Anybody used Insource Data Academy?
I’ve seen the webinars, and read the documentation, but can’t find many (any?) references to anybody using this product whilst googling.
Product page: http://www.insource.co.uk/data_academy.aspx
Most mentions online are buy the guy selling it:
http://wiki.ittoolbox.com/index.php/Insource_Data_Academy
…Has anybody else heard of this tool and know much about it, or even better used it?
A snapshot of the product literature follows:
“Data Academy™ 5.3 is a data warehouse builder which leverages the functionality of Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 to build robust data warehouses and marts in a fraction of the time it would take using native SQL. This is achieved through the use of intuitive, browser-based screens and data warehousing-specific modules. The resultant data warehouse has full administrative functionality, it can be added to at any time; and because it develops Microsoft SQL native code it has the potential for unlimited further enhancement and customisation.”
We are in the process of building a data warehouse using Academy. I can highly recommend it as it really does take the complication out of the whole process. It’s enourmously powerful in terms of creating complicated yet fully logged SSIS packages and other SQL tit-bits that would otherwise require a team of SQL developers at a much larger cost. The most recent update comes with CUBE-it LITE thrown in, which makes the process of creating SQL reporting service data cubes a joy.
I would recommend taking the training course with Insource. It’s a couple of days long based in Reading, but the trainer (Rob Davenport) is hugely knowledgable and enthustiastic about the product. The product is very mature and robust.
Insource can be as involved in the process as you want them to be. They can build an entire BI solution for you, or as we have done, simply supply the software and training and let us get on with it with email support.
This really is the best kept secret in the business intelligence field. If you can, get yourself down to one of the presentations Insource hold to see it in action.
We currently use the Data Academy 5.3 product for our company’s ETL (or ELT as Insource use it) solution. We have been using it since Dec2007 and have found it to be a useful data warehouse building tool. It simplifies the process of creating MS SQL 2005 SSIS packages for extracting and loading from the transactional databases, and does the same for the transformational process by creating datasets.
I have not found any tools on the market that does what Academy does. It has simplified the overall process of creating a data warehouse by making MS SQL’s inherent functionality more accessible.
We currently use it for our core transactional database and have been able to create various datasets that update on a scheduled basis and produce automated figures for our company’s performance indicators. We also use it to extract information from the core system for integration to other systems.
We deployed Data Academy last year as the basis for our corporate data warehouse and will be enhancing this year to complete the intergration work between our core financial systems.
DA offers a fast, and user friendly, development route which meant we were able to deploy quality BI to the business, with data from 4 disparate technology platforms in under 6 months.
One additional thing worth keeping in mind. The guys at Insource are not your run of the mill consultant/developers. They have a pragmatic business approach to getting the job done and are not just selling a product they designed and built it.
Many thanks for your comments guys - very useful and interesting. Especially interesting that you couldn’t find any other products on the market that do this! Will be speaking to Insource further…
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