Information technology (IT) industry accounts for approximately 2% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Data centres use a significant amount of energy. This has become problematic during the last few years. Power intensities have been increasing over time, largely because of the increasing heat density of IT equipment. The number and usage of PCs have been rapidly increasing worldwide. By implementing IT sustainability programmes, organizations can drastically reduce the amount of energy spent, develop efficient technology products, keep e-waste out of landfills and adopt recycle and reuse programmes. Using more efficient technologies can help consume fewer resources and emit less waste. This article discusses various aspects of sustainable IT programmes and proposes sustainability metrics for IT to demonstrate a positive impact on the environment.

Metadata is essential for understanding information stored in data warehouses. It helps increase levels of adoption and usage of data warehouse data by knowledge workers and decision makers. A metadata model is important to the implementation of a data warehouse; the lack of a metadata model can lead to quality concerns about the data warehouse. A highly successful data warehouse implementation depends on consistent metadata. This article proposes adoption of an ETL (extracttransform-load) metadata model for the data warehouse that makes subject area refreshes metadata-driven, loads observation timestamps and other useful parameters, and minimizes consumption of database systems resources. The ETL metadata model provides developers with a set of ETL development tools and delivers a user-friendly batch cycle refresh monitoring tool for the production support team.

Traditional data warehouse projects follow a waterfall development model in which the project goes through distinct phases such as requirements gathering, design, development, testing, deployment, and stabilization. However, both business requirements and technology are complex in nature and the waterfall model can take six to nine months to fully implement a solution; by then business as well as technology has often changed considerably. The result is disappointed stakeholders and frustrated development teams. Agile development implements projects in an iterative fashion. Also known as the sixty percent solution, the agile approach seeks to deliver more than half of the user requirements in the initial release, with refinements coming in a series of subsequent releases which are scheduled at regular intervals. An agile data warehousing approach greatly increases the likelihood of successful implementation on time and within budget. This article discusses agile development methodologies in data warehousing and business intelligence, implications of the agile methodology, managing changes in data warehouses given frequent change in business intelligence (BI) requirements, and demonstrates the impact of agility on the business.

Organizations need to keep customer data safe and secure to run their everyday activities more credibly, promptly, and effectively. They need to use, and hence invest in customer database software to achieve these basic goals. Using well-designed software also allows them to increase operational efficiency of business. In this chapter, the authors discuss development of a customer inquiry database system for use by small businesses. The proposed database system is to help them store customer information, inquiries, and company product information too. The authors have used state-of-the-art software development technology to design and develop user interfaces (UI) for building business intelligence (BI) capability using this system. This chapter provides a holistic view of building a customer inquiry database system. The approach of an integrated view of customer inquiry system is different and offers more than the partial view of the existing literature or database system books on this issue.

A firm's competitive behavior is very important for its survival. Relevant stakeholders in an industry are interested in a firm's operational as well as financial performance. In order to gain competitive advantage, a firm must remain steadfast during changes it goes through over time. This is true for the computer industry as well. The computer industry has been advancing very fast and firms in the industry are experiencing fierce competition for many reasons. This study examines the computer industry in terms of Michael Porter's framework for analyzing the profitability. The authors conduct a critical analysis of the threat of new entrants into the computer industry segment, the bargaining power of suppliers in the industry, the bargaining power of buyers in the industry, the threat of substitute products or services, and rivalry among competitors in the industry. This study has implications for incumbent firms and new entrants into the computer manufacturing industry that evaluate competitive strategies in the industry.