Informatica Powers SAP and PeopleSoft
Realizing that successful ERP implementation requires tight integration with back-end data storage and management, Informatica Corp. (Palo Alto, Calif.) has announced the availability of new PowerConnect software tailored specifically to two major solutions providers in the ERP market.
"Large enterprises have long been hamstrung--desperate for access to the data in their ERP systems to gain insight, but limited in their options for a scalable, reliable solution," says Diaz Nesamoney, president of Informatica. "Their options until now have been limited to a few stovepipe applications and 'data-marts-in-a-box' that provided relief of immediate pain, but no long-term solution that addressed the broad data-integration challenges they faced."
PowerConnect for SAP R/3 is designed to provide Informatica PowerCenter users customers with high-speed data extraction from SAP R/3. Using PowerConnect for SAP R/3, users are expected to be able to access all SAP R/3 tables--including transparent, pool and cluster tables--as well as SAP Info Hierarchies. This new PowerConnect offering uses ABAP, SAP's proprietary 4GL, to extract the data.
PowerConnect for PeopleSoft similarly provides high-speed data extraction from PeopleSoft's ERP package. Using PowerConnect for PeopleSoft, users can access all PeopleSoft objects, including Records, Panels and Trees. Data is extracted from PeopleSoft using the rich metadata held in the PeopleSoft metadata tables, as well as the standard metadata held in database catalog tables. This data is then delivered to Informatica's PowerCenter data integration software, which transforms the data and delivers it to downstream warehouses, data marts and analytic applications.
"With the release of its PowerConnect software for both PeopleSoft and SAP environments, Informatica is further enhancing the value of its customers' data warehouse investments by making it far easier for them to integrate the data contained in these ERP systems with their other data sources," says Michael Schiff, director of data warehousing strategies at Current Analysis Inc. (Sterling, Va.). "We believe the PowerConnect software products are a natural extension to Informatica's PowerCenter platform and proof of the company's commitment to support the evolving requirements of its customers."
--L. Greenemeier