What's an ODS?

An ODS is a database designed to integrate data from multiple sources for additional operations on the data, for reporting, controls and operational decision support. Unlike a production master data store, the data is not passed back to operational systems.

Think of an EDW as your long term storage and an ODS as your Short term storage.  For Example: an ODS is 3 or less years of Data and your EDW has 7 years of data.  The ODS will aggregate your feeds from source systems and will feed your EDW.

In summary, an ODS can provide benefits that include: Offers scalable and flexible control of data per constantly changing business requirements. Handles large data sets effectively, sourcing from one or multiple systems/databases.

3 ways to move users from Source system reporting to the EDW for reporting

When a company builds an EDW/ODS and sets up that environment, best practices would call for all reporting to be moved to the data warehouse.   How do you move users to this new environment and maintain your BI Manager job?   That can be tricky.    Change is not easy.   Especially for users who have run reports and dashboards the same way for years.   I want to show you 3 ways to move reporting from a source system to the warehouse.

First, way to move folks from the source system to the new EDW is to start with monthly reporting.   Why?  Because the data warehouse is typically a 1/2 day to day behind the source system because the warehouse is based on a cycle.   If the cycle is updated twice a day to every day then the data may seem stale to a user who is used to having the latest greatest data at their fingertips.   As a result, I would move the monthly data to the new platform first.   This would have to be monthly reports for the executive level and not a management level.   You need buy in from the top level who then rubber stamps the move for the levels below.   I would even say that this first level of data should be a dashboard instead of a report.  A dashboard is a way to present data in a summary fashion where leadership can view their KPI's at a glance instead of buried in a report.

Second, most EDW's have a core system where the power users reside.   This is the best way to start your move.   Move the core data to the warehouse and then tackle that data first.   That way you develop momentum to moving the rest of the data.    This should be the data that everyone knows about.    Think about this.   What is the largest bucket of data?  Or perhaps it should be this.  What is the most important bucket of data that will reside in my warehouse.   You have to decide which one is the best move.  Perhaps this is the group that has the most reports or at least the most used reports on the source system.  The key is to win this group over to the move.   You should have a great relationship with this team already and they will be your champion group.   

The first suggestion was to move the monthly reports first, the second suggestion was to move the power users group or the group using the largest data set.  Third is to communicate the positives.   An IT Marketing campaign if you will.  You will benefit by...You fill in the blank.  A positive spin on this with all of the latest tools will be crucial.   Training on new tools can be  a good way to plan for this move.    For example: Qlik training or Power BI training.  Plan for your vendor to offer some new user training close to the cutover using your data.  If the vendor uses your data then the training will make sense to the users.  What tools do you have for the new reporting tool that are missing from source system reporting?  What new functionality will be crucial to your customer?    

I hope that this has given you some practical ideas for your EDW/ODS implementation.   Change is difficult but crucial to moving your business towards best in class Reporting/Dashboard solution.