Companies are fighting a constant battle to integrate business data and content while managing data quality in their organizations. Compounding this difficulty is the growing use of workgroup computing and Web technologies, the storing of more data and content online, and the need to retain information longer for compliance reasons. These trends are causing data volumes to increase dramatically.

Rising volumes are not the only cause of data integration and quality issues, however. The growing numbers of disparate systems that produce and distribute data and content also add to the complexity of the data integrations and quality management environment.

This paper examines the evolution of the data integration and quality industry, and explains the benefits of moving toward a single data services architecture. It outlines requirements for a software platform for supporting such an architecture, and, as an example, reviews the BusinessObjects“ Data Services XI Release 3 platform from BusinessObjects, an SAP company.