Enterprise Data Warehousing and The Future of Business Software Systems

Enterprise data warehousing, a technology that powers organizational databases that are used mainly for reporting and analysis purposes, is not among those technologies that fuel media gossip but its importance for the future development of business software applications is nonetheless considered essential by all and every industry expert. Organizations, both government agencies and private enterprises need business software tools to analyze data and take insightful strategic decisions, while business intelligence tools largely rely on data warehouses to provide the necessary data integration and data access layers that make it possible for raw data to be transformed into readable reports in the application's interface.

To put it simply, data warehousing is an important element of all and every business software application in a global business environment where information is collected from numerous sources in real-time and where vast amounts of data must be stored, processed, and analyzed before taking an informed managerial decision. The technical details concerning this method and technology to store information in a reliable way and retrieve data for further reporting and analysis are not that important, but the main point is that data warehousing is now considered a must-have technology when the matter in question is to design and implement a reliable business application like an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and other kinds of enterprise-level software tools.

Usually, a large organization would deploy different source systems while enterprise data warehouses allow for integration of data from multiple sources, thus enabling managerial staff to get access to all data involved in strategic decision making. A great part of the functionality of business software systems like ERPs and customer relationship management (CRM) applications involves dealing with databases on top of which complex reports are produced. Therefore, all those systems incorporate data warehousing functionality to store, catalog, and retrieve data and meta-data.

All those business intelligence tools, like any other similar tool in the past, are essential in running a successful business, business analysts agree. Systems that feature enterprise data warehousing functionality are still evolving, adding collaboration and industry-specific capabilities, while analytical software applications are now provided both as standalone solutions and software-as-a-service tools. Nevertheless, the core functionality of those systems is all the same and enterprise data warehousing is the technology that allows those business intelligence tools to operate as intended.

Analytical processing and market research are so important in a global business framework that business intelligence is more decisive than ever before. In a fast-changing online environment it is not only about storing data in a reliable fashion but to process those data fast and produce trustworthy reports and analysis. Modern organizations simply cannot afford to save on data warehousing technologies and tools for enterprise data warehousing as a technology and a method provides one of those competitive advantages that would be decisive for the overall success of an organization in the years to come.