Hello all,

Just a bit of background before my question:

I am responsible for producing the MI for the company I work for. Right now the data is pulled from MSSQL, Oracle, Access and Informix databases using Crystal Reports, exported to excel files, then manually combined in separate excel workbooks to produce meaningful data. Some reports are produced on a Crystal Reports Server automatically, but that is also pulling from each individual data source, which means I am unable to use Crystal Server to produce some of the reports.

Going forward I would like to be able to do two things:

1) Automate the data collection processes in to one database.

2) Dashboard the data where possible.

From my limited understanding I can use ETL to combine this data in to a data warehouse in a usable format, then report from that warehouse.

So, my question is where do I start? I can ask the IT guys to stand up a MSSQL database for me, but do you have any recommendations for software to do the ETL and dashboarding?

The ideal would be at least software that is free, or has a demo to allow me to produce a proof of concept for the higher ups.