Data Experts Launch New Business Intelligence Tool
Data Mapper enables enterprises to map, build, and test their data integration modeling processes all in one tool.
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A group of Michigan-based data experts have pooled their decades of data experience to bring a new BI tool to the market. Data Mapper, a conversion management tool, reduces cost, risks, and conversion complexity all in a single cloud-based system. Data Mapper facilitates collaboration and clarity for business analysts, conversion developers, quality assurance testers, and managers.
Built on decades of data conversion experience, Data Mapper’s methodology and efficiency help reduce code development time and increase user productivity at a small fraction of their conversion investments.
One of the key developers of the new tool is John Shaening, claim center conversion lead at CopperPoint Insurance Companies. He’s spent decades working on data systems, and in the past 20 years he’s dedicated himself to data migration projects. This tool is something he wanted for himself -- so he built it.
“The lack of a single tool to do everything I wanted and needed finally drove me to just create it myself,” Shaening said. “Once I did, I realized this is something that could help a lot of people and businesses.”
Data Mapper was developed to store data mapping and source-to-mapping systems.
The solution takes a data-driven approach to data mapping. Metadata for each field to be mapped is stored in an RDBMS. The metadata is leveraged to streamline coding. Using Transact-SQL commands, Data Mapper reads the transformation logic for each field and converts it into SQL statements without the need for specialized tool-specific syntax.
These results are compared to those of Data Mapper’s QA tester, which reads the conversion specifications and creates code independently; differences are reported. Once any problems are corrected, Data Mapper automatically generates specs for the target environment, providing complete documentation of the specs, coding, and test results that can assist with internal or external conversion audits.
“[Almost everyone] is trying to figure out how to move data from one place to another in a spreadsheet,” said Aaron Fuller, founder and principal of Superior Data Strategies. “We realized the problem with that is there is very little usability for documentation and no way to turn it into code from there.”
Fuller notes that the system lets you map, build, and test your data integration modeling process all in one tool. It keeps track of versions, who did what, and audit trails. It also enables two people to work on it simultaneously.
Data Mapper demos are available at http://www.mapper.cloud/.