What is ETL Software?

Introduction

ETL software enables companies to organize data transfer from various sources into the main database of a Business Intelligence (BI) platform. These sources can include software tools like HR and CRM, data files like XML and CSV, cloud-hosted data storage applications, and in-house databases.

An ETL program comprises of three components:

Extract: Reads information from different software solutions and databases.

Transform: Carries out data formatting and cleaning tasks on the gleaned data to ensure its format (such as numbers, date, and text) is consistent with the data warehouse headers or fields (such as name, contacts, and payment details).

Load: Transfers data after the second stage (i.e., data conversion) to the data warehouse. You can load this data into either an on-premise or cloud-based data warehousing system.

Inaccurate business data can result in the generation of wrong intelligence reports and analyses. This can lead to bad decisions and failures that can impact a company adversely. The solution is to invest in an ETL system that allows you to define the cadence and frequency of data refresh. This platform can make sure that the information in your reporting database is accurate and updated at all times. Further, your BI software uses this data to extract business insights that you can leverage to make data-driven decisions.

Features of ETL Software

Data Integration

Derives data from various sources like software applications and local servers. Some tools present inbuilt connectors that let you glean data from different programs like HR and CRM.

Data Cleansing

Cleans data mistakes, such as formatting issues and truncation spaces, before uploading the information into the data warehouse.

Workflow Interface

Gives you a graphical interface to craft ETL workflows. This allows you to easily execute ETL processes as the operations don’t need technical knowledge.

Job Scheduling

Schedules and tracks the information importing and loading workflows for various sources. For example, you can configure a data extraction task every 12 hours.

Reporting

Enables you to generate reports on your ETL operations. The reports can include growth in data volume, amount of transferred data, and time taken.

Benefits of ETL Software

Ease of Use via Automated Workflows

ETL software is simple to use. You only need to select the data sources and the platform automatically detects the kinds and formats of the data, configures the rules on how the information has to be gleaned and processed, and then loads the information into the allotted storage. The best part is this entire ETL process doesn’t need coding.

High ROI (Return on Investment)

With ETL software, your business can save expenses and thereby boost revenues. A research study reveals that ETL implementation led to a median ROI of 112% over five years with an average payback of 1.6 years.

Improved Business Intelligence

ETL software makes data access easier and better. This enhanced access to data directly affects operational and strategic decisions that are fact- and information-based. ETL solutions help business managers to retrieve data based on their particular requirements and make decisions accordingly.

Visual Flow

ETL programs present a GUI (Graphical User Interface) and a visual flow of the software’s logic. Further, the GUI allows you to utilize drag-n-drop functionality to visualize the data workflow.

Sophisticated Data Cleansing and Profiling

These advanced features cater to the transformation requirements that commonly happen in a structurally intricate data warehouse.

Ideal for Complex Data Management

ETL applications are perfect for transferring big volumes of data in batches. If the rules and transformations are complex, the software simplifies the work and helps you to with data evaluation, data changes, string manipulation, and integration of several data sets.  

Operational Resilience

A lot of data warehouses are vulnerable during operation. ETL systems offer an inbuilt error management feature that assists data engineers to create a well-instrumented and resilient ETL process.