A Data Administration Success Story at Elkay Manufacturing or You Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone

In the 1980's, Data Administration was established at Elkay Mfg. and quickly became a member of Chicago DAMA. Insight gleaned from DAMA participation over the last 20 years has contributed to Elkay’s data success story.

From the start DA developed and published standards, documentation and repeatable procedures. DA participates in key corporate and department initiatives and was heavily involved in choosing our ERP. Once chosen, DA was responsible for incorporating and converting Elkay's data. The foundation of good practices and established standards contributed to a smoother data conversion when we went live in 1999 and again when we upgraded in 2004.

Elkay established a data warehouse in the early 1980’s. DA participates in every aspect of the data warehouse and is responsible for all table loading. DA also provides data training at all levels with the organization. Most recently DA, with our strong business background and system knowledge was a valuable resource on Elkay’s first Executive Dashboard project.

• DA is involved in corporate technology decisions and department initiatives
• DA sets and enforces standards for tables & field naming
• DA is responsible for the data warehouse table creation, loading and security
• DA makes all physical table changes in our production environment
• DA trains employees on warehouse data usage and structure
• DA provides business knowledge of the “BIG PICTURE”