Been there, done that. That’s how we ended up with multiple data
warehouses, data marts, and ERP, CPM and SCM solutions that need to be
reconciled. That’s why corporations are dealing with the mess of
multiple IT shadow systems – hundreds of Microsoft Access and Excel
files created by business users to perform their own data integration
and analysis. Talk about a huge cost and time sink for the business
users and IT staff!
In the absence of a plan or data warehouse architecture,
chaos will fill the void – another standalone application solution will
be implemented or more IT shadow systems will be built. Most businesses
grow by hard work and planning – data integration is the same. It’s
just like the old saying: "Failure to plan is planning to fail."