The creation of universal and foundation dimensions (I.e. customer dimension is exactly the same across all data marts) is a long haul and it needs a cross functional and cross-process engagement. It is better to progress a show-case data mart so to get a sponsorship for a Data Warehouse initiative (which will include the creation of universal dimensions and measures).

There is a more intrinsic challenge. Sometimes even the customer dimension within a data-mart (say at a departmental level), becomes very fluid as complete thinking is not done on the dimension construct. This is due to co-ordination issue within the department (campaign managers vs sales lead managers within the sales function) and simple skills issues. This leads to a frequent demand for changes to the dimension.

The first step is therefore to have a good customer dimension (a low hanging fruit) within a data-warehouse before targeting the organization wide universal and consistent dimensions.