Misconceptions holding back use of data integration tools by Rick Sherman.
From the post:
There’s no question that data integration technology is a good thing. So why aren’t businesses using it as much as they should be?
Data integration software has evolved significantly from the days when it primarily consisted of extract, transform and load (ETL) tools. The technologies available now can automate the process of integrating data from source systems around the world in real time if that’s what companies want. Data integration tools can also increase IT productivity and make it easier to incorporate new data sources into data warehouses and business intelligence (BI) systems for users to analyze.
But despite tremendous gains in the capabilities and performance of data integration tools, as well as expanded offerings in the marketplace, much of the data integration projects in corporate enterprises are still being done through manual coding methods that are inefficient and often not documented. As a result, most companies haven’t gained the productivity and code-reuse benefits that automated data integration processes offer. Instead, they’re deluged with an ever-expanding backlog of data integration work, including the need to continually update and fix older, manually coded integration programs.
Rick’s first sentence captures the problem with promoting data integration:
“There’s no question that data integration technology is a good thing.”
Hypothetical survey of Fortune 1,000 CEO’s:
| Question | Agree | Disagree | |
| Data integration may be a good thing | 100% | 0% | |
| Data integration technology is a good thing | 0.001% | 99.999% |
Data integration may be a good thing. Depends on what goal or mission is furthered by data integration.
Data integration, by hand, manual coding or data mining, isn’t an end unto itself. Only a means to an end.
Specific data integration, tied to a mission or goal of an organization, has a value to be evaluated against the cost of the tool or service.
Otherwise, we are selling tools of no particular value for some unknown purpose.
Sounds like a misconception of the sales process to me.