Written by the leading experts in the field, this comprehensive guide shows you how to implement the SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW) and create useful applications for business analysis of company-wide data. You'll quickly learn how to design, build, analyze, and administer the data and information in the SAP BW component. The authors present the material in a way that reflects the process an organization goes through during a software implementation. They begin with an introduction to the fundamentals of data warehousing and business intelligence, helping you determine if SAP BW is right for your organization. The book then focuses on the business content and options available when trying to deliver value from the data stored in the SAP BW. And it includes a methodology for implementing the BW, such as data modeling and techniques for capturing and transforming data. With this book, you'll discover the options available in SAP BW 3.0 and explore a new way to drive business performance. It will show you how to: * Tackle such challenges as eliminating poor data quality * Develop an information model in order to properly deploy SAP BW * Utilize ETL, data storage, information access, analysis, and presentation services * Schedule, monitor, archive, and troubleshoot data loads * Effectively plan and manage the performance of a data warehouse