Data mart makes a PowerPlay
Connecting state and local government leaders
The New York consulting firm will deliver its Performance Executive data mart and query tools this fall, following a beta test of the client-server software this summer in Wade County, N.C., and elsewhere. Peat Marwick built Performance Executive's data model and warehouse around its 29-year experience in federal, state and local government systems design, said William Blaustein, a partner in Peat Marwick's Public Service Practice.
The New York consulting firm will deliver its Performance Executive data mart and query
tools this fall, following a beta test of the client-server software this summer in Wade
County, N.C., and elsewhere.
Peat Marwick built Performance Executive's data model and warehouse around its 29-year
experience in federal, state and local government systems design, said William Blaustein,
a partner in Peat Marwick's Public Service Practice.
"It's based on our experience of how government executives need to access
information," he said.
Performance Executive incorporates several commercial tools including PowerMart
transformation and warehouse loading software from Informatica Corp. of Menlo Park,
Calif., and the PowerPlay and Impromptu query and analysis tools from Cognos Corp. of
Burlington, Mass.
PowerPlay is something executives might use "to find where they can save $50,000
in their budget," Blaustein said.
The data mart works with relational database management systems from Oracle Corp.,
Informix Software Inc., Sybase Inc. and Microsoft Corp. It runs on Unix and Windows NT.
Performance Executive can accept accounting, budgeting, human resources, purchasing,
geospatial and other types of data from various sources, Blaustein said. Any government
site that already uses Peat Marwick's Performance Series applications for accounting,
budgeting, allocation, purchasing, asset management or labor distribution will need to do
little or no custom coding, he said.
Data marts are an alternative to bulky printouts of operational data designed to
support transaction throughput rather than human analysis, Blaustein said. Performance
Executive "understands funding sources, it understands appropriations, it understands
the treasurer's function within government," he said.
Instead of requesting special data extracts and downloads, executives can query the
data themselves at their desktops, he said. For example, they can view breakouts between
treasurer's accounts and operating accounts.
The server component starts at $22,500 for a single-processor Windows NT server. The
client software is $800 each for the Impromptu and PowerPlay tools.
Contact KPMG Peat Marwick LLP at 212-909-5000.
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