Competitive pressures and a thriving new economy have driven thousands of businesses around the world to make enormous investments in their information technology solutions. Investments in enterprise resource planningERP) software and customer relationship managementCRM) solutions arc only two examples of the new trends.Businesses useERP software to improve operational efficiency and increase profitability, andCRM solutions to automate customer interaction processes that improve customer service and increase sales productivity. hi today’s modem technological world, companies are data rich and information poor. The growing need to anticipate changing market conditions and customer preferences, develop intelligent business plans, and act proactively is fueled by the availability of critical information.And because so much of that essential information is locked away withinERP,CRM and other transaction-oriented systems, the need for data warehousing is more compelling than ever. Without the ability to move from data to information to knowledge to action, companies cannot stay competitive in today’s modem and ever changing economy.Early data warehousing efforts focused on separating the decision-support environment from operational transaction-processing systems. The ultimate goal was to create a centralized source of data for accurate, consistent reporting. The greatest cost of implementing data warehouses comes from the process of extracting, transforming and integrating data from source systems.