Subset of presentation given at the International Informix User Group conference in Miami FL in April 2014. Summarises some test results and provides context as to how Pronto Software (Australia's leading mid market ERP vendor) utilises IBM Informix to do both transactional processing and reporting successfully within a single Informix database.

1. Achieving the Impossible…
Simultaneous OLTP and OLAP performance in ERP
Chad Gates
Pronto Software
@ChadinaBox
1

2. About Pronto
An ERP for many industries

3. Pronto Xi
Enterprise Management System

4. Global Presence
1,500+ Customers
4,200+ Sites
100,000+ Named users

5. Transactional
ERP only
ERP + Business
Intelligence (BI)
BI for large
Enterprises only BI for SMEs
BI for C-level
execs only BI for all
Heavy IT reliance Self-service BI
Staged data Real-time & staged data
Desktop only Desktop & mobile
The changing BI market

6. Many levels…
Staged + Near
real time
Distributed
OLAP +
Columnar +
Unstructured
Storage + in
memory
High
availability
Big Data
Staged + Near
real time
In Stream BI
OLAP +
Columnar
Mostly
structured
Modelled in
database
Predictive
In Memory
Staged
Historical
Ad-Hoc
3D
OLAP
+ Predictive
Modelled at
source
Analytics
Cubes
Near real time
Modelled
Ad-hoc
Semi-historical
OLTP
+OLAP
2D + 3D
Operational
Real time
Structured
Inflexible
Listings
Non strategic
OLTP
2D
Reporting
Little Big

7. Staged + Near
real time
Distributed
OLAP +
Columnar +
Unstructured
Storage + in
memory
High
availability
Big Data
Staged + Near
real time
In Stream BI
OLAP +
Columnar
Mostly
structured
Modelled in
database
Predictive
In Memory
Staged
Historical
Ad-Hoc
3D
OLAP
+ Predictive
Modelled at
source
Analytics
Cubes
Near real time
Modelled
Ad-hoc
Semi-historical
OLTP
+OLAP
2D + 3D
Operational
Real time
Structured
Inflexible
Listings
Non strategic
OLTP
2D
Reporting
Little Big
Pronto’s focus with Business Intelligence

8. First, a bit of history…
Pronto’s legacy 4GL reporting solution
•List style – operational focus
•Non-strategic : two-dimensional
•OLTP – real-time reporting
•Heavy maintenance overhead
1000+ reports
•Modification challenges
•Time-consuming
•Long lead time
Limited report
flexibility
•No graphs, charts, dashboards or scorecards
•Not web-based
•Perception that competitive solutions were more feature-rich
Reporting
interface seen as
‘old technology’

9. Pronto Xi Business Intelligence
Integrating IBM Cognos for Operational & Analytical Reporting
Pre-modelled meta-data layer
Adhoc reporting
Flexibility to customise
Pre-built content
2D + 3D reporting
Real time using Informix

10. 49 reporting packages
217 namespaces
100+ pre-built reports and
dashboards
Simultaneous Informix
OLTP+OLAP
• Financials, Sales, Inventory, Manufacturing, Retail,
Service, Project, CRM, Maintenance Management
and much more…
Out-of-the-box reporting and analytics
Self-service reporting framework

11. Operational reporting
A quick demo of Pronto Xi BI

12. One click access to IBM
Cognos within Pronto Xi
Single logon and auto-
authentication using CAP
Operational reporting
A quick demo of Pronto Xi BI

13. Operational reporting
A quick demo of Pronto Xi BI

14. Operational reporting
A quick demo of Pronto Xi BI

15. Real-time relational
data, direct from ERP
Drill-through to ERP
from Cognos
Operational reporting
A quick demo of Pronto Xi BI

16. Dynamic connectivity from
Cognos to Pronto Xi
transaction screens
Available to all Pronto Xi users
Operational reporting
A quick demo of Pronto Xi BI

17. Operational reporting
A quick demo of Pronto Xi BI
Cognos content can be
embedded in application
screens
Pronto Xi Advanced Forecasting

18. For the user it
behaves like a cube
At the back end it is a
relational database
OLTP
Live
No ETL
Drills down to line level
detail
Drill through to Pronto Xi
Supplied pre-modelled
Hybrid operational & analytical reporting
Dimensionally Modelled Relational Data (DMR) data source

19. OLTP vs. OLAP
A quick comparison
19
OLTP OLAP
Short Transactions
- Relatively simple SQL
Longer Transactions
- Complex SQL with analytics
Random Updates
- Few Rows accessed
Sequential Scans and updates
- Many Rows Accessed
Sub-second response time Secs to mins response time
ER Modeling
- Minimizes redundancy
Dimensional Modeling
- OK to have redundancy
Normalized data (5NF)
- Minimizes duplicates
De-normalized data (3NF)
- Duplicates are OK
Few indexes
- Avoids index maintenance
OK to have more indexes
- Mostly read only
Pre-compiled queries
- Repeated execution of queries
Ad-hoc queries
- Unpredictable load

20. 658
336
231
574
256
269
241
97
57
227
124
191
244
212
310
25
222
53 59
26
216
21
161
133
181
228
54
211
73
53
24
136
19
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Sales - Invoice
By Customer
SO - Order
Line Detail
GL - Expense
Analysis for
Assets Exp
Sales - Invoice
By Customer
Territory
Inv -
Transactions
by Item Code
GL - Exp
Analysis for
Motor Vehicle
Exp
Sales -
Product
Group by
Period
AP - Retro
Aged TB By
Sup By Inv
Date
SO - Order
Summary
Inv - Status by
Item Code
Sales - Inv Rep
Sales by
Period
11.7 12.10xC1 12.10xC3
Performance Challenge – 11.7 – 12.1xC3
Simultaneous OLTP
and OLAP Loads

21. Analytics cubes
Staged - faster performance - pre-
aggregated
Supports snapshot data for historical
trend analysis
Predictive
3D data source
OLAP
Drill down to aggregation level or line-
level detail

22. Summary
• Informix powering both OLTP & OLAP
• Packaging and preconfiguring
• Creating reporting data within the ERP
• Compelling for mid market
22

23. Chad Gates
pronto.net
@ChadinaBox
23