IFS Information Sources provide a business oriented view of information available in IFS Cloud, used for information output. The information Sources hides the underlying, often complex, data structures and offers an interface optimized for reporting and analysis. There is a wide range of Information Sources available in different product areas.
Using IFS Information Sources makes information access much easier compared to connecting directly to IFS Cloud database. Users do not need to understand the technical data structures to build reports, Lobby elements or to connect from other BI tools. The information is organized in a logical, business oriented way with relevant measures and information attributes that can be directly used.
Most Information Sources have two access modes – OnLine or DataMart. In OnLine mode Information Sources are directly connected to IFS Cloud production data, offering full up-to-date reporting and analysis capabilities. Using OnLine access is in many cases not optimal for performance. In these cases, DataMart mode can be used. DataMart mode means that information is stored in a separate Data Mart, updated on a regular basis according to configuration.
For more information about delivered Information Sources per product area, please refer to is Available Information Sources.
IFS Information Sources are implemented as star schema models, prepared and optimized for analysis and reporting.
A star schema model is a common and industry standard way to organize information for reporting and analytical use. Each model consists of a Fact in the middle and a number of Dimensions connected to the Fact around it like a star. The Fact holds the measures, typically amounts, quantities and count values. The Dimensions holds the attributes used for organizing and filtering the information. By having star schemas it is very clear to the user how information is organized and what dimension attributes are available for a particular groups of measures contained in a Fact.
Many Information Sources offers additional measures, not directly stored in IFS Cloud regular tables to increase information availability. One Fact usually combines information from several underlying database tables.
Most tools working with star schemas use a drag-and-drop mechanism when designing a report or an analysis view. The user navigates the star schema, viewing measures and dimension attributes and drags relevant items into the design areas to be used for displaying, grouping or filtering.
In IFS Cloud, it is possible to directly use Information Sources from IFS Business Reporter and IFS Lobby.
Information Sources are also used as a basis for transferring information to separate BI and analysis tools. In these cases, the information will normally be stored in an intermediate data warehouse in order to prepare the information for further use. This is also the case for IFS Analysis Models. These Analysis Models are powered by Microsoft BI in SQL Server and there is a standard interface for loading them from IFS Information Sources.
IFS EOI (Enterprise Operational Intelligence) can integrate with and load data from various types of applications and data sources using standard Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services. With IFS Information Sources there is a direct integration that makes it possible to faster build EOI models and load data without the use of Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services.
Information Sources are implemented in IFS Cloud as standard Oracle database views. In OnLine access mode, the views are connected directly to production data. In DataMart access mode, the views are connected to a separate data mart, refreshed on a regular basis according to configuration. What access mode to selects depends on the use case. Up-to-date reporting requirements requires connection to OnLine Access mode. When processing larger volumes of information the DataMart access mode can in most cases be faster. In this mode, the information is more completely prepared for calculated values and it is easier to adapt with individual database indexes without affecting production data processing. If DataMart mode is enabled it is still possible to use OnLine mode in parallel.
Refresh of the data mart can be made in two ways. If the Information Source supports incremental load the data mart can be loaded based on only new and updated transactions. In this case the load frequency can be set to shorter intervals. In other cases, the data mart is completely refreshed, normally with a frequency of once a day.
Management of Information
Source configurations is made in the Solution Manager.
Please refer to the following page to get an overview of delivered Information Sources.