Bringing it all together

Gary Baker 

VTEL Corp. used to retrieve information piece-meal from several non-related applications and systems. The process was time-consuming, labor intensive, and error prone. The Austin, Texas-based company - which develops high-quality video, data, and voice quality, IP-addressable video network solutions-decided to integrate the data flowing in from its various business units.

VTEL contracted with Database Consultants, Inc. (DCI), an Oracle technology firm specializing in meeting the challenges of complex, high-volume database applications. The DCI team had to plot the strategies and tactics to be used, provide the necessary resources for implementation, and assemble a technical team to address the issue.

During the planning phase, the DCI team determined that the current system architecture was extremely complex due to a layering of technical and strategic considerations. VTEL's needs dictated a solution that would:

Extract data from existing systems, databases, and files.

Integrate data from the various sources into a single database.

Support daily business decision requirements.

Allow user access to the data via an 'easy-to-use' front end.

A data warehouse was chosen to provide a consolidated view of the business while preserving the company's investment in existing operational systems. Oracle7 was chosen as the relational database for the warehouse.

The legacy systems proved to be the dominant data source. Moving this data into the warehouse required extracting individual data fields as well as entire files and tables. Where possible, SQL*Loader was used to accomplish this task, but in some cases specialized software using Pro*C was implemented.

Extracted data required various degrees of pre-processing before it could be used effectively for decision-support purposes. DCI's staff designed and implemented systems using Oracle's SQL*Plus, PL/SQL, SQL*Forms 4.5, and Microsoft's Visual Basic 4.0 to accomplish these integration tasks. Data was extracted and loaded automatically from legacy systems. An operational data store (ODS) was used to facilitate information integration. Data sources can be added as business needs change and new data elements are identified.

DCI organized the project so that employees trained in decision-support technology, relational databases, client-server technology, networks, front-end software, and meta-data tools could be used as needed. With these available skills, the development staff remained focused on specific tasks and were not required to explore unfamiliar technologies.

During the implementation phase, workers were trained on basic relational database concepts and on the use of ad-hoc query tools (for example, Oracle's Discover 2000, Microsoft Access, or Gupta's Quest). This training produced knowledge workers capable of performing analysis against data in both the operational and warehouse data stores.

During the course of the project, the DCI implementation team learned that the legacy systems did not lend themselves to decision-support processes because much of the data was structured and tuned for a transaction system.

Further, this was VTEL's initial venture into client/server technology. With these opportunities in mind, DCI provided VTEL with a full life-cycle implementation of a data warehouse - from the source transaction systems to the users performing successful decision-support processing at their desks.

The data warehouse enables management to accumulate data from different information systems in a single database and to generate management information that brings data together from all areas of the business, says Rodney Bond, chief financial officer of VTEL.

It also enables management to gather and analyze data about the business that was previously not readily available from VTEL's enterprise system, thereby enhancing management's information and the ability to make informed decisions about the business, Bond adds.

Baker is a senior technical consultant with Database Consultants, Inc., Dallas.