EXPERT RESPONSE
Many methods and best practices of data warehousing don't vary across industries. However, companies within particular industries may face many common issues. In the construction industry, we have seen companies challenged to source and combine data from multiple sources, both internal and external to the organization. As well, we often see a need to quantify and report on data from unstructured sources.
Fortunately, there are a number of tools out there that can help with these challenges. Informatica is probably the industry leader in this area. Informatica took a big step into unstructured data integration with their acquisition of Itemfield last year. However, there are also a number of other vendors who can provide similar or more specialized functionality.
There is no single data warehouse tool that is the right tool in every case, although the Microsoft BI suite is becoming quite common for smaller businesses. The key is to perform the due diligence necessary to understand your business requirements and find the set of tools that will meet your company's individual needs for functionality and growth. Even more important than the tools you select is the program that you establish for data governance and quality.
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