Disparate operational data sources can mean danger Most organizations still glean their business information from operational sources. They pull information from various repositories through ad-hoc reports or data extracts that end up in a multitude of report or spreadsheet formats. The problem is that it's difficult to perform business analysis and derive strategic decisions from operational systems, because you have to understand the underlying rules and relationships of disparate data sources. You also have to control the use of the data taken from those systems. What's even more troubling is that you might fail to discover information that identifies a change you must make if you are to remain successful.
Operational systems handle large volumes of transactional data.
But mere access to this data isn't enough. It has to be processed. And processing operational data requires a lot of resources because much of it is irrelevant to strategic decision-making. Most operational systems were built with reporting that summarizes transaction data, but they produce a view of that is operational rather than oriented toward business intelligence. I am not vilifying operational systems.