Achieving a Single Version of the Truth

Take a product’s inventory, for example. You can find sales plans on user-derived Access systems or Excel spreadsheets. A product’s inventory on hand in units and dollars is tracked on your order management system. A separate, best-of-breed warehouse management system also includes the same product on hand but needs to be synced up daily. The finance system also carries the total company inventory in dollars — probably not updated in real time, but daily or weekly. You also may have a specialized, stand-alone forecasting and inventory management system to project inventory by promotion or catalog campaign.