Data Warehouse/DSS
Expansion
During the first stage,
no changes will be made to the Geac OLTP processing on the mainframe computer;
all of the changes will be made to the subsidiary processes which extract
the data and place it in a data warehouse.
The issues that OSC will
be addressing during this phase include the need to upgrade the decision
support software to be Y2K compliant, as well as numerous performance issues.
The benefits that will result in this phase are as follows:
-
Users will be able to do reporting
and analysis on much more detailed information than is currently possible
without downloading or doing a manual entry into a PC-based spreadsheet.
-
It will be possible to support
requirements to provide analysis on data which is in multiple regions without
manual data entry or a download to a PC-based environment.
-
OSC will reengineer their current
data extraction processes which extracts and refreshes all information
on a daily basis instead of performing daily incremental extractions and
weekly full extractions. This will improve performance and reduce
ITS costs.
-
A large number of reports will
be made available through the expanded data warehouse/DSS, instead of generating
them on the mainframe.
-
Financial information needed
for executive decision making will be available in a more flexible format
enabling more rapid changes in reporting capabilities.
-
The OSC will include new tools
in this process that will enhance their users’ ability to do ad hoc queries
and other one-time or unique reports.
Figure 23 illustrates the data
flow at this stage of the migration path.
Figure 23. NCAS
To-Be Model Data Flow
The OSC is evaluating newer
Extraction, Translation, Loading (ETL) technology to ensure continued system
and business process improvements. This technology will also help
reduce ITS related costs and increase user requested capabilities.
Figure 24 illustrates the
infrastructure architecture needed to support this stage of the migration
path.
Figure 24. NCAS
To-Be Model Infrastructure Architecture