Not surprisingly, businesses are expected to spend an estimated USD 7 billion on data warehousing worldwide in the coming year.

The Data Warehousing practice at global consulting major PriceWaterhouseCoopers assists clients in planning and designing support systems ranging from small data marts to large data warehouses.

The Financial Express met with Larry Gosselin, director PriceWaterhouseCooper's global Data Warehousing practice, to discuss trends in data warehousing. Excerpts:

In which industry sectors have data warehousing solutions gained maximum popularity?
Data warehousing has been used extensively in retailing. In fact, US-based retailing giant Wal Mart is said to have the world's largest customer database. Other sectors that have been quick on the uptake are financial services, retail banking, telecommunications and, more recently, e-business. There is tremendous potential for data warehousing in net-based companies from the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) standpoint.

`Click stream data' and `web log data' can provide net-based companies with a virtual goldmine of information. Data warehousing can furnish companies with crucial answers such as-`at what point are consumers abandoning their web sites without making any purchases?' or `has the consumer made purchases on the site before?' These can help companies in computing the relevant page hits on the site, besides helping create a well-structured, consumer friendly web site and a personalised web experience.

What applications have acted as drivers for data warehousing so far?
In the last six to eight years, over 65 percent of the databases have been collated in the sales and marketing area. Other areas where the use of data warehousing is gaining currency are supply chain management - primarily in the e-business scenario, and the human resources area within organisations where B2E or `business to employees' is a buzzword.

CRM and e-business will be key drivers of growth for data warehousing in the US and Europe in 2000-2001.

How does PWC differentiate its services from that of other data warehousing service providers?
At PWC the data warehousing practice is large. We have 1,600 people working on data warehousing projects across the globe. We made USD 450 million in the US market last year.

We help our clients in the area of strategy, implementation and reselling. However, the value we bring in to our clients goes beyond technology. Data warehousing technology is only part of the solution, the key is knowing how to apply it to our client's specific business needs and unique competitive environment. When the situation requires experience outside our domain, we call on our consultants and partners with the background and knowledge needed to deliver solutions. Industry expertise is what sets us apart from the other consultants providing data warehousing services.

What has your experience in the Indian market been like?
We entered the Indian market for data warehousing two years ago. We are currently working on seven projects within the country. Businesses in India have begun to take notice of the benefits of data warehousing. Companies in financial services, telecommunications and energy have evinced considerable interest in the same. The excitement in the market is palpable. Where the industry had very little idea about the concept as recently as a year and a half ago, seminars organised by us on the subject attract corporates in large numbers.

Having invested in robust automation systems such as ERP, most companies in the country are looking at ways of leveraging the infrastructure further by implementing tools such as data warehousing and mining. Growth in e-business will fuel the need for high end data warehousing solutions further.