EdVassie (2/12/2016)
Merging the databases is a tiny part of what needs to be done.IMHO the focus should be on the business problem, not on a piece of the technical solution. If the computer team are doing this work 'for the good of the business' it is unlikely they will be thanked by anyone. Certainly if this happened where I work I would be one of those not doing the thanking.
What you are outlining is a major redevelopment to a critical business system, and as such it needs sponsorship from the business and a proper project structure. The business requirements need to be clearly stated, so that all other work can focus on meeting these.
With the level of redevelopment you are talking about then any solution needs to evaluate software packages and cloud services before looking at technical issues such as merging databases. When the optimal business solution becomes obvious then it is time to look at the technical details. The details of the business solution will shape the database design. Questions about if and how to merge databases will be driven down the stack by the business solution, not driven up the stack by a decision within the technical team.
I do agree with your overall point however, I am playing the DBA role in this project. So, I will leave these "business" decisions, directions, and requirements to the Product Managers and Project Managers of this project. As far as my DBA role, I received these requirements from the project owners and in so doing I advised the team that database redesign will be performed in order to incorporate the various product lines into one database and reorganized for better database performance and so forth, and to have this as part of the project planning. So, here goes at this point.