whittington, 2008): analysis (the strategy position), planning (strategy choices), and implementation (strategy in action). In such a context, strategic information encompasses support for strategic analysis and planning; monitoring of strategy implementation will be discussed in reference to managerial information (balanced scorecard).

13. Stefanowicz (2007).

14. Porter (1998).

15. Hammer and Champy (2003).

16. Rummler and Brache (1995).

17. Franceschini, Galetto, and Maisano (2007). A comprehensive review of KPI can be found in Paramenter (2007).

18. An example of a process event monitor is available at http://www.ids-scheer.com/

19. Giarratano and Riley (2004).

20. See, for instance, the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model at http://supply-chain.org/

21. Silverstone (2001).

22. Kaplan and Norton (1996).

23. Kaplan and Norton (1996).

24. Obłój (2007).

25. Simon (1997).

26. Johnson, Scholes, and Whittington (2008).

27. Fuld (1994).

28. Tyson (2002).

29. Fuld (1994).

30. According to Fulleborn and Meier (1999), “The problem does not lie in the lack of information, but in the lack of time that a manager would have to devote to the analysis of all available data…Therefore, the primary goal of strategic information systems should not be providing information, but its filtering.”

31. Look at the weak signal approach in strategy management (Day & Schoemaker, 2006).

32. Feldman and Sanger (2006).