Analyzing Source Document Input Oracle Tips by Burleson Consulting

The Data Warehouse Development Life Cycle

ANALYZING SOURCE DOCUMENT INPUT

GUTTBAUM’S GROCERY CLUB CARD

In order to capture information about each customer at the point of sale, it is necessary for each customer to identify themselves to the system. But, how can Guttbaum’s identify their customers? To create an information base, the Information Systems analysts sponsored a survey of characteristics among Guttbaum’s customers. The results of the survey are shown in Table 3.1.

Characteristic                                               Customer Response
Payment Method Pay by check                         (50%)
Pay by credit card                                          (30%)
Pay with cash                                                (20%)
Coupon Usage Use in-store sales promotions        (75%)
Use manufacturer’s coupons                              (5%)

Table 3.1 Results of Guttbaum’s customer survey.

So, if we examine the characteristics in Table 3.1, it becomes apparent that Guttbaum’s could identify 80 percent of their customers if they required customers to use a special card when paying by check or credit card. In addition, more of the cash customers could be identified if Guttbaum’s encouraged customers to use a card to take advantage of in-store price specials. Guttbaum’s estimates that capturing customer information at the point of sale will add millions of dollars in additional revenue by providing opportunities to:

* Target coupon mailings to specific customers.

* Analyze customer spending patterns, thereby enabling each store to stock according its particular customer base.

* Eliminate the need to place store coupons in newspaper advertisements.

Because of these compelling benefits, a new club was formed called the Grocery Club. Starting on a specific date, a Grocery Club Card would be required for a customer to pay for purchases by check or credit card. The Grocery Club Card would look just like a credit card, and it would be “swiped” at the checkout counter. In addition, all in-store promotions would be exclusively for Grocery Club members, thereby providing an incentive for casual shoppers to get a Grocery Club Card to take advantage of in-store sales.

---

This is an excerpt from "High Performance Data Warehousing", copyright 1997.

If you like Oracle tuning, you may enjoy the book Oracle Tuning: The Definitive Reference , with over 900 pages of BC's favorite tuning tips & scripts.  You can buy it directly from the publisher and save 30%, and get instant access to the code depot of Oracle tuning scripts.