IBM WebSphere Information Analyzer and Data Quality Assessment

Appendix A. IBM Information Server overview 537

A.2.3 Key integration functions

We describe the key integration functions shown in Figure A-1 on page 527

briefly here:

򐂰 Understand your data

IBM Information Server helps you to discover, define, and model information

content and structure automatically and to understand and analyze the

meaning, relationships, and lineage of information. By automating data

profiling and data-quality auditing within systems, organizations can achieve

the following goals:

– Understand data sources and relationships

– Eliminate the risk of using or proliferating bad data

– Improve productivity through automation

– Take advantage of existing IT investments

IBM Information Server makes it easier for businesses to collaborate across

roles. Data analysts can use analysis and reporting functionality, generating

integration specifications and business rules that they can monitor over time.

Subject matter experts can use Web-based tools to define, annotate, and

report on fields of business data. A common metadata foundation makes it

easier for different types of users to create and manage metadata by using

tools that are optimized for their roles.

The upcoming WebSphere Information Analyzer product module will provide

this functionality.

򐂰 Cleanse your information

IBM Information Server supports information quality and consistency by

standardizing, validating, matching, and merging data. It can certify and

enrich common data elements, use trusted data such as postal records for

name and address information, and match records across or within data

sources. IBM Information Server allows a single record to survive from the

best information across sources for each unique entity, helping you to create a

single, comprehensive, and accurate view of information across source

systems.

The WebSphere QualityStage product module currently provides this

functionality.

򐂰 Transform your data into information and move

IBM Information Server transforms and enriches information to ensure that it

is in the proper context for new uses. Hundreds of prebuilt transformation

functions combine, restructure, and aggregate information.

Transformation functionality is broad and flexible to meet the requirements of

varied integration scenarios. For example, IBM Information Server provides