Nathan,
As I mentioned to Joe, some reports, while they could come from the DW/DM/ODS, would probably be better to come from the OLTP system (invoices, bills, your suggestion of bank statements, etc. although it is possible to come from the DW if the DW is refreshed/kept up to date often enough.)
As to clerical staff having trouble... perhaps, but I recommend designating and training "knowledge workers/power users" in each business area and let them create reports for their business area. "Teach them how to fish." Clerks are not usually thought of as knowledge workers/power users.
It would be helpful if you could compare setup and maintenance of a data
warehouse along with end-user report generation to writing reports in
RPG and scheduling them to run in batch. <<
While such a comparison can be done, it is much better to think in a different mind set... programmers don't write reports, unless part of an application package and then only a limited and finite report set. Programmers write and maintain applications and stay out of the endless demand for another report, then another, then another, etc. Business area people (knowledge workers/Power Users) create the reports they need. This puts the responsibility, onus and flexibility where it belongs; with the users.
No doubt creating a DW is more expensive, up front, than a bunch of (or maybe one) RPG programmer(s) cranking out reports but the "thing" of yesteryear, that RPG was for Report Program Generation and programmers write business reports, has long since been replaced by better tools. Thes things move the creation/support for reports down where it belongs.
Then think about another thing... if your Executives are looking through reports or having some staff person do it and then write them an summary or tell them, that is also WAY out of date. Create things such as Decision Support tools/Dashboards/BI support and let executives see a graphical snapshot of where the business. The human mind can more easily comprehend graphical representation anyway. The staff can use the same thing with drill down capabilities to look for ways to do those four things that all business is about:
Increase Revenue
Increase Productivity
Decrease Cycle Time
Decrease Risk
Later,
Dave
Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 5/12/2008 14:45 >>>
Dave Odom wrote:
What about doing a Data Warehouse...
Reporting covers such a broad spectrum of needs and options that I'll
defer to your experience with data warehouses. My experience has been
mixed. Costs for data warehouse tools. IT resources and expertise for
setup and maintenance. End user training and use. Migration of data to
other platform. Migration of data to PCs. It would be helpful to
understand your experience.
have the users create their own reports...
Clerical staff may by challenged by it.
and get yourself out of the report generation
business...
It would be helpful if you could compare setup and maintenance of a data
warehouse along with end-user report generation to writing reports in
RPG and scheduling them to run in batch.
My gut feel is that a data warehouse wouldn't cover every need.
Particularly when pairing database update procedures with reports.
Printing bank statements in conjunction with end-of-month procedures,
for example.
--
Nathan M. Andelin
midrange.com
