Current Technologies

There are a number of database providers out there but the one I will concentrate on in this blog is Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Why? You may ask. No we are not MS Gold partners but in this product we have a full end to end Business Intelligence (BI) solution - specifically aimed at the middle market.

We have the ETL technology - SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services), which is a massive leap forward from the old DTS. We have the OLAP analysis layer - SSAS (SQL Server Analysis Services), which provides the multidimensionality required in modern analysis and we have SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) which provides the report delivery mechanism. In my opinion the last is the one that needs updating the most. Of course, on top of this we have the actual SQL Server database engine itself which rivals the likes of Oracle and the whole package together becomes massively cost effective as full BI product.

How does this fit in with KPI discussions? Well, to be able to deliver accurate measurements you need a trustworthy datasource in the form of a datawarehouse. Both SSIS and SSAS provide the mechanism to get us there and in the next article I will discuss SSAS in a bit more detail, specifically referring to how we use it for KPI measurements.