Data warehousing and decision making in construction organizations

In today's global and competitive construction industry, the need to make better and quicker decisions is critical; and the key to success is information. Timely access to useful and meaningful information can enable construction companies gain competitive edge, increase client satisfaction,expand market share and enhance profitability. It is evident that mounting business and economic pressures are forcing companies to radically redesign their information technology infrastructures. Vast amounts of construction operational data are scattered across multiple, dispersed and fragmented departments, units or project sites. To support collaborative construction, it is important not only to share the information, but also to manage that information in a manner that promotes meaningful integration. In this paper, we present data warehousing as an emerging database management technology that can provide the platform for information integration. We point out the difference between an operational database - used for transaction processing; and data warehouse - intended to be used for analytic processing in management decision making in the context of construction organizations. In addition, we show how data warehousing concept can be integrated into decision support systems of a construction organization.