O TIME DATA WAREHOUSING JOURNAL - ontimec.com file• Genfare International's (GFI) Odyssey Bus Fare Collection System • Giro's Hastus Transit Scheduling • ACORS Coach Operators

On Time Consulting Services Inc. www.ontimec.com

" We have found you and your team to be capable (your exper-tise in Oracle data-bases and Oracle Warehouse Builder is noteworthy), profes-sional, and a pleasure to work with. I would highly recommend On Time Consulting Ser-vices to anyone re-sponsible for prompt, accurate, and suc-cessful delivery of Oracle-based pro-jects ." -- Ray Riggins , Data Management & Appli-cations Support, OCTA

On Time Consulting Services has extensive experience in utilizing the latest development tools from Oracle including 9iAS. Our team of Data Warehouse Developers can reorganize and optimize your data from any UNIX or Mi-crosoft Applications into an Oracle Data Ware-house using OWB. We have extensive experi-ence in the Public Transit Industry and other industries, creating Data Marts from the fol-lowing applications:

• Genfare International's (GFI) Odyssey Bus Fare Collection System

• Giro's Hastus Transit Scheduling

• ACORS Coach Operators

• ETS Maintenance

• Sungard's IFAS Accounting

• Lawson Software HRIS/Payroll

ON TIME CONSULTING SERVICES

ORACLE EXPERTS On Time's team of ex-perts can get you moving, starting with servers and ending with applications that put your data to work for you. We can de-sign the fastest, most efficient systems that maximize the return on your investment. We de-sign OFA (Optimal Flexi-ble Architecture) compli-

ant databases that are both fast and fault toler-ant.

We maintain a full staff of Oracle professionals and are trained on the latest techniques and tools that can make your project a success.

In addition to design and deployment services we

can also provide experi-enced DBA’s and pro-gramming professionals to augment and mentor your staff. In this day and age, you need all the help you can get to stretch your staff without breaking your budget.

ON TIME CONSULTING SERVICES INC.

NEWSLETTER DATE 08-01-04 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

ON TIME DATA WAREHOUSING JOURNAL

GET THE ON TIME ADVANTAGE!

• Highly trained Oracle Experts

• Data Warehouse Expertise

• Customized Train-ing Programs

• Breadth of Applica-tions Experience

• Flexible

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

ON TIME STORY 1

PORTAL PRIMER 2

ON TIME ORACLE 3

POOR DATA QUALITY 4

OCTA CASE STUDY 5

DATA WAREHOUSING PAYS OFF

6

ORACLE WAREHOUSE BUILDER

12

DATA MART BASICS 15

ON TIME DATA WAREHOUSING

7

DATA WAREHOUSING OVERVIEW

8


Portals have become a critical compo-nent of the corporate knowledge management strategy. It's no won-der, because they offer a combined view of the BI (Business Intelligence) and knowledge-based infrastructure. In essence, they create a channel through which businesses can com-municate and collaborate, gaining greater visibility where it can be most effective.

Intranets

Intranets were probably the first at-tempt to make pocketized information available to users via a Web-based interface. Most early intranets failed because of a disconnect between us-ers, technology, and corporate con-tent. When employees or partners did use the intranets to obtain informa-tion, it was often incomplete or irrele-vant to their specific needs.

As usage patterns and technologies changed, attempts were made to make all enterprise information avail-able via one common interface. Such integration required that systems be able to speak to one another, includ-ing such systems as corporate data-bases, legacy mainframes, ERP, and even email. Hence was born the en-terprise information portal, or EIP.

Enter EIPs

EIPs have entered the picture at a time when communication and col-laboration are more essential than ever for business survival. Those or-ganizations that can evaluate complex trends, patterns, and relationships quickly have a strong competitive ad-vantage. EIPs deliver these capabili-ties.

The Vision of Web-Based Informa-tion Management

Portals are not one single technology or application, but rather a collection of related functional components that work together. The three essential ele-ments are:

• People: Those who need informa-tion from which to base their decisions or actions

• Content: The varying types of in-formation and knowledge within and among organizations

• Technology: The infrastructure that enables the timely capture, stor-age, and delivery of this content to those who need it.

By linking corporate data sources to a Web-browser interface, EIPs help peo-ple make crucial corporate decisions based on current data derived from multiple sources rather than from stale monthly reports. So-called "digital dashboards" take the integration one step further by providing messaging and communication within and among portals.

After determining which specific char-acteristics your portal needs to have -- and matching them with the appropri-ate portal products and services -- con-sider adding the following advanced features to your list.

• The ability to search both the por-tal's own indexes as well as those of other repositories or search engines, and return one consolidated result set to the user.

• The ability to recognize the exis-tence of other EIPs and cooperatively work with them to serve user needs.

(Continued on Pg. 4)

PORTAL PRIMER

“MOST EARLY INTRANETS

FAILED BECAUSE OF A

DISCONNECT BETWEEN USERS,

TECHNOLOGY, AND CORPORATE

CONTENT.”

PAGE 2 ON TIME DATA WAREHOUSING JOURNAL


PAGE 3 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1

Does your Oracle Database deliver the

high-performance you need?

Let our Team of technicians help you stay in front.

4848 Lakeview Ave. Suite 100H

Yorba Linda, CA 92886

Voice: 714.693.8111

Fax: 714.693.0617

Experienced DBA’s Need a Tune-up?

Implementation and Conversion Specialists Time for a new Engine?

Certified On-Site Oracle Trainers Want better Driving Skills?

Experienced Data Warehouse Practitioners Ready to unleash the Power?

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A survey conducted by The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI), a for-profit research center for the data warehousing and business intelligence in-dustries, indicates that the current level of data quality costs U.S. busi-nesses $600 billion per year in printing, mailing costs and staff overhead alone.

This extreme figure was arrived at by Wayne Eck-erson, director of educa-tion and research at TDWI, through a survey of 647 respondents who quantified costs saved by corrected errors in cus-tomer files. "It was based on cost saving averages of our membership multi-plied by a reasonable number of companies. It's the money you would save in postage and print-ing mailers that never end up going to the intended persons," he says. Among respondents, savings esti-mates ranged from $10,000 to $20,000 all

the way up to $500,000 and more. Outliers were removed, and the result-ing average was multi-plied against D&B data of potentially affected busi-nesses, in this case one-half of 1 percent of U.S. companies.

The problem, according to TDWI, is that customer data degenerates at the rate of 2 percent per month because customers die, divorce, marry and move. In addition to data entry errors, missing val-ues and integrity errors tend to show up only when companies seek to aggregate data across the enterprise. That is, data warehousing, CRM and other e-business projects are at risk of failure be-cause data lose integrity as they are extracted from multiple operational systems. The true cost of poor quality data can grow higher still because loyal or potential custom-ers are missed in mail-ings, website and store

visits.

"It is a high number," says Eckerson. "But even at our company, with 15 employees, printing and mailing is our greatest expense. We spend mil-lions on that. If we're only a 15-person company, you begin to see that the mark is not that high."

TDWI's Data Quality Sur-vey estimates that about 40 percent of companies have experienced "losses, problems or costs" due to poor quality data, and that about half of survey respondents have no plans to implement a data quality program. The re-port recommends an eight-step methodology for addressing data loss, beginning with a top-down data quality pro-gram initiated by the CEO, overseen by a board of directors, and managed by a chief data quality officer or along lines of business.

and telephony devices.

EIPs help break down bar-riers to enterprise-wide communication and col-laboration while preserv-ing existing IT invest-ments in mainframes and other structured data sys-tems. They simply inte-grate these systems into a tactical knowledge base available to all employees who need it. If, as Gart-

(Continued from Pg 2.)

• The ability to support legacy applications not only via portal compo-nents and connectors but also directly via 3270/5250 emulation or support for WTS.

• The ability to deliver information and services to non-PC devices, espe-cially mobile, wireless,

ner asserts, intellectual capital will soon be the primary factor in measur-ing business value, EIPs are the key to securing your company's future.

THE COST OF POOR DATA QUALITY

PORTAL PRIMER

“CUSTOMER DATA DEGENERATES AT THE RATE OF 2

PERCENT PER MONTH BECAUSE

CUSTOMERS DIE, DIVORCE, MARRY

AND MOVE. IN ADDITION TO DATA

ENTRY ERRORS, MISSING VALUES AND INTEGRITY

ERRORS TEND TO SHOW UP ONLY

WHEN COMPANIES SEEK TO AGGREGATE

DATA ACROSS THE ENTERPRISE.”



The Orange County Transporta-tion Authority (OCTA)

OCTA is the county's primary trans-portation agency. Located in South-ern California, the OCTA is focused on rail, freeways, streets, and public transportation. Its primary mission is to create, coordinate, finance, and deliver an easy-to-use public trans-portation network which keeps Or-ange County’s 2.8 million people moving.

While Southern California is known for its freeways, more than 60,000 Orange County residents a day rely on OCTA buses to travel to and from work, school, and a variety of other places. OCTA takes this responsibility seriously, placing more than 460 buses on 80 routes during peak hours. This activity generates over 5 million transactions of bus ridership data per month.

OCTA’s Information Challenge

OCTA relies on a variety of complex systems to support Bus Operations, including the following: Genfare GFI Farebox system for bus ridership, fare collection, and bus pass proc-essing; HASTUS vehicle and crew scheduling system for establishing bus routes and timetables; SunGard Bi-Tech IFAS accounting, a financial and personnel management system for government and not-for-profit entities; and a variety of custom ap-plications designed to support the activities of Coach Operators and Maintenance Employees.

OCTA’s initial approach to informa-tion management and decision sup-port was to create an individual data store (mostly using MS-Access) tai-lored to address a specific need for information. Over a number of years, a variety of separate databases were created, resulting in a chaotic envi-ronment of inconsistent (and often conflicting) information that could not support the volume of data gen-erated by ever-increasing bus rider-ship.

The On Time Data Warehouse Solution

On Time Consulting Services was engaged by OCTA to develop 2 new data ware-houses: one for Bus Ridership, and the other for Bus Pass usage. Oracle Ware-house Builder (OWB) was used to extract transactions from Genfare and HASTUS sys-tems into a staging area; then to load each data warehouse with the appropriate “facts” and “dimensions”. The data warehousing capabilities of an Oracle 9i database allow for quick and efficient summarization of “facts” by a variety of “dimensions”; for example, number of bus riders (fact) by bus route (dimension) and time of day (dimension). The Bus Ridership and Bus Pass data warehouses have assimilated over 100 million ridership transactions to provide summarized (and consistent) infor-mation that gives OCTA a clearer under-standing of revenues, costs, utilization, and ridership. With an enhanced ability to ana-lyze Bus Operations, OCTA is positioned to continually improve its services to the citi-zens Orange County. Improved visibility of Bus Ridership and Bus Pass information has also led to internal process changes to im-prove the quality of data in the source (Genfare and HASTUS) systems.

In addition to the Bus Ridership and Bus Pass data warehouses, On Time Consulting Services is also engaged in extending OCTA’s data warehouse environment by developing a number of specialized Data Marts. Each data mart is being developed using OWB/Oracle 9i, sharing (where ap-propriate) common dimensions, such as time (month, week, day, time of day), em-ployee (coach operator), bus number, etc. information for each maintenance and me-chanic employee from attendance, training, certification, shift assignments, and all other non-payroll related data.

About On Time Consulting Services

On Time Consulting Services, Inc. provides a comprehensive suite of Information Tech-nology (IT) consulting services, designed to provide critical expertise in all phases of a complete systems development life cycle. On Time provides experienced project man-agers and technologists who are not only adept at completing project tasks on time and on budget, but are also effective in

OCTA DATA WAREHOUSE CASE STUDY

OCTA’s primary mission is to

create, coordinate, finance, and

deliver an easy-to-use public transportation network which keeps Orange

County CA’s 2.8 million people

moving.



Two new studies indicate big returns in properly imple-mented data warehousing. But the reports clash on other key points, including how many businesses are actually tracking data ware-housing return on investment (ROI) and other financial metrics.

A Data Warehousing Institute study of 1,600 companies released this month shows only 13 percent of respon-dents track data warehousing ROI across the value chain, 37 percent said they plan to begin tracking ROI, and 27 percent said they are not tracking returns and have no plans to do so. The report was sponsored by Acxiom, Compaq, EMC, IBM, Micro-soft, NCR, Oracle, Sagent Technology, and Sybase.

Another new survey, con-ducted by marketing re-searcher Globalinkage for data warehousing vendor Informatica, includes data from 134 unnamed Infor-matica customers. The Glob-alinkage/Informatica study had a completely different result: 87 percent of compa-nies surveyed track data warehousing's total cost of ownership, return on invest-ment, or other financial measures of performance.

The two studies agree that properly implemented data warehousing can boost re-turns. But they clash on the question of how successful such implementations are.

Referring to the impact of data warehousing on cus-tomer relationship manage-ment, the institute found 16 percent of respondents said their data warehousing im-plementation is better than expected, 42 percent said it met their expectations, and 41 percent said they are ex-periencing difficulties.

"For certain companies strug-gling to build these ware-houses, the next step is how to drive the warehouse into the fabric of the company, so that it's part of its business culture, as opposed to a technological addendum," said Wayne Eckerson, direc-tor of education and research for the Data Warehousing Institute.

Neither study provides spe-cific ROI figures, and compa-nies in both surveys used a huge variety of financial measures, making compari-sons impractical.

The Globalinkage analysis found little evidence of adop-tion difficulties. While con-fined to Informatica clients, it

"probably is pretty represen-tative of anybody in data warehousing," said Glob-alinkage principal Gaye Clemson.

The institute study said benefits of data warehousing include increased productiv-ity. Issues facing companies seeking to integrate data warehousing into a larger corporate strategy include the need to change business processes, incentives, skills, and the need for close atten-tion to privacy concerns. Technical issues include the need to develop a scalable architecture and avoid over-collecting data.

Both studies found major benefits to successful use of data warehousing.

"There are tons of cost sav-ings, especially if you go to the Web to provide Web ac-cess to the scope of the pro-ject," Eckerson said. "The more data you can integrate, the more complete your view of customers, suppliers, and the more your business benefits."

Eckerson and Clemson agreed that businesses need to apply a range of financial metrics to their IT invest-ments such as data ware-housing.

• 15 years experience with Oracle database software, including current experi-ence with Oracle 9i data-base and Oracle 9i Appli-cation Server (9iAS).

• 4 years experience de-veloping and implement-ing Data Marts and Data Warehouses with Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB), including current experience with OWB 9.2.

technical knowledge transfer, through personal mentoring with client per-sonnel. Specific areas of expertise are:

• 20 years of project man-agement experience in projects of varying size, scope, and complexity; specific experience with application development, software and database implementation/upgrade, and data warehouse pro-jects.

• 4 years experience with Oracle development tools, such as Discoverer, Forms, and Reports; cur-rent experience in an Ora-cle 9i environment.

To learn more, visit us at www.ontimec.com or

contact us toll-free at

866-239-3326

STUDIES FIND DATA WAREHOUSING PAYS OFF

OCTA CASE STUDY

"FOR CERTAIN COMPANIES

STRUGGLING TO BUILD THESE

WAREHOUSES, THE NEXT STEP IS HOW

TO DRIVE THE WAREHOUSE INTO

THE FABRIC OF THE COMPANY, SO THAT IT'S PART OF ITS

BUSINESS CULTURE, AS OPPOSED TO A TECHNOLOGICAL

ADDENDUM"




but how can you get the information it carries?

Let our Team of Data Warehousing experts help.

Our experience with Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) enables us to efficiently

unload - Extract

repackage - Transform

and store - Load

your valuable cargo of data in a state-of-the-art Oracle Data Warehouse.

You’ve successfully launched your new system,

What’s your information destination?

the right information

at the right time

in the right format

using tools such as Oracle’s Discoverer.

Then let us help you find:

4848 Lakeview Ave. Suite 100H

Yorba Linda, CA 92886

Voice: 714.693.8111

Fax: 714.693.0617



“THE PURPOSE OF A DATA

WAREHOUSE IS DIFFERENT THAN

THAT OF AN OLTP (ON LINE TRANSACTION PROCESSING) APPLICATION.”


Overview of Data Warehousing

Data Warehousing, as defined

by Bill Inmon, “… is a subject oriented,

integrated, time variant, non-volatile

collection of data in support of manage-

ment’s decision-making process”.

The purpose of a Data Ware-

house is different than that of an OLTP

(On Line Transaction Processing) appli-

cation. An OLTP system is based on

business processes that create and up-

date data in a database in order to sup-

port the day-to-day core operations of a

business. A Data Warehouse is based

on business processes that retrieve and

analyze the data created by OLTP sys-

tems -- in a format that allows people

to make day-to-day decisions, short-

term tactical plans, and longer-term

strategic plans.

OLTP systems are generally de-

signed using relational modeling con-

cepts. Data is stored in tables that have

been normalized to at least 3rd Normal

Form. The relational model allows for

efficient processing and storage of data,

with little or no redundancy of data.

The challenge in creating tactical and/or

strategic views of data is that the nor-

malization of the data makes generat-

ing these views difficult. There are 2

reasons for this; (1) the normalized

data structure requires complex queries

to collect and summarize related data from

many different tables, and (2) the amount

of computing resource required to perform

these complex queries depletes the server

resources needed for the OLTP operation.

Data Warehouse systems are de-

signed using a STAR or SNOWFLAKE model

to enable quick, concise queries. These 2

models utilize a central fact table sur-

rounded by a number of dimension tables.

The fact tables contain the measures and

the dimensions contain the attributes

about these measures; for example, a

sales order is a "fact", and the item sold,

the date of the order, and the store in

which the sale occurred are all

"dimensions" (attributes) about the sales

order. Dimensions are often common

ways of summarizing facts.



“HOW CAN ON TIME

CONSULTING SERVICES HELP YOU IN YOUR

DATA WAREHOUSING EFFORT - GIVE US A CALL AND LETS TALK!”


The STAR model (figure 3) employs a central, de-normalized fact table

surrounded by a set of de-normalized dimension tables. It is the most common

model used in data warehousing today and is supported by many of the tools

available on the market. Most major databases are capable of optimizing queries

against a STAR model.

Figure 2

The SNOWFLAKE model (figure 2) employs a central fact table surrounded by a

set of normalized dimensions. Notice how each of the de-normalized dimensions

are linked together with relationships (foreign keys). Not many reporting tools

support the SNOWFLAKE model due to the inability of the underlying database

to effectively optimize for the complexity of the queries presented.



“A DATA MART CAN BE A

BUILDING BLOCK OF AN

ENTERPRISE DATA

WAREHOUSE THAT IS

CREATED IN INCREMENTS.”


Figure 3

Just as there are 2 different design models for data warehouses, there are

also 3 different types of data warehouses: the Enterprise Date Warehouse, the

Data Mart, and the Operational Data Store.

An Enterprise Data Warehouse is a data warehouse containing information

supporting the entire enterprise and is usually built as a single project. Enterprise

Data Warehouses are difficult to build as they take an extraordinary amount of

time, require a significant amount of resources/cost, and usually are irrelevant to

current business needs by the time they are completed. It is not unusual to have a

3-to-5-year project to implement an Enterprise Data Warehouse. Can you imagine

what the requirements of your enterprise will be 3 years hence?

A Data Mart is a single subject or single line-of-business structure usually

consisting of 1 or more fact tables and some dimensions that service a department

or line-of-business. A Data Mart can be a building block of an Enterprise Data

Warehouse that is created in increments. A Data Mart can usually be built in 3-to-

6 months, so it has a short development time, is relevant to current business

needs, and has a relatively low cost. Additionally, since the development time is

shorter, the enterprise realizes benefits sooner.


An Operational Data Store (ODS), also known as a

reporting system, is used for management reporting,

e.g. “how many widgets did I make today?” or “did I

make my quota of widgets today?” ODS systems can

simply be "clones" of a production OLTP system or

can be transformed into a snowflake or star configu-

ration.

A data warehouse project has the same

stages as a normal IT project: user requirements,

product definition, database definition, development,

test, implementation, and maintenance. After user

requirements are defined, the product definition and

database definition phases are key areas of work

within the project, and are facilitated by the use of a

development tool such as Oracle Warehouse Builder.

This is where the database structure is defined with

tables, attributes, foreign keys, check constraints,

primary keys, etc. Very little custom coding is re-

quired.

Most of the time spent in a data warehouse

project is dedicated to developing the ETL

(Extraction, Transformation, and Load) procedures.

ETL must be structured in such a way as to allow

rapid development, ease of modification during test-

ing, and ease of maintenance after implementation.

On-going changes to source tables/files and addi-

tional requirements for data in the data warehouse

must be expected and included in the project plan.

A data warehouse project, like any other im-

portant project, requires careful planning and the

availability of proper tools for each project phase.

More sophisticated tools that provide seamless inte-

gration through multiple project phases are a definite

advantage. They provide significant improvements in

efficiency and quality; however, they can be ex-

pensive. An organization may justify the cost of

sophisticated tools by spreading those costs over

many implementations, each of which can be

accomplished with greater efficiency and quality.

There are many data warehouse devel-

opment tools on the market; however, the tools

from Oracle Corporation are among the few that

provide tight integration with the database and

each other. The Oracle tools include: Oracle De-

signer (definition of business processes, function

modeling, E-R definition, etc), Oracle Warehouse

Builder (STAR schema definition, ETL modeling

and code generation), Oracle Discoverer (data

delivery for reports, graphs, web sites and so

forth), Oracle Express (tactical and strategic

analysis), and the Oracle Data Mining Suite

(finding relationships within your data that you

didn’t know existed).

This remainder of this article concen-

trates on Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) and

its effectiveness in assisting organizations to

bring data marts, ODS's and warehouses on-line

faster, more efficiently, and with improved main-

tainability.




What is Oracle Warehouse Builder?

Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) is Oracle’s tool for solving the complex problem of data extraction,

transformation and load (ETL) between various dispersed data sources and targets. In other words, OWB is

Oracle’s tool to design and deploy data warehouses, data marts, and operational data stores. In fact, OWB has

even been used to transfer data from older OLTP systems into new OLTP applications.

Oracle Warehouse Builder is both an ETL design and deployment tool; however, OWB is not a complete

applications life-cycle tool for data warehousing. OWB should be considered a component of a suite of tools

that comprise a complete business intelligence life cycle tool kit. The other tools are: Designer for business

analysis, functional modeling, E-R modeling and so on, Discoverer for management and basic tactical analy-

sis, Reports for report publishing, Express for tactical and strategic reporting and modeling, and Data Min-

ing Suite for data and relationship discovery.



HOW DOES OWB ACHIEVE ITS GOALS?

How does Oracle Warehouse Builder achieve its Goals?

ETL processes can involve various steps and phases, which may span a number of systems, resources,

and functional areas. OWB enables the user to:

Import data source definitions

Design and create the target database schema

Define and create the data flows between sources and targets

Manage and update the source definitions

Manage, update, and upgrade the target schema

Design and create the ad-hoc query tool environment

Design and create the OLAP environment

Leverage Oracle database features to ensure scalability, reliability and flexibility



“OWB PROVIDES MANY

CAPABILITIES THROUGH KEY COMPONENTS”


Metadata Repository A set of relational tables and views in an Oracle data-base stores the metadata definitions. Meta data is data that describes the attributes of other data.

Client Application This java application that, via a graphical interface guides designers and developers through the definition and design of the application.

Code Generator This component generates scripts based on the meta-data in the repository, which can then be deployed to the target database schema. The generator is de-signed to integrate tightly with the Oracle database so that generated scripts will perform well in the Oracle database.

Runtime Environment The target environment not only stores the data loaded from the sources in both transformation and production schemas, it also holds audit information on the loading processes that move the data into these schemas.

Runtime Audit Viewer A Java application to inspect the audit data in the run-time environment.

Reporting Environment The reporting capabilities of Warehouse Builder allow users to access the metadata repository and view that metadata from a web-based application. This allows the provision of data about the warehouse, mart or ODS to a larger audience.

OWB provides these capabilities through a number of components:

“On Time Consulting Services

can shine some light on your

Oracle Data Ware-housing Project.

Call us to see how we can work together!”



“Because of the repository, all information regarding the design of the system is stored and managed in one central place.”


Benefits of Using Oracle Warehouse Builder

Warehouse Builder provides a number of benefits to an organization:

Rapid System Design Warehouse Builder reduces the de-sign time by providing visual models, wizard-driven user interfaces, and a library of predefined transformations. It has been estimated that Ware-house builder can save between 40% and 60% of development costs over traditional design, and code

Centralized Design Information Because of the repository, all infor-mation regarding the design of the system is stored and managed in one central place. This reduces du-plication of metadata and creates a single source of truth avoiding the extra costs of inconsistencies

Reduced Time for Changes Re-import in the one source of truth in conjunction with target system upgrade enable a smooth mainte-nance process

Error Free Code By generating the code from a de-sign stored in one place, the code is not only error free but also easy to recreate, upgrade and maintain


To begin to design a data mart today, the data mart implementer must catego-rize, evaluate, purchase and install the various compo-nents of the data mart. This process alone can be time-consuming and difficult. But the work is just beginning. Looking at the data mart solutions on the market to-day, the data mart imple-menter must select among an array of components in different categories, includ-ing:

• Data transformation tools

• Specialized query engines

• Information analysis tools

Before you can get a single result or answer any user's question, you have to inte-grate the pieces into a work-ing data mart solution. The integration phase of the pro-ject may require a staff of dedicated integrators, often specialists hired for a job, and can take months. (In fact, it may continue through the life of the data mart, as

product upgrades for the differ-ent components must be incor-porated into the data mart.)

The product integration process typically includes integrating the components, testing for errors, and testing for the required functionality. When you add to this the time it takes to either train your own staff or select and hire the contract staff to perform it, the integration phase can add months to your data mart process. Any time spent in integration is time not spent addressing your user's specific needs, and delays the ultimate deployment of the data mart.

B. Drilling down to detail, and answering the question "Why is this happening?" based on the data available. Users need to be able to move from summary to de-tail data smoothly; this is supported by multidimen-sional analysis.

C. Predictive analysis; identi-fying "What is likely to hap-pen in the future," modeling, and forecasting. Newer data mining capabilities provide trend analysis and predic-tions.

A decision support user or user community typically progresses through three levels of data analysis.

A. Simple query and report-ing. This type of analysis answers the basic question "What is happening in my business now?" This may be the driving force for imple-menting the data mart in the first place.

A complete data mart solu-tion supports all of these types of analysis, and makes it easy for users to access and understand their options.

DATA MART BASICS

ANALYSIS IS KEY

WHAT IS A GOOD DATA MART? • A single, integrated

product that deploys quickly

• An open, standards-based environment for flexible decision support

• Transparent access to data, wherever it resides and whatever its type

• Rapid, robust, DSS-focused querying

• A broad range of analysis functions

• Usage-based tuning to optimize performance

• Simplified ongoing ad-ministration, requiring minimal resources

A well-architected data mart is user-centric, helping users answer business questions as easily as possible. Technol-ogy, integration, and imple-mentation shouldn't be a concern. You need to solve your user's business prob-lems quickly. You'd like the process to be easy. At the same time, the solution needs to be long-lasting, robust, and able to scale.

From this perspective, a good data mart solution should provide the following:

“A WELL-ARCHITECTED DATA MART IS

USER-CENTRIC, HELPING USERS

ANSWER BUSINESS

QUESTIONS AS EASILY AS

POSSIBLE.”



On Time Consulting Services Inc. is committed to making our cli-ents successful by providing a comprehensive suite of Information Technology (IT) consulting services, designed to provide expertise in all phases of a complete systems development life cycle. From planning your next IT project to mentoring your in-house IT per-sonnel, our approach is to capitalize on our extensive industry ex-perience and in-depth knowledge of technology to deliver the maximum value to our clients. On Time has a variety of experienced technologists that use a cus-tomer-centric approach to design and deliver on-time and under budget projects. Our expertise has enabled us to contribute to the success of clients in a variety of industries, including Healthcare, Public Transportation, News media, Retail, Oil & Gas, Food Ser-vice, Gaming, Staffing, and Distribution. Based in Yorba Linda CA, On Time employs a network of consult-ants throughout the US and Canada who can help meet your chal-lenges of creating total business solutions that encompass every-thing from finance and accounting to customer relationship man-agement (CRM).

4848 Lakeview Ave. #100H Yorba Linda, Ca 92886

Phone: 714-693-8111 866-239-3326

Fax: 714-693-0617 Contact:[email protected]


solutions to immediate assignments or issues.

Some of the areas we can provide training in are:

• Introduction to Data Warehousing

• Data Warehouse Data-base Design

• Data Warehousing Fundamentals

• Oracle 9i Warehouse Builder: Implementation Oracle 9i: Data Ware-house Administration

• Oracle 9i New Fea-tures Overview

• Oracle 9i Designer: First Class

On Time Consulting Ser-vices can provide a broad range of training solu-tions for your company.

We can provide custom-ized classroom training (based on a technical skills assessment) that will deliver Oracle skills at the point where they can be put into practice.

We can also develop classroom training exer-cises that are based on actual (and familiar) data to enhance the learning process.

We can come alongside your existing Oracle re-sources and/or recent Oracle course graduates to provide personal men-toring while developing

• Oracle 9i Database Admini-stration Fundamentals I & II

• Oracle 9i Database: Imple-ment Partitioning

• Oracle 9i Data Guard Ad-ministration

• Oracle 9i Database Perform-ance Tuning

• SQL Statement Tuning Oracle 9iAS & 9iDS

• Oracle 9iAS Release 2: Ba-sic Administration

• Oracle 9iDS Release 2: Dis-coverer for End Users

• Oracle 9i Discoverer Admini-stration

Contact us for more information!

ON TIME PROVIDES ORACLE TRAINING

YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR ORACLE DATA WAREHOUSING INFORMATION

Bibliography:

Oracle Data Warehouse

Vin Kirkwood, On Time

Data Warehousing Pays Off

David Lewis, Internet Week

Cost of Poor Data Quality

Jim Ericson, Line 56

Portal Primer

Bhavish Sood, Plexus

Data Mart Considerations

BroadBase Information Syst.

WE’RE ON THE WEB AT WW W. ONTIMEC. C OM


Documents

O TIME DATA WAREHOUSING JOURNAL - ontimec.com file• Genfare International's (GFI) Odyssey Bus Fare Collection System • Giro's Hastus Transit Scheduling • ACORS Coach Operators