Overview Data Flow

Before we start working with the TARGIT InMemory platform, it can be useful to understand the relationship between a Business Intelligence system like TARGIT and a company's source data.

A company source system, for example an ERP system such as Navision or Axapta, is often a central and indispensable system in the daily business processes. Such a system is usually designed for efficient handling and entry of daily transactions. In turn, these systems may be very deficient in terms of being able to query data in an easy and manageable way.

This is where Business Intelligence systems such as TARGIT Decision Suite has its place.

Before the data from source systems are ready to be presented to end users, they will typically go through a process as described in the illustration below.

The process includes these steps:

• Data is "born" in one or more source systems, for example. Navision or Axapta.
• Data from these source systems could then be transferred into a Staging area, which is essentially just a place to store a copy of extracted data from the source system. This is also a detached place to start manipulating, validating, transforming these data, if necessary – without compromising the data and the performance of the source systems.
• At some point these data are consolidated into a single Data Warehouse and data are stored in the InMemory format for quick access.
• You will then build a Data Model on top of these data. A Data Model includes definitions of table relationships, measures, dimensions, calculations and cubes.
• Data in Data Warehouse and cubes are refreshed with new data from source systems at regular intervals - typically once a day.
  • An analysis or a report will thus, in principle, show fresh data when it is reopened in the morning.
  • Refreshing data with shorter intervals may also occur, for example once an hour, which will refresh analyses and reports with the same interval.
• The TARGIT server is the central unit in a TARGIT installation.
  • The TARGIT server handles all communication between the cubes and the TARGIT clients.
  • It is also with the TARGIT server that you can centrally manage user rights and their access to various areas of data.
• The TARGIT client is the end user’s experience of the Business Intelligence system.
  • Through the TARGIT clients users can work with existing analyses and reports, or even create new ones.
  • The creation of a new analyses or reports is based on the available source data – according to their definitions in the cubes.