Safyr the leading solution for meeting the challenges of ERP metadata discovery
Trying to incorporate the data, or metadata from large complex, and often mission critical ERP applications into data intensive projects, often leads to delays in the realization of benefits, cost overrun, and loss of trust in data by the business.
These problems are caused by the specific characteristics of these systems.
Extensive data models (e.g. SAP ERP applications typically include a minimum of 100,000 tables).
No valuable business ready metadata in the RDBMS System Catalog.
Significant amounts of customizations.
Lack of tools for data engineers who need to access and easily discover and curate the metadata needed for particular business case use.
No easy way to exploit curated metadata in other data platforms (e.g. data governance and catalogs) or for data warehouse, analytics or modeling tools.
Customers and partners who use Safyr to overcome these challenges experience increased productivity, an average 90% decrease in the time and resource needed to identify and use key metadata objects in other products when compared with traditional methods. They also report much improved trust in data because they are able to demonstrate the provenance of the data.
Harvest
Silwood have developed specialist connectors for all the ERP applications supported by Safyr.
This ensures that you are able to retrieve all the useful metadata from your enterprise systems including your own customisations.
This includes business as well as technical names for tables and columns, descriptions and relationships between tables.
Discover
Once you have harvested the metadata, as implemented, from your source ERP systems into a Safyr Repository, you are able to use Safyr’s comprehensive range of search, analysis and subsetting features to easily find the metadata which is critical to your project.
This means that you have a fast and accurate method for meeting the demands of the business for data.
Curate
Each subset of metadata you create is called a Safyr Subject Area. These can contain as many tables and related tables as you need. You can also create as many Subject Areas as you want.
To get started and increase your productivity further, we provide Starter Packs of Subject Areas for many applications. You can use these as they are, or as template you can customise according to your needs.
Integrate
The next step in the process allows you to share the metadata in the Subject Areas you have created with other data platforms and tools.
To make this straightforward for you, Silwood have developed a set of Subject Area export formats designed to make it easy for the discovered metadata to be used in data governance, data catalog, and data modeling platforms and tools.
What problems does Safyr solve?
ERP applications have a range of specific characteristics which make it difficult for data analysts and engineers to be able to access and exploit it effectively with your data transformation projects. These can include, large data model, opaque object naming conventions, high degree of customisation, difficult to access business metadata and more.
These features lead to significant problems which lead to loss of trust in data, delays, cost overruns, and loss of control by your own teams. Safyr can help you to overcome these and delivers significant productivity, accuracy and quality gains.
Read our testimonialsLoss of trust in data
It is critical to be able to demonstrate exactly where data has come from and what it means.
If it is not possible to do this easily, users of analytics, data governance and other tools will rapidly lose trust in the data.
What Safyr does
Your data engineers use Safyr to increase confidence in data by using the deep level of information it delivers about the metadata in your ERP applications.
This includes business names, descriptions and relationships, as well as the ability to prove the provenance of the data.
Outcome
Understanding the provenance and meaning of the source metadata means the business has more confidence in the data they are using for decision making and meeting regulatory requirements.
Project delay
Without immediate access to ERP metadata in an easy to understand way your data analysts will be forced to use other resources and methods to make it available to them.
This will delay the delivery of the project benefits.
What Safyr does
Safyr gives your data specialists access to their application metadata in a way that can be easily understood - when they need it.
It also allows them to share that metadata with their data platforms and tools in a straightforward way.
Outcome
Businesses are more confident that the anticipated financial or other benefits from their data projects will be delivered on a timely basis.
Loss of control
If your data engineers are unable to use the metadata in your ERP applications effectively because it is too difficult to access, understand and share, then the alternative is to rely on internal technical specialists or external consultants.
This means they are handing responsibility for metadata work over to third parties.
What Safyr does
Safyr ensures that your data analysts are able to access, explore and exploit the metadata in your ERP systems as implemented, without needing to have specialist technical knowledge.
They are able to work with it, when they need to so they are in control of the process of metadata discovery.
Outcome
The data analysts can support the metadata needs of the business and react more quickly to changing requirements.
This reduces the chance of delays and improves the effectiveness of data solutions.
Discover how Safyr works with your applications
The process of transforming raw metadata from your ERP applications into information which can be used with other data platforms and tools is made up of four main tasks. These include accessing and harvesting the application metadata as implemented, discovering and curating the critical metadata you need and then sharing it. Safyr provides you with a single software product designed to allow data analysts to be able to complete all these steps quickly, easily and accurately.
Safyr provides you with a single software product designed to allow data analysts to be able to complete all these steps quickly, easily and accurately.
Safyr helps you to deliver a strong metadata based foundation for your data governance, data catalog, data migration and data analytics projects which include your complex ERP applications.