ABSTRACT
Data warehousing has become a key technology in a client/server environment, and it promises to become even more important in the age of netcentric computing. This chapter explores the process that transforms data into information as the refining process. Successful data warehouses deliver focused solutions for specific user groups of analysts. Users are rarely knowledgeable enough about the ways of information technology to be able to take even content-rich information and manipulate it to support decision making. The information delivery facility (IDF) delivers a complete architecture. The most important component of architecture is the delivery of high-value information to end users. The IDF is most appropriate as support for making major business decisions, which must be supported by bringing together both internal and external data from multiple source systems and then transforming that data into accessible and usable knowledge.
