If you need a hard-to-find automobile part for a European import, you could probably find it in a catalog published by the ETAI Group in France. The ETAI catalog includes over 30 million parts for over 50,000 European car models manufactured during the past 15 years. The catalog is updated 100 times each year to stay current with the latest models. While maintaining an average auto parts catalog might not seem a daunting task, this one is an exception. ETAI collects auto parts information from nine databases provided by parts manufacturers. Each database uses a unique design with different formats for parts numbers and varying amounts and types of fields for each part record. Over many years, ETAI had developed a system for collating the data using a variety of programming languages and platforms. The entire process required 15 steps and two to three weeks. It was so complicated that if ETAI's database administrator were to leave, his replacement would have a difficult time learning how the complicated system worked. Philippe Bobo, the director of software and information systems at ETAI, knew it was time to improve the system. He and his team tested products from a variety of vendors over a five-week period, and eventually decided to work with Talend Open Data Solutions, based in Los Altos, California. Talend specializes in open-source database management systems that integrate data from various types of systems into a single target system-exactly what ETAI needed. Talend designed a system for ETAI using a single standard programming language that queries the nine auto parts databases and streams the results into one data warehouse. It then cleans the data and standardizes it for output to a catalog format. The 15-step, three-week process is now reduced to one step and two days. Philippe likes the open-source nature of Talend's solution because it makes it possible for his own software engineers to work with and adjust the software over time to accommodate new needs in the system. Updating the DBMS has reduced labor costs and production time, and made it possible for ETAI to expand into other types of catalogs and service manuals.
Discussion Questions
1. What challenges did ETAI face that made creating their catalog a three-week-long ordeal?
2. How did the solution provided by Talend reduce the job time by 90 percent?
Critical Thinking Questions
1. What benefits were provided by the open-source solution?
2. Why couldn't ETAI standardize the data formats in the nine databases?