ETL tools, tools that extract, transform, and load data from a variety of source environments into defined target environments, have evolved greatly over the last few years. What was once the domain of a few vendors has now proliferated significantly with a number of different niches defined.

Since its inception in 1995, Entigy has focused primarily in the architecting and deploying ETL tools and processes to satisfy data warehouse and integration initiatives of every size. Over that time we have gained superior knowledge of the features/functions, strengths/weaknesses of the tools offered by the major ETL vendors.

The entigyEVAL service is premised on leveraging our ETL experience to ensure our clients benefit from an unbiased assessment of . Through a highly-templated approach, we will guide our clients through identifying the key criteria required in their environment, the likely candidates to be included for evaluation, the actual evaluation, and subsequent recommendations.

Our objective is to ensure that the ETL tool/method of choice delivers enough valuable business information to decision makers to justify the cost of the investment. Entigy's continual research as well as hands-on usage of ETL best-of-breed tools ensures that our clients benefit by the most extensive and current knowledge of the ETL tools and functionality available.

Entigy has knowledge of all the leading ETL tools including: Ascential DataStage, Informatica, Ab Initio, Sagent, MicroSoft DTS, Cognos DecisionStream and more. We have no reseller agreements with any of these firms so that you can be sure our recommendations and evaluations are bias-free.

Our Approach, at a high-level consists of the following:

1. Project Background/History
2. Current Situation
3. Future Vision
4. Evaluation
5. Recommendations

1. Project Background/History (Where have we been?)

• Review original project documentation (business plan, business drivers, proposals, etc.)
• Review project evolution from initiation through implementation (i.e. changes in scope)
• Interview key stakeholders (business sponsor, project manager, lead architect, business analysts).

2. Current Situation (Where are we now?)

• Hardware inventory
• Software inventory
• Technical architecture diagram(s)
• Staging area schema(s)
• Data warehouse schema(s)
• Data mart schema(s)
• Job/Transformation Design
• Job lists/Batch lists
• Job schedules
• Metadata
• Audit trail (traceability, balances, quality)
• System operation guide(s)
• Disaster recovery plan
• Software configuration management procedures
• Change management procedures
• Realized business value

3. Future Vision (Where are we going?)

• Next set of business drivers / planned growth
• Business plan/proposals for the next iteration of development

4. Evaluation (How prepared are we to get to where we're going?)

• Create a report card/scorecard for the current ETL for key categories
• 5 point scale (5 Superior (world class), 4 Outstanding (best practice), 3 Satisfactory, 2 Needs Improvement, 1 Unsatisfactory)
• CATEGORIES (include a grade and explanation for the assigned grade)
• Scalability (Are current volumes being processed efficiently? Can the existing architecture accommodate expected volume growth?)
  • Data volume
  • Network bandwidth
  • Storage
  • Memory
  • CPU
• Automation (Is there any manual intervention required?)
  • Parameters
  • Lookup values
  • Job submissions (time/event triggered?)
  • Exception Detection/Notification
• Change Management (Is there an established, documented process that is being followed?)
  • Process (Documented/Implemented)
• Software Configuration Management
  • Versioning
  • Promotion Process (Documented/Implemented)
  • Development
  • Test
  • Production
• Metadata (Does the metadata exist? Is it current? Is it accessible?)
  • Definitional
  • Technical
  • Operational
• Backup/Recovery
  • Process (Documented/Implemented/Tested)
  • Disaster Recovery
  • Process (Documented/Implemented/Tested)
• QA/Audit
  • Traceability
  • Expected Volumes?
  • Completeness
  • Balanced
  • User Notification
• Job Design (Is the design modular? efficient? maintainable?)
  • Extraction
  • Transformation
  • Load
• Standards (Documented, Implemented)
  • Naming

5. Recommendations (What can be done to help us get where we want to be?)
For each grade of 3 or less, include a recommended course of action to raise the grade,

Call our sales office today at 905-686-7890 x223 for complete details and pricing information regarding this service.