1. Take query load from operational systems
2. Consolidate information from various sources to one platform
3. Create environment for stashing historical information, not contained in OLTP systems.
4. De-normalize information to able to speed up reporting on large and complex data
5. Create one homogeneous source to draw information from, avoiding conflicting information sources (ad-hoc queries by different users with different company rules and interpretations)
T. Blom
Information analyst
tbl@shimano-eu.com