Every organization has to juggle information. Information and data come from every corner of the enterprise, and can include databases, data warehouses, best-of-breed systems, legacy systems, and specialized systems like ERP, HR, finance, accounting, warehousing and others. Important data is also contained in spreadsheets, email, documents, partner and supplier systems and other sources.

When a finance professional, accountant, CPA, or financial services professional is tasked with planning and predicting results, it can be challenging to pull data from all sources and make sense of the results. It is at this point that the services of an IT staffer or analyst are typically called into play. But, the reports produced in response to these requests can contain out-of-date or incomplete information, and will result in poor decisions.