The database tables that Lawson has designed for its ERP systems are optimized for production data processing and storage.  The standard Lawson tables are intended for Online Transaction Processing (OLTP).  OLTP Applications are characterized by a high volume of smaller transactions.  This is the common database design for most major ERP software systems.  Appropriately, Lawson has created its database table structures using database normalization and OLTP friendly techniques.

The Lawson tables are not, however, designed for efficient or optimum reporting or data analysis.  Direct Lawson reporting against production tables is difficult.  That is why a data warehouse is beneficial.  Data Warehouses contain database structures that are intended for Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) use.  In contrast to OLTP databases, databases intended for OLAP operations are primarily “read mostly” databases.  OLAP applications tend to extract historical data that has accumulated over a long period of time.  For OLAP databases, “denormalized” or redundant data is common.  For example, dimensional tables in a star schema often contain denormalized data.  Dashboard Gear’s data warehouses are specifically designed for optimum reporting and data analysis.

The Dashboard Gear data warehouses contain: 

• Relational reporting database tables that are intentionally denormalized for optimum report creation.
• Star Schema Data Marts for “asking questions” of your data.
• Microsoft Analysis Services OLAP Cubes for “slicing and dicing” your data.
• Common Database Views again your Lawson production data for efficiently creating common reports such as a Balance Sheet.

The Dashboard Gear data warehouses can be used with any of the third party reporting tools such as Cognos, Crystal Reports/Business Objects, Hyperion, Microsoft Reporting Services/Performance Point, Microsoft Excel/Office or Lawson Business Intelligence Tools (LBI).