by Daniel J. Power
Editor, DSSResources.com

Major advantages include:

1. Developing a data warehouse (DW) forces an organization to better understand the data that it is currently collecting and opportunities to collect additional data.

2. A data warehouse provides a centralized view of data collected in an enterprise.

3. A data warehouse provides a single version of the "truth". A DW provides consistent, reliable data about company facts, such as revenue or the number of employees.

4. With a data warehouse, snapshots of data can be taken over time. A DW can create a historical record of data, which allows for an historical and trend analysis.

5. A data warehouse with business intelligence software provides tools to combine, display and aggregate data. Tools like dashboards provide information and summarize analyses.