Tom, I guess I am echoing various other responses, but here's my 2c anyway:
1. There are a whole host of tools that will populate a SQL database from UniVerse. (I recommend mvQuery: it's my product so I would anyway). You will need to consider how far each solution can be automated and what it allows in terms of reformatting information (mvQuery Print Server provides a server based request system that can be used to shedule regular exports, for example) but by and large getting the data across probably won't be your main problem. 2. I would put the actual data migration to one side initially, and consider first what you want to get out of this. I have seen very successful 'decision support' reporting come out of standard reporting when backed up by a knowledge of what an application actually holds. In my experience, it is usually the fact that managers do not know what information is actually available to them from a transactional system that is the key, and closing that knowledge gap (often on both sides as communication of requirements can also be rather thin) is far more important than jumping straight onto a given technical solution. You could go down the Cognos route and then discover what they really want is an Excel pivot table. 3. You might want to consider native OLAP solutions such as MITS, which runs directly on UniVerse. This might be a) cheaper and b) more flexible in the long run. 4. Before you do any of this, you may need to carefully audit what you have on your U2 system. One of the biggest problems with data warehousing is dirty data - missing entries, entries whose meaning has changed over time, similar but non matching data, etc. These should really be cleaned up at source, particularly if the warehouse is liable to change/respecification over its initial period. Verification is important too - the more abstract the data presented (and OLAP is by its nature highly abstract) the more opportunity for errors to go unnoticed. Again the verification may need to be close to the source data: I remember a systems manager saying to me "beware the spurious credibility of a well presented report". Brian Leach ________________________________________________________________________ This email was checked on leaving Microgen for viruses, similar malicious code and inappropriate content by MessageLabs SkyScan. DISCLAIMER This email and any attachments are confidential and may also be privileged. If you are not the named recipient, please notify the sender immediately and do not disclose the contents to any other person, use it for any purpose, or store or copy the information. In the event of any technical difficulty with this email, please contact the sender or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Microgen Information Management Solutions http://www.microgen.co.uk -- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
