Organizational Forms of Data Warehousing: An Explorative Analysis

In business practice, data warehousing can be implemented on the basis of different architecture designs as well as being positioned within a company's organization in different ways. Although data warehousing is practiced by a large number of big companies, as yet no standardized organizational form has emerged as a recognized best practice. Instead, the implemented organizational forms vary enormously in some cases. This paper sets out to systematize the various organizational forms based on an empirical investigation among 96 enterprises which operate data warehouses. The identified clusters are characterized, and the consequences and challenges which arise are outlined