Check out my interview with Brian Berg of Berg Information Technology, he is an IT expert specializing in Data Warehousing.
Data warehousing, the extraction of hidden predictive information from large databases, is a powerful and necessary technology to assist companies focus on the most important information in their data warehouses. Data warehousing tools track trends and behaviors, allowing businesses to serve clients better. Think: sales increasing, operations being streamlined, and costs being reduced. Just imagine having a large amount of data without knowing the meaning of it. You can’t run your business that way. Knowledge is power for a business, which is why data mining is so valuable.
Data warehousing is typically used by large companies. It is automated, detailed and goes beyond the analyses of past events provided by retrospective tools typical of decision support systems. Data warehousing saves time ad can offer answers to business questions that traditionally took to much time to solve.
A couple articles on the value of business intelligence:
http://www.cio.com/article/489257/Analytics_Unlocking_Value_in_Business_Intelligence_BI_Initiatives
http://www.microsoft.com/industry/hospitality/businessvalue/lodgingBIarticle.mspx
Great books on data warehousing:
http://www.ralphkimball.com/html/books.html