Entrinsik

PAGE 2
ANALYTICS,
THE INFORMERTM
ADVANTAGE
Real-time access to
BUSINESS
multiple data sources
INTELLIGENCE,
& PERFORMANCE
Talend
PAGE 5
THE VALUE OF
MANAGEMENT
OPEN SOURCE TO
ENTERPRISE DATA
WAREHOUSING

WhereScape
PAGE 6
eHEALTH RAPIDLY
BUILDS DATA
WAREHOUSE WITH
WHERESCAPE RED

Composite
Software
PAGE 7
DATA VIRTUALIZATION
BEST PRACTICES

Best Practices Series

2 Sponsored Content

THE CHALLENGE:
Extending Consolidated Reporting
and Analysis to the Front Line
Traditionally, full-featured
reporting & analysis solutions have
focused on the needs of executives
that have a strategic perspective.
And because of this limited user
population, traditional business
intelligence has focused on historical
data analysis, such as OLAP, where users
typically evaluate large amounts of
historical, trending data. As a result,
traditional BI is usually associated with
data warehouses, data marts and other
centralized, large scale, aggregated data
stores that can be costly to implement
and difficult to manage.
However, the rich functionality and
interactivity provided by most BI
applications often prove overwhelming.
Most end users need little of this
functionality. Instead, they need easy
access to regularly distributed reports and
other analysis capabilities. They need
interfaces and navigation that are logical
and intuitive. Rather than force casual
users to struggle with multiple complex understand the underlying data schemas. Is presents information in drag-and-drop
data structures and queries, reporting a data warehouse or other data store the form to give users choices in how they
should use easy-to-understand language only option to support the goal of want to assemble, schedule and deliver
and present information clearly. For consolidated operational reporting and reports.
reporting and analysis to drive better analysis across the organization? Users have access to information from
performance, organizations must engage multiple systems, platforms, or locations,
the majority of users—casual business THE SOLUTION: THE INFORMER™ eliminating data silo constraints so that
users, managers, and executives—who ADVANTAGE: REAL-TIME ACCESS TO organizations can optimize the flow and
need to securely interact with the data MULTIPLE DATA SOURCES use of data across the organization
when and where they need it. Informer Web Reporting was without relying on a data warehouse or
In addition, front-line and business designed specifically to extend real-time centralized data mart. Report
users need the flexibility to analyze rapidly self-service reporting and analysis customization and ad-hoc query
changing data from multiple sources, in capabilities to front-line users. With only capabilities mean end users can query
multiple ways, to change how they view a few mouse clicks, organizations can any data source, regardless of where it is
data, to access data in real time to help quickly connect multiple sources of data stored across relational or MultiValue
drive business decisions, and to manage to provide users with a single point of data, to build their own reports and get
reports based on user roles and access to dynamic reports via Informer’s fast answers to their own questions.
responsibilities without the need to easy-to-navigate user interface. Informer Web-based analysis enables users to
Sponsored Content
perform on demand analysis in a zero-
footprint, Web environment. This self-
service capability means IT can minimize
the resources needed to produce reports
while providing faster time-to-results for
the end user.
THE TECHNOLOGY
Technology has evolved to a point
where reporting and analysis needs can
be met without making the big
investments in time, money, and people
that a data warehouse typically
demands. Informer leverages a metadata
model that creates consistency among
data descriptions and structures so users
can effectively access, analyze and report
on data coming from multiple sources
while masking users from underlying
data and system complexities. Informer’s
intelligent caching mechanism allows
users to sort, filter, group, and analyze
report results without bombarding the
database server with repetitive requests.
Users may also save report results as a
Data Archive for local viewing later.
Informer enables organizations to fully
arm operational users with information
without sacrificing database
performance.
BOTTOM LINE
Informer represents completely new
thinking in real-time data access. Instant
access to multiple data sources. Fast
implementation. Organization-wide
deployment. Quick ROI. High
performance on demand queries.
Informer has enabled thousands of
users worldwide to maximize
performance and improve bottom lines
by tracking, understanding, and
managing information. By delivering
instant, up-to-the-second information
access, Informer provides organizations
with unprecedented operational
reporting and analysis capabilities
making full use of their data. It’s Your
Data. We Help You Use It. ■ 888-703-0016 today.
“Informer enabled our College to create
efficiencies within our institution’s business
practices and was one of the key factors in
my position being rewritten to allow me to
spend 50% of my time in new project
development.”
—Wilf Schlitt,
Business Support & Student Data
Systems, College of New Caledonia
3
ABOUT ENTRINSIK, INC.
Since 1984, Entrinsik Inc. has been
developing, implementing, and supporting
database solutions that enable organizations
to maximize performance and improve
bottom lines by tracking, understanding, and
managing information. Thousands of
customers around the world use Entrinsik's
Informer Web Reporting software to natively
extract data from their production databases
to provide a single point of Web-based
access to ad hoc reports for on demand
reporting and analysis. Entrinsik's Semtek
ERP software now drives many of the
nation's largest professional and continuing
education profit centers. To learn more, visit
www.entrinsik.com/offer/dbta or call
“Informer has already proven to be an
invaluable reporting solution for several of
our existing customers. The ability to present
information in drag-and-drop form giving
users choices in how they want to assemble,
analyze, schedule and access reports made a
big impact at our recent webinar demo for
several Public Housing Authorities.”
—Greg Clark,
Director of Technical Services,
Progenixx, Inc.
4 Sponsored Content

Introducing Best Practices in

Analytics, Business Intelligence

and Performance Management
WELCOME TO DATABASE TRENDS AND APPLICATIONS (DBTA)
MAGAZINE’S FIRST “BEST PRACTICES” SECTION

Beginning with this June 2009 issue, each issue of DBTA will incorporate a new
themed “Best Practices” section designed to deliver relevant case studies,
customer references and technology overview/benefits in a clearly defined area of
information management. These special sections will be printed and delivered
within every issue of DBTA in print, and posted at www.dbta.com for easy PDF
downloading by both you and members of your information management team.
The editorial department at DBTA has chosen the area of analytics, business
intelligence and performance management as the first to be covered. According to
DBTA research, 42% of our subscribers spend more than five hours per week on
BI reporting while 15% of our readers spend more than half of their time every
week preparing BI reports. Three-quarters of our subscribers report that either IT
alone, or IT in collaboration with line-of-business management, evaluate BI
solutions. With all of that work and evaluation going into BI within our reading
audience, this is a highly relevant topic for you and a great place for DBTA to
provide deeper background information on solutions. Of course, the need for BI
will only intensify for most of our readers’ sites as well, since nearly two-thirds
(63%) of our readers report that the number of BI users in their organizations
will increase over the next 12 months.
Take a few moments to review the articles that follow, visit the websites for
further information, hang on to this section in print for reference or pass it along
... and tell your peers that they can find the same information at www.dbta.com
for downloading as well. Let us know if there are topics you are having difficulty
with and where future issues of “Best Practices” can help you in your job.

Tom Wilson
President
Unisphere Media
Division of Information Today, Inc.
Sponsored Content
Data Warehousing isn’t a new idea;
conceptually it’s been around for 30
years. From its initial inception as a
method of storing relevant data from
relevant systems into a specific application
used for query reporting analysis, Data
Warehousing has evolved into a
technology that consolidates all
information for the organization into one
repository. An Enterprise Data Warehouse
(EDW) consists of multiple subject areas
(financing, marketing, sales, etc.) and
represents areas of interest for groups and
for individuals who examine the data
across several subject areas.
Open source is definitely mature enough
and robust enough to handle Enterprise
Data Warehousing (EDW). In just a few
short years open source has evolved from
something “geeky” into an enterprise-ready
solution. However, it’s not just that today’s
open source solutions are feature-rich and
can handle user requirements. If you’re
building mission-critical systems, you need
to look beyond the technology and find a
vendor who can support and extend these
solutions.
Successful EDW requires a network of
software, hardware, consultants,
developers, etc. to support customers and
manage the effort over the time it takes
to get a reliable ROI from an EDW
project. The key here is sustainability and
the defining acceptance criterion lies in
determining which companies (and
products) will be here for the long haul.
And these will be commercial open
source vendors (such as Talend) with
well-developed business strategies
surrounding service, support, and value-
added software products.
COMMERCIAL OPEN SOURCE
VENDORS SHARE A NUMBER OF
CHARACTERISTICS
• They are for-profit organizations that
have dedicated R&D teams at the core of
the development effort. Although they
The Value of Open Source to
Enterprise Data Warehousing
By Yves de Montcheuil, Vice President of Marketing, Talend
depend on the community, they contribute
the bulk of the code and control the
product road map. There are clear
differences between a commercial open
source vendor and a community-driven
open source project. The first is backed by a
company, while the second is hosted by
volunteers who contribute their time and,
of course, can’t provide any level of
commitment or service agreement.
• They are often venture-backed and
are in business for the long term.
In just a few short years,
open source has
evolved into an
enterprise-ready solution.
• They provide the same level of
commitment as proprietary vendors and
the same level of expertise. They rely on
the same level of partners to help customers
implement their solutions. One of the
strengths of open source software is the
partner network that exists to provide
customers with customized packages that
address their most fundamental
requirements. Another factor that makes
commercial open source vendors “better”
than proprietary vendors is that their
products need to be easy to use and must
perform really well.
A recent IDC report indicates that
growth in U.S. tech spending may decline
to 0.9% in 2009. Its prediction for
Worldwide IT sales is down to 2.6% from
a pre-September forecast of 5.9% growth.
These aren’t good numbers. Companies
are under pressure to cut IT budgets.
However, as budgets drop, companies
needing to do more with less are turning
to open source solutions, and removing
the cost of license acquisition can reduce
costs by up to 90%. In addition, current
5
customers are increasing use, adding
collaboration, customer relationship
management, and supply chain
management to the open source solutions
that already run their servers and database
management systems.
The community is also a big draw for
many customers, and a significant number
of open source users would rather call on
the community for help addressing issues
than get support from a dedicated service.
In addition to reducing the cost of support
(and thereby decreasing their data
integration budget), the return they get
from the community is comparable in
quality to traditional support from a
proprietary vendor. The community also
tends to be more responsive and
community tools are no cost to the
enterprise. Because the development cycle
of open source applications is usually quite
short, users know that the chances of
getting a feature request developed and
made available is significantly greater than a
similar request in the proprietary domain.
Open source is ready for EDW and
offers far better value for the price.
Because open source is designed to be
modular, an enterprise can start with one
piece—say ETL or reporting—and can
add on as needed. For comparable power
and features an open source solution in
this arena will cost 10 to 20 times less than
a proprietary product. Whether large or
small, companies today are being asked to
do more with less. With open source, you
can have an EDW without compromise. ■
TALEND The recognized leader in open
source data integration, Talend makes
data integration and data quality solutions
available to organizations of all sizes, and
for all integration needs. Talend offers
open, innovative and powerful data
integration solutions, used primarily for
integration between operational systems,
ETL, migration, and data quality.
6 Sponsored Content
Are you challenged to meet the BI
needs of your business users because
you can’t get the data pulled
together properly? Building and
managing a data warehouse may be easier
than you think.
Leading online health insurance
provider eHealth moved from a manual
reporting environment to a fast, accurate
and fully documented reporting and
analytics infrastructure with a fully
documented data warehouse in just three
months using WhereScape RED.
eHealth’s reporting was causing
headaches. Producing reports took
specialist IT knowledge, so reports could
only be produced by the technical team.
This was a major bottleneck. Depending
on complexity, reports took anything from
a few days to a week to produce.
eHealth had a data warehouse that used
hand-written Oracle PL/SQL code to load
and transform the data. How the data
warehouse scripts were crafted, and how
they were maintained, was specialist
knowledge. eHealth wanted this specialist
knowledge to become common
knowledge, so that a wide variety of team
members could develop reports.
As a public company, eHealth was also
working to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley
regulations. Compliance requires full
documentation that includes change
control, auditing, and the distribution of
reporting functions to ensure data
integrity. eHealth decided to solve all these
issues by redeveloping its data warehouse.
“We needed guidelines, code and structure
—not just piecemeal tools,” says Brett
Emerton, eHealth’s Manager of Business
Analysis. “We chose WhereScape RED
because it enabled our team to achieve a
quick delivery.”
“We found other tools either do pretty
layouts and no coding, or they do it all and
charge a fortune. We also wanted the whole
team to understand the data warehouse, and
WhereScape works in a clear, simple way.”
eHealth Rapidly Builds
Data Warehouse with
WhereScape RED
eHealth began by importing existing
logic and processing into the WhereScape
environment. It then converted hand
written procedures into generated code
within WhereScape. Some of eHealth’s
transformations aren’t that easy—they use
iterative calculations and customized
functions. With WhereScape they got rid of
every function except one.
“It runs an order of magnitude faster
than the custom code it replaced,” says
Brett Emerton. “When one of our team
saw the data warehouse rebuild they asked,
‘how many years did it take you to do
that?’ It took three months.”
“We rebuilt the existing data warehouse
in far less time than we could have done
manually. While our business rules are
complex, when broken down visually it
looks very simple. WhereScape shows all
the different steps that make up the code—
you can see from the visuals if something
doesn’t look right. This visual capability
helped us perform debugging, and rebuild
smaller procedures without changing the
constant code,” he says.
“With WhereScape it only takes a few
minutes to change schema and tables. The
current schema is designed for running
reports, but WhereScape’s give us the
flexibility to run analytics, which is a huge
benefit.”
THE BUSINESS PROBLEM
• Only one person understood the data
warehouse
• Only one person was able to fill report
requests
• Reports took a few days to a week to
build
• There was no documentation on data
warehouse processes
THE WHERESCAPE SOLUTION
• The original hand-coded Oracle PL/SQL
data warehouse was re-developed, using
WhereScape RED guidelines and
methodology
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
• Users can produce and customize their
own reports
• Able to run analytics
• Sarbanes-Oxley compliant
• Cubes are generated on the fly, with no
code needed
• Speedy disaster recovery
• Nightly aggregates of data from 10 web
servers
• Overnight processing slashed to
minutes ■
eHEALTH, INC. is the parent company of
eHealthInsurance Services Inc., the leading
online source of health insurance for
individuals, families and small businesses.
eHealth has more than a million insured
customers, and is headquartered in
Mountain View, California. Licensed to
market and sell health insurance in all 50
states and the District of Columbia,
eHealthInsurance has developed
partnerships with more than 160 health
insurance companies. It offers more than
7,000 health insurance products online
through the website at
www.ehealthinsurance.com.
WHERESCAPE provides a product,
WhereScape RED, which enables
organizations to ensure that the structure
of their data always meets the changing
needs of the business. WhereScape RED
is the only comprehensive Integrated
Development Environment for data
warehousing that supports the entire data
warehouse management life cycle. Over
300 customers worldwide are using
WhereScape RED on a variety of platforms.
Users report that projects performed using
WhereScape RED typically come in under
budget, ahead of schedule, with improved
performance, greater transparency and
built on more solid foundations over the
systems they replace. WhereScape has
head offices in Auckland, New Zealand;
Portland, Oregon; and Wokingham, UK.
Sponsored Content 7

Data Virtualization Best Practices

by Composite Software
Grow revenue. Cut costs. Increase synchronization / EAI /ESB or for XML, XSLT, XQuery, XSD, WSDL,
productivity. Reduce risk. Meeting implemented across an enterprise as etc., development.
these mandates requires more data, from virtual data abstraction layer, often in
more places, faster than ever before. This service-oriented architecture (SOA) RELATIONAL MODELING
means new approaches including data environments. DBAs and BI developers prefer
virtualization. relational modeling-oriented development
Composite data virtualization enables DUAL DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS tools when building virtualized views and
enterprises and government agencies to REQUIRED lower level data services. Composite
better leverage the valuable data scattered To best match data virtualization tools Software’s Studio is the environment of
throughout their organizations. with development teams, Composite choice for these SQL-centric developers.
Composite integrates data from multiple, supports two popular techniques, an
disparate sources—anywhere across the Eclipse IDE and traditional relational data RUNTIME PERFORMANCE AND
extended enterprise—in a unified, modeling. RELIABILITY ARE KEY
logically virtualized manner for Rather than move all potential data that
consumption by nearly any front-end ECLIPSE IDE might possibly be queried into a second
business solution, including Business The Eclipse IDE is a powerful IDE consolidated source, Composite only
Intelligence, Mashups, Applications, framework with strong support from the queries the ‘minimum’ data required by the
and more. open source community. Composite consuming application. This mitigates load
Advancing beyond its roots in high- Software’s Designer supports the Eclipse on the source systems while also providing
performance query or enterprise environment for XML/SOA and Java- up-to-the-minute information. To achieve
information integration (EII), Composite centric developers. Moreover, Composite such low latencies while not impacting
data virtualization can be deployed on a Designer enables the top-down or source systems, Composite speeds
project basis as a complement to other contract-first approach to development performance using advanced federated
data integration approaches such as data of standards-based Web services as well query optimization; saves cycles using
consolidation / ETL and data as a range of enhanced graphical editors caching, and increases capacity and
improves reliability using multiple-server
clustering. ■

B us ines s COMPOSITE SOFTWARE, INC. is the

S olutions leading independent provider of data
B I, C P M, and P ortals and C us tom and E nterpris e
R eporting Mas hups C ompos ite Apps S earch virtualization software. Global
organizations, including 10 of the top 20
E nterpris e banks, five of the top 10 pharmaceuticals,
E nterpris e Data V irtualization
A pproac h leading energy, media, and technology
companies along with U.S. Defense and
P hys ic al Data Data V irtualization Data S ync hronization
C ons olidation Options Options Options Intelligence agencies, use Composite’s
P rojec t technology to integrate disparate data—
Options regardless of location or source format—
E nterpris e Data P hys ical R elational Views / Virtual Mes s ages R eplication
and fulfill critical information needs, faster
Warehous e Mart / ODS Web Data S ervices Mart / ODS for less. Composite’s platform scales from
individual business applications to
enterprise-wide Information-as-a-Service
S ourc e architectures, automating the entire data
Data
F iles Legacy P ackaged R DB MS W eb virtualization life cycle, while
Mainframes Applications S ervices
complementing traditional data
warehousing investments.
www.compositesw.com
8 Sponsored Content

Entrinsik, Inc.
7501 Creedmoor Road, Suite 102
Raleigh, NC 27613

Phone: (888) 703-0016

Email: sales@entrinsik.com

www.entrinsik.com/dbta
SILVER SPONSOR

Talend WhereScape USA

8700 Warner Avenue, Suite 200 2100 NW 133rd Place, Suite 76
Fountain Valley, CA 92708 Portland, OR 97229

Phone: (714) 465-4794 Phone: (503) 466-3979

Email: info@talend.com Fax: (503) 466-3978

www.talend.com www.wherescape.com

Composite Software
2655 Campus Drive, Suite 200
San Mateo, CA 94403
Thomas J. Wilson,
Phone: (650) 227-8200
President, Unisphere Media
Email: info@compositesw.com
973-665-1120 • tom@dbta.com

www.compositesw.com Leslie Pinho, Advertising Coordinator

973-665-1125 • lpinho@dbta.com