Table of Contents

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

Creating an Information Ecosystem.

Introducing the Corporate Information Factory.

The External World Component.

The Applications Component.

The Integration and Transformation Layer Component.

The Operational Data Store Component.

The Data Warehouse Component.

The Data Mart Component.

The Exploration and Data Mining Warehouse Components.

The Alternative Storage Component.

The Internet/Intranet Components.

The Metadata Component.

The Decision Support Capabilities.

Variations to the Corporate Information Factory.

Building the Corporate Information Factory.

Managing the Corporate Information Factory.

Multiple Data Warehouses across a Large Enterprise.

Appendix A: CIF Architecture Guidelines.

Glossary.

Recommended Reading.

Index.

About the Author

W. H. INMON, the acknowledged "father of data warehousing," is a partner in www.billinmon.com, a Web site for the corporate information factory and modern systems architecture. He has written over 40 books on databases, database management, and data warehouse technology, including the recently published Exploration Warehousing (Wiley). Inmon is also a frequent speaker at leading industry conferences and contributes to DM Review.
CLAUDIA IMHOFF, PhD, is a Senior Vice President of Braun Consulting and a popular speaker for national and international events on the corporate information factory. Dr. Imhoff has coauthored three books dealing with different aspects of the corporate information factory, including Building the Customer-Centric Enterprise (Wiley), and is a columnist for business and technology magazines.
RYAN SOUSA has extensive experience implementing large customer relationship management solutions using the corporate information factory. He is coauthor of Data Warehouse Performance (Wiley) and can be contacted at rwsousa@earthlink.net.