System and method for providing a data warehouse in accordance with a virtual schema

• US 7,319,996 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2001
• Issued: 01/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Byteweavr, LLC (Ascend Innovation Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Chen, Li-Wen, Ortiz, Juan J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Colbert, Ella
• Application Number:
  US10/001,644
• Publication Number:
  US 20020116389A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,238 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/5, 707/10, 707/101, 707102-1041, 707/201, 707/1, 707/100, 707/200, 707/206, 705/10, 705/1, 705/5, 705/7, 705/14, 705/16, 705/26, 705/28, 705/30, 705/35, 705/39, 705/44, 717/1, 717/5, 717/102, 717/127, 717/131, 717/245, 717/146, 712/1, 706/52
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• 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 an exemplary embodiment, the invention provides a method for analyzing data from one or more data sources of an enterprise. The method provides a meta-model based technique for modeling the enterprise data. The enterprise is typically a business activity, but can also be other loci of human activity. Embodiments according to the invention can translate data from a variety of sources to particular database schema in order to provide organization to a data warehousing environment.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage device-bearing instructions for storing thereon data in accordance with a data model, the data model comprising:

a focal group, comprising;

at least one of a plurality of core components; and

at least one of a plurality of classification components providing classifications for information relating to the core components; and

at least one customized group, comprising;

at least one of a plurality of customer activity components related to the core components; and

at least one of a plurality of activity lookup components related to at least one of the customer activity components, wherein the focal group and the customized group comprise a reverse star schema meta model.

2. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein

the focal group comprises components, including components that describe at least one of:

customer characteristics,

profiles,

business related classifications,

customer'"'"'s roles, and

definitions,

wherein the components are in different business functional areas.

3. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein

the core components further comprises at least one of:

customer entity, and related customer identity information.

4. The computer readable storage device of claim 3, wherein

the customer identity information further comprises at least one of:

an account identifier,

social security number, and

encrypted name.

5. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein

the classification components relate to at least one of:

a business, and

a customer.

6. The computer readable storage device of claim 5, wherein

the classification components further comprise at least one of:

business profile,

demographics,

current profile,

region,

channel, and

sales organization.

7. The computer readable storage device of claim 6, wherein

a relationship exists between at least one of the classification components and a customer entity within the core components.

8. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein

the customized group relates to operational business transactions.

9. The computer readable storage device of claim 8, wherein

the customized group further comprise at least one of:

business measures, and

attributes,

wherein the business measures and attributes describe event transactions.

10. The computer readable storage device of claim 9, wherein

the event transactions further comprise at least one of:

independent events, and

dependent events.

11. The computer readable storage device of claim 10, wherein

a sequence comprising two or more event transactions is used to describer various stages of customer activity.

12. The computer readable storage device of claim 11, wherein

the sequence of event transactions comprises two or more of:

subscription,

payment,

promotion,

price plan change,

service call, and

cancellation.

13. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein

the customer activity components relate to at least one of:

event transactions, and

measures,

wherein the event transactions and measures relate to customer activities.

14. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein

the customer activity components further comprise:

at least one of a plurality of attributes.

15. The computer readable storage device of claim 14, wherein

the at least one of a plurality of attributes includes a selection from among a list of built-in attributes.

16. The computer readable storage device of claim 15, wherein

the at least one of a plurality of attributes further comprises:

user-defined attributes.

17. The computer readable storage device of claim 16, wherein

the at least one of a plurality activity lookup components comprises:

detail characteristics of customer event transactions.

18. The computer readable storage device of claim 16, wherein

the at least one of a plurality activity lookup components comprises:

a products entity.

19. The computer readable storage device of claim 1, wherein

the at least one of a plurality of core components comprises:

a customer entity, and

at least one of a plurality of account entities, the customer entity and the account entities providing account level concepts to queries relating to customers.

20. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

providing at the computer a focal group, comprising;

at least one of a plurality of core components; and

at least one of a plurality of classification components providing classifications for information relating to the core components; and

providing at the computer at least one customized group, comprising;

at least one of a plurality of customer activity components related to the core components; and

at least one of a plurality of activity lookup components related to at least one of the customer activity components, wherein the focal group and the customized group comprise a reverse star schema meta model.