The SAS Intelligence Value Chain | SAS 9.1.3 ETL Studio: Users Guide

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The following figure illustrates the SAS Intelligence Value Chain, a model for building an intelligence solution.

Figure 2.1: SAS Intelligence Value Chain

Most links in the chain are associated with a set of SAS software. SAS ETL Studio is associated with the ETL^Q link and the Intelligent Storage link of the chain, as described in the following table.

Table 2.1: Links in the SAS Intelligence Value Chain
Link	Description	Associated Software
Plan	Work with a SAS representative to select platforms and SAS software products that are required for your solution. Identify how data will be stored; how you will query the data; and how information consumers will access data. Build data models for data warehouses and data marts.	Includes third-party data modeling software.
ETL^Q	Extract data from sources such as SAS data sets, DBMS tables, and enterprise applications. Transform the data before writing it to the target data stores. For example, you might change the structure of your data by joining the contents of several tables into one table. Load the transformed data into the target data stores. Ensure the Quality of the data to be loaded into the target data stores by reviewing and cleansing the data so that it is accurate, up-to-date, and consistently represented.	Includes SAS ETL Studio, SAS/ACCESS interfaces to relational databases, SAS Data Surveyors for enterprise applications, SAS Data Quality Server, dfPower Studio.
Intelligent Storage	Store data to achieve the best performance. Storage options include SAS, third-party relational databases, parallel storage, multidimensional databases. or a combination of these storage structures.	Includes Base SAS, SAS ETL Studio, SAS OLAP Server (for multi-dimensional storage), SAS SPD Server (for parallel storage), SAS/ ACCESS software for third-party relational databases and for enterprise applications.
Business Intelligence	Explore the data in a data warehouse or data mart and control the presentation of the results in business reports.	Includes SAS Information Map Studio, SAS Web Report Studio, SAS Web Report Viewer, SAS Information Delivery Portal, SAS Enterprise Guide, and SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office.
Analytic Intelligence	Predictive and descriptive modeling, forecasting, optimization, simulation, experimental design, and more.	Includes SAS Enterprise Miner and many other analytic-intelligence products for areas such as Enterprise Intelligence, Supplier Intelligence, Organizational Intelligence, Customer Intelligence, and Supply Chain Intelligence.

Note

Not all solutions require products from each link of the SAS Intelligence Value Chain.

SAS ETL Studio enables you to perform all of the tasks in the ETL^Q link of the SAS Intelligence Value Chain: the extraction of data from operational data stores, the transformation of this data, and the loading of the extracted data into your data warehouse or data mart. SAS ETL Studio extends into the Intelligent Storage link because it enables you to design the flow of data into SAS data sets, OLAP cubes, and/or third-party relational database tables.

A number of products augment the capabilities of SAS ETL Studio. For example, the SAS/ACCESS interfaces to relational databases enable you to read, write, and update data regardless of its native database and platform. The SAS Data Surveyors enable you to build SAS ETL Studio jobs that help you read and write data from enterprise applications from SAP, Siebel, Oracle, and other vendors.

There are also several components that enable you to improve the quality of your data. For instance, the SAS Data Quality Server allows you to analyze, cleanse, and standardize your data. This product is often used in conjunction with products such as dfPower Studio from DataFlux Corporation, which enables you to customize the quality knowledge base that the SAS Data Quality Server uses to store its data-cleansing guidelines.

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