Detangling Data

Situation

• A client wanted to know how much it was selling of its different product categories. Unfortunately, key attributes for the products were being concatenated into a single field in the client’s data warehouse. To make matters worse, the pattern of concatenation changed over time.

Solution

• Patrick Solutions used multiple strategies to untangle the client’s data, including working directly with the client’s third-party vendor. By compiling and integrating additional data sources, Patrick Solutions was able to add clarity to the product sales that had been hitherto unavailable. The resulting data mart was
  front-ended by a web-based query tool that the client could use to run reports.

Results

• For the first time, the client was able to see what categories of products were being purchased. The new intelligence was used by the highest levels in the company when negotiating deals with third-party product providers.