Basware

With ADA, the results of development projects can be used for business purposes much faster. Another benefit comes from optimized use of Azure’s resources. With ADA, Basware can scale up the resources during the data loads and cut them down when not needed. This brings savings on Azure’s capacity fees.

Rid of routine work

The idea of ADA is to simplify the development process. This means that the developers do not have to spend time on routine tasks, which are automated by ADA.

“ADA is a great relief to my work. It speeds it up and makes everything so much easier. I do not have to think about the technical details, and I can focus on the implementation of business logic”, says Epical’s Päivi Ollila, who has been working in various Basware’s projects using ADA.

ADA offers a technical tool for integrations between source systems and data warehouse. It generates integration and loading processes based on the input definitions given by the developer.

“The time saving is obvious, but the aspect of meaningfulness is also central. It is much more fun to do the implementation with ADA, instead of writing a pile of SQL procedures. The manual work is also prone to errors, which ADA helps to avoid”, says Mikael Paavilainen, Epical’s Senior Consultant in Basware’s projects.

One of ADA’s strengths is that the developer can see the generated code all the time. It is not a mystery box – you know what is happening under the hood. The code is standardized and it does not depend on the developer. All loadings follow the same templates, which makes the end result easy to maintain.

Simple user interface with wide range of functionalities

ADA is a versatile tool, enabling different functionalities. The user interface is simple and works the same way everywhere. Thus, it is easy to use ADA in different working environments.

“The deployment between development and production is very easy. In old systems, you would have to reserve 0,5-1 days for this. With ADA, it is just a few clicks”, Paavilainen says.

ADA also includes automatic versioning. “You can see what has been done, who did it and when. And you can always go back to the old version. In addition, ADA automatically locks the object the developer is editing, which is a great functionality”, Ollila states.

ADA is a very useful tool for managing load chains. “In the data warehouse world, data loads contain dependencies that specify which components have to be loaded in certain order. If you add something, you must know what has to be loaded before and after. With ADA, you can insert these relations between the components, and ADA builds the load chain chart automatically. This becomes more useful as the level of complexity increases”, Ollila says.

ADA also offers graphic monitoring of load chains. “You can see how the data loads have been carried out and how long they have taken, and send these logs automatically to chosen email addresses. This helps a lot with the maintenance”, Paavilainen mentions.

How does ADA handle complex and customized logics?                                             

Sometimes the required business logic can be very special or complicated, so that there is no such direct automation available in ADA. With ADA, this is handled by using intermediate stages in the loadings.

“There may be steps that have to be taken before or after the loading, and ADA can generate these steps automatically. A complex process does not have to be carried out in one single step, when using intermediate stages is easier”, Paavilainen says.

When Azure data factory is used for more complex logics, these can be driven from ADA and transferred from one environment to another. ADA can be bypassed, or used as a repository for code. In complex stage-by-stage loadings, ADA can also execute SQL components. “The person who wrote the code can publish it with ADA. This way, it is easier to manage”, Ollila says.

ADA’s main benefits for developers:

• Fast and easy development
• Harmonized code, less errors
• Automatic versioning
• Easy transfers between environments
• Managing load chains and dependencies
• Easy maintenance and troubleshooting