Apparatus for providing a reverse star schema data model

• US 6,411,961 B1
• Filed: 05/06/1999
• Issued: 06/25/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Byteweavr, LLC (Ascend Innovation Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Metaedge
• Inventors: Chen, Li-Wen
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ROBERTSON, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US09/306,650
• Time in Patent Office: 1,146 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10, 707/3, 707/5, 707/10, 707/103, 707/201, 707/100-104, 717/1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

According to the invention, techniques for organizing information from systems in a data warehousing environment are provided. In a particular embodiment, the invention provides an apparatus for analyzing data in at least data source of an enterprise. The apparatus can include a meta model for an enterprise. The enterprise is typically a business activity, but can also be other loci of human activity. A data schema derived from the meta model can also be part of the apparatus. The apparatus can also include a database organized according to the data schema. The apparatus can translate data from a variety of sources to the data schema. The apparatus can incorporate data into the database and perform a variety of analyses on the data in the database.

Claims

1. A computer-based apparatus for data warehousing, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor, coupled to said memory, said processor operatively disposed to;

select a template from a plurality of pre-defined ones, said templates embodying a plurality of characteristics of the business;

select at least one of a plurality of customer entities from a plurality of pre-defined ones to form a focal group of customer entities, said selecting based upon said template;

define at least one of a plurality of customer transaction entities and at least one of a plurality of attributes of said customer transaction entities to form a customized group of customer activity components;

define at least one of a plurality of customer event types in said customer activity components, wherein said customer event types comprise attributes of said customer transaction entities in said customer activity components;

select at least one of a plurality of data tables and at least one of a plurality of attributes of said data tables to form a data schema, wherein said data schema is a reverse Star data schema;

determine at least one of a plurality of attributes based on data types of tables of said data source;

determine for said attributes at least one of a plurality of primary keys;

create a data warehouse database from said data schema; and

create at least one of a plurality of data mapping rules, said mapping rules providing translation information for tables and attributes of said data sources to said data warehouse.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said processor is further disposed to define for said attributes at least one of a plurality of foreign keys.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said processor is further disposed to define application-specific entities for said customer activity components.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said processor is further disposed to define at least one of a plurality of attributes for said application-specific entities.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said data types are determined without user intervention.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said processor is further disposed to provide to users the capability to make changes to said data types if said users choose not to use the derived ones.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said processor is further disposed to perform customer purchasing behavior analysis.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said processor is further disposed to perform customer market segmentation analysis.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said processor is further disposed to perform customer valuation analysis.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said processor is further disposed to perform customer churn analysis.