Easier Analytics through Automation

Discovery Hub®

Enabling Quality Decisions with Data, Mind and Heart- for organizations using Power BI, Tableau, Qlik and other analytics tools

Access to the data you need, when you need it

Respond to changes quickly and efficiently

Maintain compliance, full governance, security and control

Dramatically reduce your backlog of IT requests

cloud — on-premises — hybrid

“We significantly reduced data quality issues due to a single version of the truth in Discovery Hub®. Now we get the same figures, no matter if we use Excel, TM1 or QlikView as the front-end BI tool.There are many other benefits but they nearly always come back to speed. Speed of development, ease of implementation and the ability to pull the data through faster.”

- Kerry McRae, BI Team Leader & Stream Lead, O’Brien

You use some of the most popular and innovative data visualization tools currently available — tools such as Power BI, Tableau and Qlik. Since you love data, you know there is plenty of it to analyze from an ever- increasing number of sources. Power BI, Tableau and Qlik give you stunning visualizations. Your director is satisfied with newly discovered business insights and opportunities, but you know there is more to uncover.

The More You Get, The More You WantWith the endless possibilities to visualize data in tools such as Power BI, Tableau and Qlik, you want to tweak data in different directions. You want to access more data sources too, maybe with the help of IT but mostly without having to wait for them or the assistance of external consultants. When different users access data sources in different ways, you see data quality issues emerge, resulting in conflicting reports. You and your colleagues end up with silos of extractions and transformations.

Multiple business users seeking data from multiple sources can put an organization at risk and could even result in fines due to non-compliance to regulations such as GDPR. Self-service tools can be powerful ways to rapidly create needed change. But just as a chainsaw is a more powerful — yet more dangerous — tool than an axe, if left unsupervised, powerful self-service tools could cause unintended damage. With great power comes great responsibility, so you need someone knowledgeable to manage your BI tool as well as monitor both the data and data users.

Clearly there is room for improvement. You want to make better business decisions in a shorter time by having better access to sources without such data quality issues. What you really want is true self-service analytics in an agile and governed manner.

“Once we installed Qlik, we were able to work with data in ways that weren’t possible before. However, a lot of the data was hard to access. We knew we needed a better way to organize and standardize our data. Then, we discovered TimeXtender.” – Dawn Long, Director of IT and Quality, Direct Relief

Data is the New Oil... You Love Data

Discovery Hub® is a comprehensive end-to-end solution that lets you easily merge data from a wide variety of data sources into a single version of the truth. It also allows automation to model data so that line of business users can easily understand the data. At the same time, data is properly defined so that all users of reports and analytics speak the same language. For example, if revenue is defined to include tax, then this definition will be used throughout the organization, without misunderstanding.

By combining this platform with your choice of visualization tools, you have the full power of business intelligence (BI). By using Discovery Hub® as the solid foundation for your analytics setup, you create a scalable, structured, governed and secure environment that lies within a compliant, self-service analytics framework, allowing you to practice near real-time analysis on large sets of data.

Using Discovery Hub, business users, BI and IT developers can collaborate on an agile, fully integrated information platform that supports iterative workflows

to quickly create reports and dashboards. This lets business leaders make quality business decisions without impacting the core systems of the business.

Discovery Hub® by TimeXtender helps customers gain more business value and greater data insights by: • Easily integrating and accessing an organization’s

growing number of data sources • Defining and creating new reports and visualizations

without waiting for IT to add data sources• Avoiding reporting errors due to changes in data

sources or server environment • Adding consistency to reports and KPIs created

through well-governed and validated data• Reducing external consultancy costs and reliance on

in-house IT• Enhancing scalability, so Power BI, Tableau or Qlik

can be rolled out enterprise-wide

Easier, Better & Faster Analytics Through Automation

Roadblock One: Data AccessDiscovery Hub® solves key business challenges in adopting self-service BI, letting you: • Access — all relevant data sources at once• Work with IT — enabling access to essential data• Grow the number of data sources — increasing

data volume within each one • Combine — data from multiple sources• Avoid performance issues — when self-serving

users simultaneously schedule batch extracts from the same upstream system

• Ensure analytics report consistency — when a data source is updated or replaced

• Maintain continuity of service — ensuring data history even after a legacy system has been replaced

• Ensure data security/integrity — by providing an effective data governance model

Roadblock Two: Modeling Data into a Meaningful, Workable Format Discovery Hub® helps you manage data by:• Providing access to meaningful and trustworthy data rather than to source tables with hard-to- understand headers and rows• Avoiding data quality issues that otherwise would

occur when individual users do their own transformations, resulting in conflicting reports• Putting the right information in the right hands, without the need to tailor countless individual reports• Enabling scalability, not just to small groups but hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of users• Supporting a cultural shift towards a wider use of visualization tools and data with the business benefits of almost real-time data analysis• Managing the data in the long-run through metadata

Roadblock Three: ComplianceDiscovery Hub® helps meet compliance needs: • GDPR — The General Data Protection Regulation is an EU regulation that will affect data privacy in all organizations with customers and/or employees in the EU. To meet GDPR compliance regulations, organizations will need more sophisticated self-service BI platforms that include metadata, automation, governance and security• Documentation — Most compliance regulations require real-time documentation on the data an organization holds, where they hold it, what it is used for and who can access it

Discovery Hub®: Removing the Roadblocks Towards Self-Service Analytics

Discovery Hub® — Benefits and ROI

“We started to use QlikView as a reporting tool but our big problem was getting the data out in a controlled fashion. The only way to get it into QlikView was by exporting data from our different ERP systems through CSV files before then loading them into QlikView as a source.”– André Bleumink, Application Manager, Nedap

Future-Ready for Advanced Analytics With Discovery Hub®, you gain a future-proof solution — no need to choose a single visualization tool, or between cloud or on-premises. Discovery Hub®’s architecture allows you to: • Build your Discovery Hub® in the cloud,

on-premises or in a hybrid model. Each one offers a governed, fully automated environment, allowing you to easily switch between all three models

• Integrate with multiple BI tools. Since Discovery Hub® is front-end neutral, you can connect any statistic or analytics BI tool at any level. There’s no need to start from scratch when you change or add a front-end

• Add new sources or exchange existing ones without interrupting existing reporting and analysis

• Adapt to new or updated requirements as and when needed

Compliance per Design Discovery Hub®’s innovative architecture powered by metadata-driven automation ensures that you can build a solution that is compliant per design and per default. It is implemented in various sectors including pharmaceutical, healthcare, the public sector and financial institutions, all of which require strict regulation on data compliance.

Discovery Hub® helps organizations build a governed environment while maintaining agility. With it, you always have real-time, up-to-date documentation. This means you can prove:• What data you hold • Where you hold your data • What your data is used for • Who has access to your data

Cloud, On-Premises and Hybrid At TimeXtender, we’re keen to help customers and partners as they move towards a cloud-based Discovery Hub®. We realize the pace and terms of cloud transformation will be different within each organization. With this in mind, we work towards a pure cloud solution while continuing to offer an on-premises as well as hybrid solution to suit all needs.

With the TimeXtender model, you can select the data you want to deploy on-premises or in the cloud to address your specific operational requirements. With this approach, you can gradually evolve to a full cloud deployment.

If you built your on-premises analytics solution in Discovery Hub®, it’s easy to move to the cloud. There is no need to manually migrate data schemas, metadata, users and data — just indicate the Azure cloud server and Discovery Hub® will do the rest.

Significant SavingsImplementation times average two to six months and our subscription model makes it easy to get started, letting you quickly see your Return on Investment (ROI). • No direct access to any data source. This means

huge savings on maintaining and documenting access rights and helps to avoid compliance breaches that come with the possibility of fines

• Access data without adding to IT backlog. Quickly reveal new business opportunities that might otherwise have gone unnoticed

• Eliminate costly maintenance fees with access to historical data in legacy systems. This can be kept in Discovery Hub®, allowing reference to records such as lifetime warranties

• Avoid tailoring data access and analytic output to every individual in the organization

• Automation saves time and frees resources for more strategic demands

• Improve the technical process and data quality and shift the focus from the technical aspects of the content to the quality of the data

• Many customers experience as much as 70% reduction in set-up time and an 60-80% reduction in maintenance times.

IT and BI Developers How do you convince your colleagues in IT that they need to invest in Discovery Hub®?

Convincing a skilled IT or BI specialist who has spent the last decade coding SQL or SSIS that they should try something else is a tough sell. Will they lose their freedom to develop a solution the way they think best? What about flexibility? Can it handle complex ETL or other programming languages? Can it quickly adapt to new Microsoft technologies?

You can assure them that whatever the issue, Discovery Hub® can deliver. Using Discovery Hub®, scripts always run in the correct order, while the machine learning optimizes the way that all scripts are executed. But Discovery Hub® is not just a black box. As it is built on top of a Microsoft SQL server, developers also have the freedom to add their own custom script as and when needed. The automation of more routine elements helps free up the time they need to create quality customizations and focus on data modeling and data quality. Developers can be confident that Discovery Hub® will always support the latest version of SQL or Azure server within three months of a new Microsoft release.

Operational Data Exchange (ODX): Access to all Data of Likely Value This is the layer where we connect all corporate data sources by gathering data in raw form and structure, without data manipulation. The strength in this approach is the ability to connect to the ever-growing and ever-changing number of data sources.

The ODX is as close to real-time as possible but is dependent on delivery from different source systems and the workload IT can accept on different data sources. In the end, the data is located in one place, which results in all Discovery Hub® users being able to

use one connection source to access raw data. The ODX solves all challenges related to data access, which is half of the challenge to achieving true self-service analytics. Users of visualization tools avoid direct data access without needing IT, while IT can stay responsible for maintaining the ODX. Business users with domain knowledge, such as BI specialists, can concentrate on data modeling and delivering self-service analytics to data scientists, data analysts and users of visualizations tools that use data in the other layers — the Modern Data Warehouse (MDW) and semantic layer.

Discovery Hub®: How this Comprehensive End-to-End Solution Works

Transactional Data Non-transactional Data (Master data) Social Media

EDW BI

SAP

CRM

Cloud

Etc.

Modern DataWarehouse

Operational Data Exchange

Semantic Layer

FrontEnd

Modern Data Warehouse (MDW): Understanding and TrustIn the Modern Data Warehouse (MDW) layer, business users can access data that is meaningful, understandable and trustworthy.

The Modern Data Warehouse is built on the notion that business users need to access and understand data. In order to be useful, data must be available in a format that business users can understand. Unlike traditional data warehouse approaches, no judgments are made about what data is relevant, since the goal is to support self-service.

In the MDW, data is improved, enriched and consolidated. With the MDW, data quality issues need be handled only once. Golden records are created in which similar data from different systems can be combined into one data set. The MDW also manages to preserve historical data, since data changes over time and source systems are sunsetted.

Now that data is available in a format business user can trust and understand, the MDW opens possibilities for a new group of business users who need not be data experts to perform data discovery. These users can now practice self-service data discovery.

The MDW solves another part of the challenges to achieve true self-service analytics — all challenges related to accessing meaningful and trustworthy data.

Reference data

Location

Suppliers

Employees

Products

Customers

Shared Semantic Layer: One Version of the Truth for Power BI, Tableau, QlikWith the shared semantic layer, governed models are defined once then automatically used to deliver data in the right form and context to Power BI, Tableau and Qlik. This avoids the scenario of users seeking and transforming data in non-compliant ways. The view is based on a single version of the truth, where everyone works with the same definitions and values.

The shared semantic layer allows mapping from the Modern Data Warehouse (MDW) to a business context model that meets the needs of a specific business unit — organizational, geographical, etc — or analytical purpose.

The models can be designed without scripting a single line by using a simple drag-and-drop feature. The semantic layer removes the last roadblock on the journey to true self-service analytics now that users can analyze data sets without IT support. Regardless of visualization tool, users will arrive at the same figures, avoiding conflicting reports. The shared semantic layer is also part of future-proofing your organization, with the ability to easily switch between multiple visualization tools, avoiding the need to build models from scratch.

DATA

Discovery Hub® — Helping Business Users, Data Scientists and Data AnalystsAll types of analytics tools can connect to Discovery Hub®. Data scientists and analysts may want to connect statistical or predictive analysis tools such as R, Python, Alteryx or SPSS to the ODX to access raw data. Other business users, such as financial controllers, marketing analysts and sales officers, may need to connect AI, machine learning, performance management analytics or visualization tools directly to the modern data warehouse in order to uncover greater insights.

For decision makers who use Power BI, Tableau or Qlik, it is easy to access the data in Discovery Hub® by automating the connection to the semantic layer.

These users can benefit from the combined strength of Discovery Hub® and Power BI, Tableau and/or Qlik. Users no longer have to create their own data models. With Discovery Hub®, they can access the enterprise-wide data models, ensuring one source and one view. Users can focus on analyzing reports and data discovery without the worries associated with accessing or transforming data, data quality, historical data, security and compliance. With a choice of visualization tools, users have access to essential data for their role or department.

Power BI Discovery Hub® supports SSAS Tabular and Azure Analysis Services, a natural fit for Power BI. This allows you to:• Identify relevant tables and

fields • Rename contexts to provide

company-wide standard definitions

• Define relations between tables with cardinality and direction

• Custom calculations – DAX measures

Machine learning

Performance Management AnalyticsPredictive Analytics

Statistical Computing

EDW BI

SAP

CRM

Cloud

Etc.

Modern DataWarehouse

Operational Data Exchange

Semantic Layer

FrontEnd

Tableau The semantic layer endpoint for Tableau provides automated integration to Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server and Tableau Online. The endpoint creates a Tableau Data Source (.tds) file, allowing users to: • Identify/publish relevant tables

and fields • Rename contexts to provide

company-wide standard definitions

• Identify/publish relations between tables

• Identify/publish custom fields • Create calculated fields

QlikThe semantic models can be automatically infused in QlikView and QlikSense — no QVD scripting is needed. Popular time-saving Qlik features include: • Create and deploy Qlik data

models to Qlik View and Qlik Sense

• Create QVDs and automatically repopulate QVDs on a schedule

• Avoid circular references by using ‘linked table support’

Metadata-Driven and AutomatedDiscovery Hub® is a single metadata-driven software platform that is agile and automated. The software automatically generates the code necessary to create the ODX and the MDW, and to move the data between different Microsoft SQL and Azure databases.

Automation provides a faster, easier and more accurate means to access, model, govern and understand data. By combining the power of automation with a metadata- driven approach, you get results that are five times faster than traditional methods, including a 70% reduction in build costs and a 60-80% reduction in maintenance costs. Short iterations ensure that your analytics platform is constantly aligned with the needs of your business. With automation, you can respond to changes quickly and efficiently, make updates easily and solve problems in minutes that once took days or weeks. • Fully automated documentation — Nothing to

hide, with every corner of the system visible for inspection

• Machine learning execution engines — With the intelligent execution engine of Discovery Hub®, you get speed, agility and optimized performance that includes the parallel execution of multiple tasks

• Multiple environments — Discovery Hub® supports multiple dedicated environments for

development, testing and production, etc. This ensures the production environment is always online and available, facilitating automatic version control as well as fully automated documentation of all environments

• Drag and drop data modeling — Automatically generated scripts

For a detailed description of features, go to www.timextender.com/discovery-hub/key-features

More data from an ever-increasing number of sources, a greater need for agile and flexible access to data sources in a BI and analytics environment, plus compatibility with multiple front-ends. Do these demands sound familiar?

Through automation, Discovery Hub® creates and manages enterprise-wide data models that ensure one source and one view through a shared semantic layer that allows for friction-free communication across the organization.

The integrated, governed platform has built-in and easy-to-maintain security and compliance capabilities. It supports a future-proof architecture that provides the necessary agile approach towards business insights while liberating IT from the time-intensive tasks of scripting and documentation.

If you use Power BI, Tableau, Qlik and other analytics tools, you can obtain better self-service analytics through an innovative and automated BI and analytics architecture such as Discovery Hub®.

You’re in good company TimeXtender inspires quality business decisions with data, mind and heart. We do this for one simple reason: because time matters. Recognized globally as one of the fastest growing software companies, TimeXtender enables businesses to make quality business decisions faster with Discovery Hub®. TimeXtender was founded in 2006 and is privately owned, with headquarters in Denmark and the U.S. TimeXtender serves its customers, including Fortune 500, enterprises and mid-sized companies, through a global network of partners.

To learn more about Discovery Hub® and how the power of automation can move your business forward, visit:

www.timextender.com