Authors: Vivek Sharma
Abstract: In contemporary enterprises, data fragmentation across multiple systems, departments, and formats poses significant challenges to decision-making, reporting accuracy, and operational efficiency. A Single Source of Truth (SSOT) addresses these challenges by consolidating heterogeneous data into a centralized, authoritative repository. This review examines the implementation of SSOT using SQL databases, robust ETL pipelines, and Power BI for visualization and governance. It explores the principles of data governance, including data ownership, quality control, role-based security, and regulatory compliance, emphasizing their critical role in maintaining data integrity and trustworthiness. The review also details best practices for relational database design, performance optimization, and ETL automation to ensure timely and accurate data delivery. Case studies across healthcare, financial services, and retail illustrate practical applications, demonstrating improved reporting efficiency, operational responsiveness, and decision-making capabilities. Furthermore, the integration of SSOT across enterprise workflows, combined with monitoring, audit trails, and automated alerts, underscores the value of a governed, centralized data ecosystem. The article highlights current challenges, including system complexity, adoption barriers, and legacy integration, and offers strategies for mitigation. Looking forward, emerging trends such as cloud-native architectures, real-time streaming, AI-enhanced analytics, and hybrid or federated data models suggest new avenues for enhancing SSOT utility and scalability. By providing a comprehensive framework, this review underscores the strategic, operational, and compliance benefits of SSOT, positioning it as a cornerstone for modern, data-driven enterprises seeking reliability, agility, and insight-driven decision-making.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17275623
