The latest version of the SAS® Enterprise ETL Server includes features that simplify core functions in the extraction, transformation and load (ETL) process and shorten the time required to get key information into an organisation's business intelligence mix.

According to Annemarie Cronje, Solutions Architect at SAS Institute SA, the enhanced features of SAS® Enterprise ETL Server save time and resources, thus improving the productivity of the ETL cycle.

She says that the Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) recently reported that ETL design and development work consumes 60 to 80 percent of an entire BI project.

"With such an inordinate amount of resources tied up in ETL work, it's in the BI practitioner's best interests to optimise this layer of the BI environment," says Cronje adding that the TDWI research validates how essential ETL is to a company's overall BI success.

"Using SAS Enterprise ETL Server, businesses can quickly and efficiently take a strategic step toward creating a cohesive enterprise intelligence platform," she says.

SAS Enterprise ETL Server improves productivity in the following ways:

• Reduces the time and effort typically involved in the ETL development cycle and improves future maintenance by making it easier for developers to access a wide variety of external data files, including legacy formats, without the need to write custom code - something that is typically required by other vendors.
• Gives developers wizard-driven user interfaces, simplifying how metadata is captured at the transformation level. This capability makes it easier to track and maintain data in the warehouse, regardless of the source. It also greatly improves overall consistency and authenticity of information in the data warehouse at the ETL level.
• Enables critical ETL routines in the development cycle to be performed in real-time through messaging queuing products (i.e., IBM WebSphere® MQ, Microsoft MQ and TIBCO TIB/Rendezvous), as well as through Web services - resulting in a more efficient ETL process.
• Provides data lineage and impact analysis capabilities that go beyond what other ETL tools can deliver, making the ETL process more transparent to both IT staff and decision makers within the company while reducing ETL development costs. SAS Enterprise ETL Server maintains a full history of changes made during a project's life cycle, allowing for instant reconciliation against other sources of information and ensuring knowledge continuity in the event of personnel changes. This history also ensures that information derived from the ETL process is correct and trustworthy.

"As a recognized ETL leader, SAS continues to find innovative ways to deliver value at the initial phase of a company's business intelligence process. Our ETL offering allows organisations to integrate information in ways that make enterprise intelligence immediately accessible any time, any place and in the most appropriate form - regardless of the source," concludes Cronje.