The Role of Management Information Systems in an Organization
Thu, 04/19/2007 - 15:38Today's organizations online organizations face challenging issues, such as how to market your websites as to be acquire a higher percentage of the market share. Search engine optimization is one of the best, and most affordable ways to do so. Richmond SEO is a company we've worked with for several years not that provide one of the best ways to move your website higher in search engine reulsts pages.
A Tactical View of Analytical Reporting in eCommerce
Sat, 04/14/2007 - 00:42The long-term success of any business is dependent on the decisions it makes. And as a small business grows, so does the need to analyze the data they have collected to make these important business decisions. Foreca
sting, trend analysis and other aggregations of raw data are imperative to understanding your business to assist you in making these decisions. Yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily aggregation of sales data, for example, give you great insight into how well the volume of your business is doing. And the more ways you look at your data, the better you can understand your business.
Unfortunately, these types of data aggregations can be incredibly taxing on server resources that your application relies on. So much so in fact, that eventually, your application will grind to a halt. Performance and usability of your application will become so poor that you'll end up losing customers.
So, what does a medium to large storeowner who wishes to leverage all of that captured data without compromising performance do?
Ideally, data would be extracted, transformed (if necessary) and transferred over to an Operational Data Store (ODS) or Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) in a daily, incremental fashion, and then purged from the OLTP (On Line Analytical Processing) system after 30, 60 or 90 days. That would keep your application running on a 'lean' set of data for optimal performance. Data that would be occasionally needed by the application, such as order history, would be transferred over to the ODS, while data who's only purpose would be to aggregate and analyze, would be moved over to the EDW.
However, this introduces a new level of complexity into the data model. Two things specifically jump out at me that would require consideration in the OLTP database in order to insure data integrity between the reporting structures, and the OLTP database. In order to support the incremental extraction, I think you'd need to have a couple of very dependable timestamps. You'd need to have one column for the timestamp of the row was inserted, and one for the timestamp that the row was last updated. In conjunction, you'd also need a solid set of triggers, that you'd use to ensure that any time a row in the OLTP database was updated, to make sure that new, updated row was included in the extractions.
In addition to the timestamps, I think you'd need to have a reliable deletion audit trail. Obviously, if data is deleted in the OLTP database, you need a way to also delete it from the ODS and/or EDW. Typically, this is handled with a delete trigger, and a 'delete_log' table. After the ETL (Electronic Load and Transfer) process extracts and loads data from the OLTP system into the reporting structures, it will also grab all of the deleted rows from the 'delete_log' table, iterate through them, and update the tables in the ODS/EDW accordingly, either deleting them, or marking them as deleted.
These are all fairly common industry standard methods of keeping the OLTP database from becoming bogged down with too much data, and to keep contention down by moving reporting away from the application.
Unfortunately, there seem to be some inherent problems with MySQL that hinder us from being able to accomplish this easily. First of all, MySQL doesn't appear to support triggers. This requires that the application itself be responsible for ensuring that all deletions are recorded in the delete log table, and that all updates also include an update to the last updated timestamp. I'm don't know about you, but I'm not a big proponent of trusting the application to do anything when it come to data integrity.
With all of this being said, while I'd certainly be up to the challenge of creating an ODS/EDW for an osC OLTP system (through, I'm of the opinion that once a small business grows beyond the point of being 'small', it's time to start looking for a new shopping cart application.
Using Dell Servers For Business Applications
Sun, 09/27/2009 - 15:44So you need a computer to use as a server for your business application and don't know where to turn. One of the best places to do the research on this subject is on the Internet. The websites you select to do your research should offer you, at a minimum, a background of their company, their current products, the or technical support, their environmental record, any mergers or acquisitions, and any lawsuits or other legal action pending. For example did you know that Dell offers great deals directly to consumers and visitors alike.
You may not also have known that Dell is the number one PC provider in the United States and that they also sell printers, scanners, digital cameras, televisions, and that there are all kinds of software/ anti-virus promotions, coupon codes and Dell PC buying incentives available on the Internet. Since pricing is always a concern it is wise for you to compare the price of the servers you are going to buy against others that may suit your needs of similar functions and quality. Some companies may offer you special deals on hardware, software or both.
You should also be aware of what kind of antivirus and anti-spyware is available and what its cost is and if they offer Antivirus Coupon Codes. These can be a great savings to your company. Antivirus and Anti-apyware coupons can also be found on the Internet. The site you select should offer numerous different packages of the desired software so that you can make a selection that most suits your need at the most reasonable cost. The site you select to do your research should also offer an Antivirus guide complete with reviews of various antivirus software packages.
What Elements Should Be Included in a Business Intelligence Solution?
Wed, 10/15/2008 - 23:23With the flood of Business Intelligence software showcased in the last few years, coupled with budget tightening and procurement freezes, the question of what elements should be included in a Business Intelligence Solution becomes more paramount.
BI systems have been defined as being able to do everything from centralizing all of your corporate data from all of your various applications through robust (although nearly always proprietary) ETL tools to being able to provide ad hoc, on demand report developing capabilities for not only business analysts, but also for corporate executives and managers, who may not be a technically savvy as your average 9th grade high school student.
But what does a Business Intelligence tool really need to include? Well, for starters, I'd recommend looking for operating system and database independence and scalability. Sure, you're business might be using Oracle today, but when your CTO decides to cut a great deal with MS SQL Server for a much lower price, you're going to want a tool that can make that transition. And believe me, that happens more than you might think.
I'd make sure your BI tool candidate has all of the analytical tools you'll need. OLAP and MOLAP capability with the ability to develop reports against MOLAP, dimensional model, or relational models architectures are critical. Make sure you have the ability to easily develop reports that use very complex SQL aggregations, correlating sub-queries, and unions. I mean, hey, if we wanted to write SQL, we would have just called a programmer, right?
Next I'd look for something with a web based design interface, with all the bells and whistles, including GIS connectivity (or at least something that can use one of the existing GIS vendors). The days of installing client applications for design tools are past us.
Your might think that ETL would be a major requirement in this decision, but honestly, this isn't as important anymore. Most companies are using an ELT (that's not a typo) solution now where you Electronically Load, and then Transform your data. That way you can use very simplistic data replication tools, and let your database engine do all the transformation rather than doing it on the way to the databases.
What to Consider When Selecting a BI Solution
Wed, 10/15/2008 - 21:25The world of Business Intelligence has evolved quite a bit in recent years. The hyper competitive business market has driven the Business Intelligence industry to provide analytical information regarding trends and forecasting on the spot. More useful information is needed, and less time is available to derive it. That's why it's important to have a Business Intelligence solution in place that can give you the on-Demand features and benefits that you need.
When selecting an on-demand BI solution there are several factors to take into consideration.
* make sure your Business Intelligence solution is user friendly. Business analysts, corporate executives, and manages are not always technically proficient, so it's important that your BI tool can get them the information they need without having to train them on various technical aspects.
* make sure your BI tool is database platform, and operating system independent. Some BI tools only work with MicroSoft or Oracle, and it may not be in your companies best interest to make a change.
* make sure your BI tool comes with a centralized meta-data repository?. It's important to know who's using the tool, and how long verious reports and cubes take to run.
* make sure your BI tool offers GIS capability or compatibility with existing GIS tools. Mapping data will be a huge part of business intelligence in the future, and you don't want to miss out because your BI solution doesn't support it.
* make sure your BI tool supports complex statistical analysis. Simple straightforward counts don't always cut it, and not everyone has the time to learn SaaS BI.
