ETL Data Warehouse?
ETL Data Warehouse? What is ETL? - It stands for Extracting, Transforming and Loading your data into the warehouse from the many systems that are usually found in an organsiation.
ETL is a set of computer programs or processes that capture the appropriate data from the routine or operational systems, clean it up, and store it a standard and consistent format.
Data Quality is a Big Issue
You don't want decisions to be based on incorrect data. As data systems within an organisation have evolved over the years all sorts of inconsistencies can arise. Typical Problems are for example:
ETL Processes are Crucial
- Inconsistent codings e.g. ClientCode, CustomerID
- Inconsistent status flags e.g. shipped, delivered
- Missing data values e.g data items that are not mandatory are left blank at data entry
- Duplicated entries e.g. same item in the system more than once
- Inconsistent units e.g. kilograms or pounds
It is unglamorous work but the design of your ETL processes is crucial to the success of your BI system.
The people you need for this need to be data design experts and good programmers. It needs very careful planning and design.
There are several software tools that can be used to support the process, but sometimes specific software programs need to be coded to achieve the objective.
Finally thorough testing is needed before you can go live with the data that has been loaded into the Warehouse.
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