Shy and sometimes awkward, data warehousing comes of age

Data warehouses have become increasingly important to retailers as chains seek ways to gather information from a wide variety of operational databases. Data warehousing takes information from separate databases covering areas such as store level point-of-sale reports, inventory, purchasing, and logistics, then copies the information into a single central database. This database can then be accessed to gather information for reports without disrupting the tasks served by the operational databases.
Manufacturers gladly pay syndicated data companies for packaged, processed reports gleaned from retail point-of-sale data and demographic information. To the Proctor & Gambles and Levi Strausses of the world, it's [...]