Both accounting and IT report to the CFO of Lawrence Enterprises. The IT professionals have been lobbying him for a data warehouse to use for business intelligence. While the CFO can see the value of using business intelligence to improve decisions, he is not sure that it is warranted by the cost of the data warehouse. The accounting professionals are saying that it will put them over budget if they have to purchase a data warehouse. Why can’t IT just use the operational database that was purchased last year?

The CFO has called you in to act as a liaison between accounting and IT. He wants some straight answers from you: Does he need to invest in a data warehouse or not? Can the company just use the operational database for business intelligence? Draft a short email to the CFO with your response.