Book excerpt: The "father of data warehousing" incorporates the latesttechnologies into his blueprint for integrated decision supportsystems Today's corporate IT and data warehouse managers are required tomake a small army of technologies work together to ensure fast andaccurate information for business managers. Bill Inmon created theCorporate Information Factory to solve the needs ofthese managers. Since the First Edition, the design of the factoryhas grown and changed dramatically. This Second Edition, revisedand expanded by 40% with five new chapters, incorporates thesechanges. This step-by-step guide will enable readers to connecttheir legacy systems with the data warehouse and deal with a hostof new and changing technologies, including Web access mechanisms,e-commerce systems, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. Thebook also looks closely at exploration and data mining servers foranalyzing customer behavior and departmental data marts forfinance, sales, and marketing.