You go online to buy a digital camera. Soon, you realize you've bought a more expensive camera than intended, along with extra batteries, charger, and graphics software-all at the prompting of the retailer.

Happy with your purchases? The retailer certainly is, and if you are too, you both can be said to be the beneficiaries of "customer intimacy" achieved through the transformation of data collected during this visit or stored from previous visits into real business intelligence that can be exercised in real time.

"Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence for e-Commerce" is a practical exploration of the technological innovations through which traditional data warehousing is brought to bear on this and other less modest e-commerce applications, such as those at work in B2B, G2C, B2G, and B2E models. The authors examine the core technologies and commercial products in use today, providing a nuts-and-bolts understanding of how you can deploy customer and product data in ways that meet the unique requirements of the online marketplace-particularly if you are part of a brick-and-mortar company with specific online aspirations. In so doing, they build a powerful case for investment in and aggressive development of these approaches, which are likely to separate winners from losers as e-commerce grows and matures.
* Includes the latest from successful data warehousing consultants whose work has encouraged the field's new focus on e-commerce.
* Presents information that is written for both consultants and practitioners in companies of all sizes.
* Emphasizes the special needs and opportunities of traditional brick-and-mortar businesses that are going online or participating in B2B supply chains or e-marketplaces.
* Explains how long-standing assumptions about data warehousing have to be rethought in light of emerging business models that depend on customer intimacy.
* Provides advice on maintaining data quality and integrity in environments marked by extensive customer self-input.
* Advocates careful planning that will help both old economy and new economy companies develop long-lived and successful e-commerce strategies.
* Focuses on data warehousing for emerging e-commerce areas such as e-government and B2E environments.