Data warehouse implementation

Kisha Baker

Our IT team is in the beginning phases of implementing a data warehouse. We are RE Blackbaud hosted. The plan: bulk delivery, informatica, snowflake, tableau. If you have experience or knowledge of these products/process, please share the good/bad/best practices.

Alex Wong

@Kisha Baker
first question is really what you mean by “bulk delivery”.

are you referring to nightly backup that you will get from Blackbaud?

Kisha Baker

@Alex Wong Yes.

Alex Wong

@Kisha Baker
If you are using the nightly backup, why jump through loops? Just have a automated process to intake the backup, restore the backup and run tableau (or any other reporting tool) against the database restored.

Kisha Baker

@Alex Wong if I'm not mistaken informatica is what automates the intake of the backup

Alex Wong

@Kisha Baker
Since I do not use nightly backup for my data warehouse (I use SKY API for more hourly update), I don't know neither Informatica nor COZYROC SSIS+ library that Ivan mentioned. I'll leave that to others that may have more experience in this regards.

Kisha Baker

@Alex Wong what limitations if any have you encountered using Sky API?

Alex Wong

@Kisha Baker
lack of good documentation on what is consider “changed” data and is or isn't returned with “iterative” call to get changed data is the biggest challenge. I had to do a lot of experiencing and testing to get it just right.

The next (not so big) problem is availability of data. SKY API does not expose ALL RE database fields, and if it does, certain fields are not expose in a way that is “easy” to get (i.e. pledge installment and payment data is not expose via getting a list of ALL installments, but rather you can only get 1 pledge's installment per call).

With the “new” (but not yet publically fully available) Query API, that changes the landscape of the 2nd problem, you will be able to get a lot more data using SKY API now compare to before this shows up.

Crystal Bruce

@Alex Wong I removed Ivan's response due to our solicitation policy in community. Thanks!

Ivan Peev

@Crystal Bruce:

@Alex Wong I removed Ivan's response due to our solicitation policy in community. Thanks!

@Crystal Bruce I have not seen any solicitation policy stated anywhere. Why are Power Automate posts allowed without any restrictions? How are customers supposed to learn about available alternatives?

Crystal Bruce

@Ivan Peev Hi, I'll message you privately. Thanks!