Varigence BimlFlex review #2
| Review by: | Alnis Bajars |
|---|---|
| Company: | Inabox |
| Country: | Australia |
| Linkedin profile: | |
| Review date: | August 1, 2017 |
What do you like best?
Supports automation for many DW methodologies, eg Data Vault, Dimensional Modelling, Persistent Staging. Modelling is done in a very “business analyst” friendly way via Excel, making the model somewhat self documenting. It genuinely saves a lot of time. Despite the name, there is actually generally very little hand coded Biml required. The product has come a very long way in a year, Varigence have demonstrated they are very committed to continually improving the product.
What do you dislike?
The product is still a bit scratchy re documentation and community assets. I can understand why this was the case during beta. To me, this is the next frontier to conquer to take the product to the next level.
Recommendations to others considering the product.
Two observations. (1) Hand coding SSIS packages is a mugs’ game, some data warehouse automation is essential for productivity. (2) BimlFlex should definitely be considered.
What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
Data Vault to combine disparate finance systems into one with a central Chart of Accounts. Persistent Staging to historise data from a number of Line of Business systems. Persistent Staging as a quick and dirty way to fulfil statutory requirements for data retention.
In which period or periods have you used the product and are you still using it?
June 2016 to present (still using).
