Automated email after batch completions (applicable to OLAP)

Description

Automated email notifications following batch completions (also called a re-calculation) in an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) are useful to inform users that the data has now been calculated and is ready to use again. This is because cubes (another word for OLAP databases) are by and large pre-calculated for every possible intersection, giving users an incredibly rapid experience when navigating through the data.

Example Use Case

Scenario: A large non-profit is building their budget in an OLAP-based planning tool with hundreds of grant managers entering in information for the planning cycle. The core finance team needs to know when they can view a consolidated, future looking Statement of Operations. This cube pre-calculation processing can take seconds, minutes, or several hours depending on the amount of data.

Solution: Automated email notifications are activated in the system. When a batch job processing all the grant manager's budget inputs is completed, the responsible team members automatically receive an email notification that updated reports are ready to view.

Considerations

This requirement only matters if you are evaluating tools with cube (OLAP) databases behind the scenes. In general, these type of databases necessitate an offline process where they re-calculate all of their intersections based on new inputs. In other words, as department heads submit budgets, that data is fed into the cube which must roll-up to a summary. That takes place as a result of a batch process. Once that happens, we want an email sent to who should know.

When new actuals come into the system, it will also need to re-calculate. In summary, anything new in the system (add, edit, delete) will require a re-calculation. When that happens, an email should be sent to the interested parties.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Frequency: Will these emails be sent for each cube re-calculation, or just for specific situations?
• Recipients: Can we control who receives the notifications, and for which processes? For example, what if I wanted specific department heads to know that their prior-month results are ready?