In a previous blog entry I started describing the benefits of the Data Vault especially for the business, that not always is willing to understand why a data warehouse architecture is required to support reporting and planning processes. Another three good reasons to want to implement Data Vault are further described below.

Data preservation
The Data Vault concept serves in capturing the transactional data in such a way that initial transactions and all modifications to these transactions are preserved. This information is  properly kept and timestamped so each status of the source system can be restated for examination purposes. This is particularly interesting for those companies that rely on source systems that are being modified on a regular basis and that have no capability whatsoever to log modifications entered in the system (neither the data nor the person that made the modification).

By capturing all changes in the Data Vault, past statuses of the data can be preserved. Fraud detection is possible. Errors can be detected and -if the source system allows this- corrected. When source systems are being changed dramatically or even disposed of and replaced by new systems data is preserved in such a way that it is not required to keep the original system up and running for data reference purposes. Historical and current data from the old source systems can be feed into the new system provided the data can be transformed to meet the requirements of the new data model in the acquired source system.

Enhanced auditability and traceability of data
In relation to this last topic it follows that it is much more easy to trace the whereabouts of data and the modifications it underwent allowing every interested party (not only the auditor) to really investigate the transparancy of a source system. Isn’t it ironic that today still a concept like Data Vault is required to provide source system transparancy? The Data Vault facilitates in storing the origin of the data, it’s master-data (or descriptive data) and the meta-data describing the processes invoked on the (master)data AND the modifications that were applied at ANY moment in time. Companies that embraced the Data Vault concept already noticed that the cost of expensive auditors and accountants dropped dramatically. Next to that their employees could continue adding value for the organization instead of having to run around chasing data and information to satisfy the demands of these external parties.

Ease of integration of new mergers and acquisitions
Addnig new sources to an existing data warehouse can be a real burden in more traditional data warehouse models. Especially when mergers and acquisitions are the cause. Quite often the newly acquired source systems and accompanying business processes don’t match the way the original data warehouse was set up.The Data Vault however allows for simply adding the new sources to the data warehouse by creating a new set of tables, that can be linked to the existing structures. There is no need to modify any of the existing structures, so there is NO impact on existing reporting. Thus extending the existing data warehouse is a lineair process in both time and money. Again more effort can be put in understanding the new business requirements. Now in relation to integrated reporting when the M&A’s are concerned.