Survey 360 System Integration
ISE Data-warehouse
- obtaining the datasets on-time from various sources in the first place
- transferring them to target machine
- manipulating the datasets into a compatible format
- performing key converstion
- last but not least; merging and storing the result in an easily extractable and efficient structure
Insight Now understands the value of joined-up information. Through consolidation of data via a shared key, indicative results obtained from a single data set may be confirmed, refuted, supplemented, aggregated, or diced into further detail.
It is a key to making sense of the disparate MI available from different areas of your business.
We understand, too, that data consolidation can be a complicated business - particularly if you want the results in a timely and automated fashion. Crudely speaking, the technique will entail:
All these input processes require some serious CPU power – and a simultaneous demand from business users for the outputs “yesterday” - can entail the target machine running concurrent and often number crunching queries at the same time as it is trying to import the data – a recipe for resource contention and poor performance.
The solution – ISE data warehouse
We’ve integrated Survey 360 with a highly available and flexible data warehouse designed precisely for surveys - known as the ISE (Integrated Survey Engine) data warehouse. Its input processes are load balanced across multiple high-end servers; and the outputs engine is hosted on a dedicated server running SQL Server.
Through the definition of your Survey 360 questionnaires you decide on the common keys and any mappings you require for your data – then the data captured through running the survey is available at once for complete integration with your existing data sets, for example, to drive:
- Existing Quality Management Systems
- Business Intelligence and Reporting tools
Because the ISE data warehouse is designed specifically for Insight Now surveys, any survey definition is represented therein automatically – there is no need for any manual maintenance, tuning, or house-keeping to keep things running smoothly. Latest survey results are transferred-out to you as a one-off...periodically...or in near-real-time – you decide.
Connecting up
Connecting the ISE data-warehouse with your in-house systems couldn’t be easier. Just create a standard database connection containing the remote IP address of our server, open the firewall to this IP address, and your data is then seamlessly available to any of your in-house systems or BI tools. Communications, set-up, and running costs are minimal.
Supported tools
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Any tool supporting OLE DB, ODBC, or native SQL Server connections, including:
- Business Objects*
- Cognos
- SAS
- Hyperion
- SQL Analysis Services
- Microsoft Excel**
- Microsoft Access**
*Insight Now provides a default Business Objects universe definition enabling you to build cubes instantly, which you can use as-is or modify; alternatively you can build your own universe from scratch.
**Insight Now provides a default set of query definitions for Microsoft Office applications to enable you to quickly extract your survey results.
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