Welcome to my expert channel on data integration for the BeyeNETWORK.

You're probably familiar with the narrow definition of data integration - that it is merely extract, transform and load (ETL) tools used to move data and transform it into a common format in a data warehouse. I prefer to think of data integration as the processes that transform data into business information.

So, why should you care about data integration? It's no secret to IT managers that enterprise information is not treated as a strategic asset. To add to the frustration, this means that no comprehensive information architecture and management strategy is designed and followed. It's not that IT isn't trying to convince senior management that information is a strategic asset; however, it can be difficult to quantify the business benefit. Additionally, sometimes it's impossible to incorporate the information architecture in your plans when deploying various business applications.

Given these challenges, how do you turn data into a strategic asset? How do you enable your business users to find the "single version of the truth?" Integrate data across the enterprise.

This channel will help you understand the challenges of data integration and learn how to tackle them so you can increase the ROI of data in your own enterprise.

Rick has more than 20 years of business intelligence (BI), data warehousing (DW) and data integration experience. He is the founder of Athena IT Solutions, a Boston-based consulting firm that provides DW/BI consulting, training and vendor services; prior to that he was a director/practice leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Sherman is a published author of more than 50 articles, an industry speaker and has been quoted in CFO and Business Week. He also teaches data warehousing at Northeastern University's graduate school of engineering. You can reach him at rsherman@athena-solutions.com and follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/rpsherman.

Editor's Note: More articles and resources are available on Rick's BeyeNETWORK Expert Channel. Be sure to visit today!