Apparatus and method for creating new reports from a consolidated data mart

Abstract

The invention includes a computer readable memory with a consolidated data mart generator to generate a consolidated data mart based upon an analysis of a repository of individual reports. A report generation tool produces a report via access to the consolidated data mart.

Description

[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of pending U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 328,744, filed Dec. 23, 2002, entitled “Apparatus and Method for Creating New Reports from Discrete Reports”.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates generally to the generation of reports. More particularly, this invention relates to a technique for using reports as a data source in order to create consolidated reports based upon individual reports. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] There are a number of commercially available products to create reports from data stored in a database. Business Objects Americas of San Jose, Calif., sells a number of widely used report generation products, including Crystal Reports™, Crystal Analysis™, Crystal Enterprise™, and Business Objects Enterprise™. [0004] Known report generation tools access a database each time a report needs to be generated. This can result in large numbers of database accesses that slow down the report generation process....

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011] The invention provides a technique that allows data from individual reports to be accessible by standard reporting tools. That is, the selection of data from individual reports to form a consolidated data mart results in a data repository that can be used by standard reporting tools. The invention facilitates the creation of reports that show trends across data found in various reports. The invention is able to access and process snapshots of data. The invention allows the merging of data from multiple databases, having either similar or disparate formats. In addition, the invention facilitates the decentralization of database computational activity.

Problems solved by technology

This can result in large numbers of database accesses that slow down the report generation process.

In addition, since a single database is used, it is difficult to decentralize database activity.

Another limitation associated with existing report generation tools is that the creation of a new form of report commonly requires the rebuilding of the database schema, which can be complex and time consuming.

Another problem with existing report generation tools is that they have difficulty merging data from multiple databases into a single report.

This problem is especially acute in the case where the databases are from different vendors (e.g., Oracle®, IBM®, Microsoft®).

While this is important from the standpoint of data consistency, it creates difficulties in obtaining snapshots of data at different points in time.

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