Winshuttle Vs Data Services

[#1]

Hi All,

We have proposed SAP Data Services RDS for Data Migraton+Information Steward for a customer. The customer is also evaluating Winshuttle for the data migration.

Few questions:

1. Can winshuttle be compared to Data Services?

2. Does winshuttle have the capability to connect diretly with source databases, Eg., DB2, Oracle etc?

3. Does Winshuttle have the ability to analyze, profile, cleanse and validate the data?

4. How is the data enrichment/data quality capabilities of Winshuttle?

5. Does Winshuttle have any capabilities like Information Steward?

Any thoughts/experiences would be of great help. Thanks.

Thanks,

Jeswin

[Former Member]

Just one final comment on this thread.

It has to be borne in mind that there's a big difference between what we consider Big Iron IT solutions and mid-tier approaches.

The recurring refrain from the market is, things like, I have a data integration strategy, I have a business intelligence strategy, I have a user experience strategy.

The question is, how are you progressing with aligning what you have deployed in relation to that strategy? Time and time again, IT lags behind the needs of the business. The business agrees it needs a strategy and a holistic approach is to often to converge on one solution set from one vendor. If that were SAP, it would be PI/XI and Gateway; BW/Business Objects; NWBC/Fiori.

However there are very few customers who have homogeneous landscapes, unified technology and all three strategies, set defined and being executed against. That's a problem. A problem that isn't easily addressed by just saying, ok we will use product X for all our data migration, all our testing, all our integration, all our BI etc. So there has to be an acceptance of a blend of technologies and an acceptance that best in class may need to be purchased or invested in, rather than simply using a blanket approach to any particular challenge to be addressed.

This is where Winshuttle has pretty much excelled. Supporting business users in being able to do what they need to do; supporting IT in being able to manage, control and restrict what users can do, as required and then also supporting IT in being able to deploy bigger solutions for larger audiences.

Part of the challenge is understanding what's on offer. If you have simple needs, you want a simple tool and particularly so, if you have a small budget to solve a given problem. The beauty then is in the scaling. Winshuttle's approach has always been additive. Start small, grow as you need to, more importantly, you don't need to be an expert, you need no particular skills, no developer keys, no direct access to the database and no big IT iron to get started.

People always laugh when I use the analogy of DIY. If you have a double cab pickup truck, is that good enough to shift a couple of bags of cement, a bunch of bricks, boards and stuff for a small construction project - sure! You may need to make a couple of journeys but it will help you achieve the job. Would you buy or even hire a 3, 5, 10 tonne truck to do that ? Probably not.

If you're building a whole house or a office block you may use a different approach. In my mind, as soon as you need system landscape changes, more people than your current business and IT teams, changes to the core configuration of SAP and some specialised skills, you just went from DIY to major construction. The question though, is do you really need all that ?

Over 2,400 SAP customers don't seem to think so...