DMReview On Maximizing Your ETL Tool Investment

Maximizing Your ETL Tool Investment : "Is your organization struggling to justify an ETL (extract, transform and load) tool purchase? If the tool is an enterprise level solution, the entry price is likely well into the six digits. At this price, the justification process may appear daunting. Because these tools serve a purpose and are critical to serious data warehouse endeavors, the justification is well worth the effort ... Since Oracle (substitute any database) exists in house, writing stored procedures in PL/SQL is often the first thought for ETL development. With no additional licensing and existing in-house talent, the decision appears obvious. Less obvious is the lack of integration, lack of usable meta data and additional maintenance cost."

A useful article to bookmark if you're ever going to need to justify an ETL tool investment. See also "A Business Introduction To Oracle Warehouse Builder" which is Oracle's own take on this.