The ETL (ETL stands for Extract, Transform, and Load) Engine is the stage of moving the source data to the Data Warehouse. If this doesn’t work properly, the BI solution simply cannot be effective.
| Traditional method: | Technical teams manually map source data and create definitions, map to tables, and then map to a data warehouse production environment. This process is repeated for each BI initiative within the organization. |
| Integrated SaaS method: | The entire process can be automated to create staging and warehouse tables. |
- What type of data can be inputted into the system?
The types of data BI solutions can utilize should encompass any data that can be captured and a user wants to track. A BI solution should enable enterprises or groups to upload files of large size and integrate with any solution that can export data to:- Data extracts from operational applications such as CRM or ERP applications,;
- SQL, Oracle, or other relational databases;;
- Flat file databases;
- Comma-delimited files (the standard "generic" file format);
- Excel or other spreadsheets;
- Does the solution have automated data refresh?
Optimally the solution has automated data refresh. Otherwise, the data will need to be uploaded manually. A Business Intelligence vendor should be able to help develop an integration plan and, directly or through partners, offer integrations services.
