Informatica Delivers Next Generation In ERP Data Warehousing With Shipment Of Powerconnect
Informatica Corporation, provider of one of the leading software platforms for powering e-business and analytic applications, has announced the general availability of PowerConnect for PeopleSoft and PowerConnect for SAP R/3, software that enables companies to directly extract and integrate the vast amounts of corporate data stored in their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in order to leverage it for enterprise decision support. The PowerConnect product family complements and extends the reach of Informatica's enterprise data-integration software, delivering a comprehensive platform to help companies transform data throughout their enterprise into valuable business insight.
"Large enterprises have long been hamstrung - desperate for access to the data in their ERP systems to gain insight, but limited in their options for a scalable, reliable solution," said Diaz Nesamoney, president of Informatica. "Their options until now have been limited to a few stovepipe applications and 'data-marts-in-a-box' that provided relief of immediate pain, but no long-term solution that addressed the broad data-integration challenges they faced.
"With the delivery of PowerConnect, Informatica is addressing these needs head on. Today, we've delivered native, high-performance access to PeopleSoft and SAP R/3, bringing enterprise data integration to a new level."
"With the release of its PowerConnect software for both PeopleSoft and SAP environments, Informatica is further enhancing the value of its customers' data warehouse investments by making it far easier for them to integrate the data contained in these ERP systems with their other data sources," said Michael Schiff, director of data warehousing strategies at Current Analysis. "We believe the PowerConnect software products are a natural extension of Informatica's PowerCenter platform, and proof of the company's commitment to support the evolving requirements of its customers."
PowerConnect for PeopleSoft provides Informatica PowerCenter customers with native, high-speed data extraction from PeopleSoft's ERP system, enabling access to all PeopleSoft objects, including Records, Panels and Trees. Once extracted, PeopleSoft data is delivered to Informatica's PowerCenter data-integration software which transforms the data and delivers it to downstream data warehouses, data marts and analytic applications.
PeopleSoft and Informatica have worked together extensively to share metadata and ensure robust integration for customers. PowerConnect for PeopleSoft is the preferred method to automatically import technical and business metadata from PeopleSoft's ERP system into a data warehouse repository, eliminating the need for manual intervention. PowerConnect extracts data from PeopleSoft utilizing the rich metadata held in the PeopleSoft metadata tables as well as the standard metadata held in database catalog tables.
Commented Rick Bergquist, chief technology officer at PeopleSoft, "As the preferred provider of data-integration software to power PeopleSoft's Enterprise Performance Management business intelligence and analytic application suite, Informatica is continuing to help us extend the value of PeopleSoft enterprise applications through its launch of PowerConnect. Informatica's PowerConnect for PeopleSoft is a powerful software product our customers can use to help simplify and accelerate the process of consolidating and customizing enterprise resource planning data for strategic business analysis."
PowerConnect for SAP R/3 provides Informatica PowerCenter customers with native, high-speed data extraction from SAP R/3, enabling full access to all SAP R/3 tables and SAP R/3 Info Hierarchies. Once extracted, SAP data is delivered to Informatica's PowerCenter data-integration software which transforms the data and delivers it to downstream data warehouses, data marts and analytic applications.
An important differentiator for PowerConnect is its ability to automatically import technical and business metadata, the "data about data," from SAP R/3 into the Informatica data warehouse repository. Metadata integration is critical for warehouse professionals as it enables the recreation and reuse of SAP data definitions at the business level within the warehouse repository.
Autodesk, the world's leading supplier of PC design software and digital content-creation tools, has standardized on Informatica's data warehousing platform and now uses PowerConnect to consolidate data from the company's worldwide SAP R/3 implementations for strategic analysis.
"Informatica's PowerConnect provides us with the unprecedented ability to dynamically go into SAP, understand the data and then directly load it into our corporate data warehouse," said Tom Grimmett, data warehouse manager at Autodesk. "Using PowerConnect, we have been able to deliver fully functional iterations of our data marts in weeks, not months. Our traditional process of writing ABAP code was expensive, error-prone and tedious to maintain. Simply put, PowerConnect provides us with dramatic cost savings by shortening our development cycle and at the same time boosting the quality of service to our clients."
PowerConnect for SAP and PowerConnect for PeopleSoft are now generally available, with pricing starting at $55,000.
PowerConnect products complement and extend the reach of Informatica's enterprise software platform for powering analytic applications. Informatica's platform consists of PowerCenter, an enterprise data integration hub for rapidly deploying scalable, enterprise-class decision support applications; and PowerMart, an integrated software suite for deploying and managing line-of-business data marts and analytic applications.
PowerCenter 1.6 and PowerMart 4.6, upgraded versions which complement PowerConnect's functionality, are also now generally available.
Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Informatica develops and markets enterprise software products and services that enable many of the world's largest companies to build and manage business intelligence and analytic applications across the enterprise. Informatica maintains an extensive list of industry-leading customers worldwide and supports partnerships with Cambridge Technology Partners, EDS, Ernst & Young LLP, Microsoft, PeopleSoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, SAP AG and Siemens Business Services. For more information, call 800-970-1179 or visit Informatica's Web site at http://www.informatica.com.