Charlie Sanders, senior business analyst at Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals Inc., says his team used to get calls from many departments wanting "performance" numbers to show how well they were doing. "We were always being hounded at our desks for information," he says, adding that he'd have to thumb through several Excel spreadsheets to get at the data.

The sales department wanted to know what products were hot and which wholesalers did the most business. When the accounting department went to close the books each month, it took three days for it to get the data it needed. The various departments produced performance numbers on their own, and the numbers didn't necessarily match up with those from other departments.