eBay has entered into an agreement to purchase computer equipment, software and related services to expand their data warehousing capabilities. According to a purchasing agreement reported in their second quarter SEC filing, eBay will pay a minimum of $16 million during a 30-month period ending in December 2004.
A data warehouse is a repository storing integrated information for efficient querying and analysis. When a user query is submitted to the warehouse, the needed information is already there, with inconsistencies and differences already resolved.
eBay mentioned at its user conference in June that it planned to make sales data accessible to its sellers, though it did not indicate if there would be a charge for doing so. eBay has talked with several companies to help it provide such information to users, according to CEO Meg Whitman, but "none have had the financial strength we need." Better information storage and retrieval capabilities in eBay's data warehouse would be crucial in allowing members efficient access to historic sales data.
