The first step in implementing Business Intelligence solutions is guaranteeing the quality of the information. Only with consolidated, normalised, single and consistent information can we actually run the business. That is why the process of Extracting, Transforming and Loading data (ETL) is fundamental to building the integrated database — the data warehouse. ETL and data warehouse solutions cover every one of those requirements for integrity, exploitation and analysis.
The need: with so much information, why is it so hard to use?
Everyone agrees that information is one of a company's most important assets: it represents real knowledge and marks the difference between succeeding and failing.
Consolidating information that comes from different systems is complex. Technology teams fall back on a string of manual processes that end up serving the end user too late.
Each area normally keeps its own interpretation of the data in isolated files, and because those do not match the central systems they breed mistrust. By the time the reports arrive the information is out of date, the window for action has closed and the frustration has grown.
In an ideal world all the information sits centralised in a single database: the data warehouse. It produces an integrated, live view of the business. It gives you “a single version of the truth”.
