The information is used across all corporate departments. In addition to standardized reports, the Sharehouz application also allows business users to create their own ad hoc reports to answer [image-nocss] key business questions at any level of detail across three terabytes of data stored in the Teradata Data Mart Appliance.
The Pentaho application is running on a Sun server with the Solaris operating system and the Tomcat application server. Pentaho was chosen based on its fit to Sheetz's technical requirements, its low cost of ownership compared to traditional BI alternatives and its professional support, the tech firm said.
"The Pentaho suite allows our technology and business users to get the data they need to perform analysis and standard reporting," said James Wenner, director of information technology at Sheetz. "In phase one of our project, we are giving business users ad hoc capabilities for enterprise data. Pentaho has provided us with the support we needed to install and implement quickly."
Orlando, Fla.-based Pentaho is a commercial, open-source alternative for Business Intelligence (BI). Pentaho BI Suite Enterprise Edition provides comprehensive reporting, OLAP analysis, dashboards, data integration/ETL, data mining and a BI platform. Pentaho provides support, services and product enhancements via an annual subscription that can lower total cost of ownership by 90% compared to traditional, proprietary BI offerings, it said. Since its 2004, Pentaho's products have been downloaded more than five million times, it said, with production deployments at companies ranging from small organizations to The Global 2000.
Altoona, Pa.-based Sheetz Inc. is a family-owned and -operated convenience store chain with more than $4.9 billion in revenue for 2008 and more than 12,000 employees. The company operates more than 350 convenience locations throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina.
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