In today's business environment, investing in information technology is more than remunerative. To recive the real state of a company, the key element is the realization and implementation of the complete ICT solution. To prepare and realize such a complex system, continuous interaction of all participants is required, from the top management to direct participants of each production segment: personnel in the financial and accounting sectors, planning and analyzing sector, procurement and sales personnel, logistics, occupational safety and quality control... In addition to human resources, proper hardware support is also needed built into the automated machines and devices within the manufacturing location that will deliver operational data to the system. In order to survive and be competitive in the market today, the access to the right information in the shortest possible time is essential. Data warehouses and business intelligence form the foundation on which business people make their strategic and tactical business decisions. The ability to analyze snapshots of the observed subject's state of affairs in the past and to look for similarities and differences in behavior over a period of time makes one of the greatest advantages of the data warehouse over previous transaction systems. Newer technology has enabled the development of ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) applications with minimal delay, and thus the emergence of data warehouses that work in real or near real time. This paper provides guidelines for the development and design of a comprehensive ICT solution and addresses some of the consequences that this solution could have for modern businesses.