SQL is the lingua franca for handling data. It is designed specifically for managing and manipulating data held in a relational database. The language is "declarative" - the programmer specifies at a high level what data operations are required. Most databases implement a variant of SQL, meaning that code written in SQL can be ported from one vendor database to another with minimal changes. SAS also comes with it's own SQL dialect in PROC SQL - this can be used to communicate with other relational databases. Example relational databases include: Teradata, Oracle, DB2, SQL Server and MySQL. Gluing together sections of SQL will typically be a database specific procedural language (e.g. PL/SQL in Oracle, T-SQL in SQL Server). Alternatively a third language, such as Python, might fulfil this need. With these procedural add-ons it becomes possible to control the flow of execution of a larger system. Since these procedural extensions are specific to a vendor, porting from one system to another is more involved, but can be done.

Typical business problems we can help you with:

• data modelling, logical design, datamart design
• implementing or improving an ETL system
• star schema implementation
• porting from one vendor system to another
• creating new reports,process monitoring
• identifying and fixing data quality issues
• incorporating new data feeds, merging data from multiple sources
• improving query performance
• fuzzy matching, building a single customer view
• sql training

We can help you develop your existing system to get the best from your database, or help you get up and running quickly if you're starting from scratch.

Previous clients have been in the Banking, Retail, Marketing and Government sectors.

Contact us to discuss your project.