I was reading the Financial Post newspaper on Saturday and ran across this great article Camisoles & Cabbages by Hollie Shaw. It was great on coverage of the evolution of the Canadian leading retailers in their quest for more revenue and a defence against our friends from the US.
I was immediately struck by how this evolution and the first quote:
"I didn’t come here to buy this," said mother of three Andrea Carroll,
perusing a selection of colourful $15 bras at a Loblaw’s Real Canadian
Superstore in Toronto last week. "But it’s easy to pick up extra things
like this when you’re in here."
The fact that the article of clothing in this case was there and readily accessible meant that it was an option to buy.
When working with Enterprise Data Warehouses, this very thing is the secret sauce and added value that happens by bringing the data into one spot. You may not have thought about the question or issue you were trying to solve, but once you saw the data you could now approach the situation a little different and get an answer you may not have thought possible before. This is not hidden value, but items that you would not have known were there if you had to go and look for it in another location. Hence the metaphor.
