Gain more value from your data management tools while reducing the risk of your data warehouse project
A Teksouth Corp. survey of data warehouse (DW) professionals in March of 2007 uncovered some alarming statistics regarding the grim reality of data warehousing efforts:

• 62% of those surveyed factor delays and cost overruns into budgets for data warehouse projects;
• Two-thirds have been forced to either scale back projects or request additional funding;
• Two-thirds have run into “unanticipated” problems while designing and implementing their data warehouse, with 44% of those problems resulting in project delays.

Sypherlink’s product suite was developed to alleviate these pains, accelerate the use of complementary data management applications and help organizations maximize the returns from their data warehouse projects.

Automated Data Discovery & Mapping
Using its patented heuristics matching technology, Sypherlink Harvester automates data discovery and mapping, enabling organizations to quickly understand what information is available and where field-level relationships exist between multiple data sources. Often overlooked, these steps are the most complex and resource-intensive parts of any data warehouse initiative – and where many fail. Harvester allows users to complete these steps as quickly, accurately, and efficiently as possible to speed implementation and maximize ROI.

Rapid, Virtual Prototyping
Data warehouse projects require business process changes throughout the organization. Creating a virtual prototype of a consolidated repository is an invaluable tool to facilitate those changes. Sypherlink’s Exploratory Warehouse enables IT to virtually access data from multiple sources and rapidly prototype the final data repository, whether virtual (federated) or physical. This prototype helps to mitigate project risk while enabling the ability to:

• Build a business case – Prototypes allow stakeholders to visualize the value a consolidated repository can provide, enabling the necessary buy-in.
• Accelerate implementation – Prototypes provide a common foundation on which business and IT can communicate, ensuring alignment and minimizing costly rework.
• Facilitate the addition of new data sources – Prototypes ensure new data is accurate and non-redundant before integration.

Integration into Complementary Technology
Sypherlink’s tools optimize the performance of integration applications by providing an accurate understanding of the underlying data and metadata. The field-level mapping relationships generated by Harvester can be seamlessly integrated into leading data integration and metadata management tools such as IBM DataStage, Informatica PowerCenter, ASG-Rochade and IBM Information Server, making integration simple and transparent. And because Sypherlink automates the tough task of prototyping, the chosen solution is more reliable, accurate and complete in a fraction of the time.