Please note the script of the presentation is below so you can read along with the video if you like.
(Note. We have swapped my photo for the cartoon character. I hope you like it!)
Hello and welcome to our latest blog post.
I am really pleased you have come back to see our latest news!
I am pleased to bring you some news that I hope will interest you.
I am Mihai Neacsu and I am the business development manager here at BIDA.
Today, again, we have some good news for all those people who use Business Central on premise.
Today we are making available an Evaluation Database for our Business Central Staging Area.
This Evaluation Database will be for qualified prospective customers.
So, if you are wondering if having a Business Central Staging Area is good idea for your company?
Please listen on or read on.
The Argument For Staging Areas
Way back in 2019 we released an initial white paper on how to build Staging Areas for Navision.
You can get the white paper for your IT colleagues on the button below.
To deliver a data warehousing solution you have to have a Staging Area.
This is as true of Business Central as it is with any other large operational system.
We have just released the tables and columns renaming script for Business Central 2023 Wave 2.
Today, your IT colleagues can write queries against the underlying Business Central database to answer your business questions.
With our renaming script your company can save time and money in development and support of such queries and reports.
You can also have your IT colleagues replicate your Business Central database on to another server and query the data in the replica.
This querying a copy of the production, including easier to remember names for tables and columns, will be sufficient for tens of thousands of Business Central installed accounts.
But many tens of thousands of Business Central installed accounts will want more than just a replica of their operational system.
Tens of thousands of Business Central installed accounts will want a Staging Area.
So, as an installed Business Central Business User you should have the question on your mind:
“Why would I want a Staging Area for my company?”
So please allow me to explain the six main benefits a Staging Area has over a replica of your Business Central operational database.
Benefit Number One – Retain Deleted Data
A staging area allows you to retain historical data that has been deleted from Business Central.
Over time, some tables in Business Central become very large, such as the GL Entries.
They impact operational system performance for inserts, updates, backups and general reporting as well.
This old data also adds to the cost of running Business Central.
By retaining old data in the Staging Area you can delete data from the production system knowing you have an online copy of this old data.
This will make your Business Central system run faster.
It will save you time and money over a simple replica.
Our staging areas carry a flag on every row to say whether it has been deleted from the operational system.
Benefit Number Two – Integrating Other Data
You don’t only have data in your Business Central system.
You have data from many other systems internally in your company.
You also have data coming to you from outside your company.
A staging area allows you to put non Business Central data into the same database and easily combine it with your Business Central data.
A very good example of this is competitive information.
How much are your competitors selling their similar products for?
There is a very wide range of data available to business analysts in any company.
Putting it all into one place like a staging area is one step better than trying to combine that data some other way, such as cutting and pasting in Excel.
Benefit Number Three – Data Validation
You can validate data and mark invalid data as invalid.
Our staging areas carry a flag to indicate the validity of every row of data.
It defaults to valid and then your IT colleagues can write routines against the data to search for invalid data and mark that data as invalid.
Then those rows can be omitted from any reporting or analysis that is being done.
These validity checks can also access data from outside Business Central that is also in the staging area.
This means that you have the chance to mark data as invalid using a wide range of data and complex routines.
One of the biggest problems when reporting from operational systems, and copies of them, is that invalid data creeps into the reporting and analysis being done.
Being able to mark that data as invalid and exclude it from reporting is a very important feature to have.
Benefit Number Four – Fraud Prevention
We would all like to believe that every person working for our company is an honest person.
Sadly, this is not the case.
In many companies employees have committed fraud using the computer systems they have access to.
Such cases of fraud have become much more prevalent as computer systems became more complex and electronic business interactions became more common.
Today it is easier than ever for someone who wishes to defraud their company to do so through complex computer systems.
One of the most common ways of defrauding a company is for people to enter documents and then later delete them to try and “cover their tracks”.
This is similar to what Nic Leeson did in the very famous case of Barings Bank.
Because a staging area retains deleted rows this mechanism of fraud is reduced.
In fact, when a company wide announcement is made that all data entered into computer systems is retained in a separate staging area, this is often enough to discourage would be fraudsters.
This is because such an announcement makes clear that s/he is very likely to be caught.
One of the most powerful deterrents in discouraging people from committing fraud is to explain to them that they are very likely to be caught.
Benefit Number Five – Fraud Detection
Closely related to Benefit Number Four is the detection of fraud if an employee decides to try his/her luck.
Algorithms can be placed to run on the staging area every day looking for possible fraudulent transactions.
These possible fraudulent transactions can then be brought to the notice of the appropriate employees to investigate.
These algorithms generally have to store their results in the staging area as well.
They also do better with more history.
Benefit Number Six – Getting Ready For A Data Warehouse
As discussed above, a staging area provides a number of benefits over and above operational systems replicas.
They can be very beneficial.
This has also been seen in a similar concept called a “Data Lake”.
However, no matter how much benefit can be derived from a staging area, it can not be compared to a proper data warehouse.
A proper data warehouse will contribute much more profit to your company than just a Data Lake or Staging Area.
A staging area is a pre-requisite for a data warehouse.
One of the best reasons you might want to implement a staging area over just a replica of Business Central is to get ready for implementing a proper data warehouse.
There is no better return on investment a company can make than to implement data warehousing properly.
Summary
In summary.
We have released a script to rename Business Central tables and columns to make it cheaper and easier for your IT colleagues to write direct queries against your Business Central database.
You may use that script on your current production database or a replica.
It’s free and it will save your company money.
However, you might want to give consideration to taking the next step up to a staging area.
We have listed the six main benefits of upgrading to a staging area.
For the very minor extra investment we believe these benefits are well worth it.
If you would like to have your IT colleagues review how our staging areas are implemented?
We are willing to make an Evaluation Database, and all the code, available to your IT department for them to evaluate.
There is so much there it’s just easier to give it to your IT Colleagues than to explain it.
Once your IT department gives you the green light that they can support such a staging area.
Then you and your colleagues can make your decision as to whether you wish to gain the six listed benefits above for the small investment required.
If you would like to contact me?
Please just use the “Contact Us” button below.
And with that?
I would like to say thank you very much for reading or listening to our blog post today.
I really appreciate your time and attention.
We hope you found this blog post interesting and informative.
We would love to hear your comments, so please feel free to use the comments section below.
I wish you a great day.
Thank you.
Mihai Neacsu
BIDA Business Development Manager.
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