Corporate Express set to add data warehouse appliance

Computerworld - Corporate Express US Inc. has decided to turn to a data warehouse appliance to let 1,000 of its customers keep track of their purchases. The Broomfield, Colo.-based office supply company expects that 10,000 users at those customer sites will have access to the system.

Corporate Express, which now uses an Oracle 10g database-based enterprise data warehouse, expects to begin using Netezza Corp.'s Performance Server appliance this fall to power a new data mart that will let customers run Web-based queries about their purchasing history, said Matt Schwartz, director of business analysis at Corporate Express US.

The appliance will provide the procurement information to customers through dashboards and standard reports, and by drilling down to transaction-level data, Netezza said.

The company opted to use the appliance for ease of use and performance capabilities, Schwartz said. Data warehouse appliances  bundle high-performance hardware, software and storage devices together in a device that is preconfigured to run a specific task, such as strategic analysis.

Backers of the technology say appliances can be implemented quickly and require fewer database administrators than alternative technologies. Netezza said appliances shorten query times by storing, filtering and processing records within a single unit and by analyzing only the relevant information needed for each query.

"With our Oracle platform, the performance across thousands of customer wasn't sufficient for sub-10-second response times," Schwartz said, who added that the Oracle database will continue to house the company's enterprise data warehouse.

Corporate Express has been compelled by its primary competitors -- Office Depot Inc. and Staples Inc. -- to offer its customers Web-based access to their purchasing histories, Schwartz added. Both of those companies offer similar services, and Corporate Express "customers are coming to us and saying, 'We want this. Your competitors are offering it, [and] for me to stay loyal to you, you need to offer this,'" he said.

The company, which also uses business intelligence software from MicroStrategy Inc., has been testing the Netezza appliance this summer by allowing its sales representatives to access it from an external URL, Schwartz said. MicroStrategy authenticates the users and encrypts all the data to be presented outside the company's firewall, he said.

So far, he added, the company hasn't encountered any challenges in the testing process. He also noted that the current staff of Oracle administrators has been able to operate the appliance.

After its initial rollout this fall to its largest 1,000 customers -- which will translate into 10,000 users -- Corporate Express may opt to provide access to the online purchasing data for other customers as a perk, he added.

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