Business Intelligence 

Business Intelligence BI is a term that covers a wide range of functions and software products. In short it is the process of obtaining information from data. Thus a complete BI stack would consist of the data and the tools to extract the information.  Data warehouses are usually used to store the data, and reporting and analysis tools are used to extract the information from the data. At Mahalasoft we use the following products to build BI solutions:

Data Warehouse

There are two major types of software used in building a data warehouse. The first is the tools used to pool or bring the data from several applications and databases. These are called ETL tools and ETL stands for Extract Transform and Load. The second type of software is the database were the data warehouse is actually stored. Open Source options for the above mentioned tools include:

ETL

• Jitterbit
• OpenSynchro
• Kettle

Database

• MySQL
• Postgres
• Firebird
• Ingres

Reporting Software

Open Source has a rich selection of reporting applications to chose from. These include:

• Eclipse BIRT
• Jasper Reports
• JFreeReport
• OpenReports web based Jasper Repoers application
• ART
• Agata Reports
• OpenOffice.Org - office suite with database reporting

Analysis

There are many more reporting tools available in different variations. The reporting tools differ in feature sets and some are more powerful in certain aspects and some in others. At the end of the day all your reporting needs can be taken care of using Open Source Software and Mahalasoft is experienced in delivering different reports in different environments. Mahalasoft provides data analysis services through Open Source applications. Two applications used in this regard are:

Mondrian

is suitable as a standalone application that is used to access a database.

Mondrian and JPivot are used for web applications.

In short using these tools one is able to connect to a database and view the data interactively. One is able to choose the columns and rows to view, add filters, highlight values within a particular range and transpose rows and columns. Analysis will allow you to find the answers hidden in your data.