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Corporate Background |
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Company Name |
Pragmatic Solutions Inc. |
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Company HQ Location |
Alexandria, VA |
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USA Sales Phone Number |
1-703-798-3283 |
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Metadata Product Name |
Syspedia |
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Metadata product website |
http://www.syspedia.com |
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Year company first
started |
Pragmatic Solutions, Inc
was founded in 1994. |
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Year metadata product
first introduced |
Syspedia was first
introduced as a software solution in
2005. |
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February 2007 - what is
the current release number of your
metadata product? |
Version 3.01 is being
released in Summer of 2007. |
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What is the next release
number you are working on? When is it
due? |
The next version of
Syspedia will be 3.01 due in the second
quarter 2007. |
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What is the current
number of active customer installations
(metadata product only) |
Syspedia is a
formalization set of tools that have
been used during several professional
service engagements. |
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Feb 2007 - what is the
current number of active customer
installations (metadata product only) |
Several of our service
engagement clients still use the
Syspedia tools along with others that
have purchased the complete Syspedia
Solution. |
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Product Architecture &
Philosophy |
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Provide a basic overview
of your metadata solution offering. |
Across all software
platforms and many languages, Syspedia
provides a meta data solution that
systematically captures all existing
business rules, application details,
data usage, standards and relationships
so you can quickly research, integrate,
troubleshot, replace, modify or simply
understand your universe of data and
transactions. |
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Is it a client/server
application? Describe the architecture
of your product. |
Syspedia can be
configured in a centralized, networked
or distributed environment to provide
business units with the control,
business rules and rich meta data they
need to be effective. For example this
allows a centralized Syspedia to feed
department repositories or the
departments to feed the centralized
Syspedia repository. Syspedia's is very
flexible using a browser interface to
the desired meta data repository
architecture. |
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What is your metadata
product designed to do? What type of
audience is it designed for? (describe) |
Syspedia is designed for
architects, business analysts, system
administrators and application
developer. Syspedia provides meta data
details for a better understanding of
the cross platform and enterprise
relationships. Syspedia shows element
level relationships and dependencies
between systems, applications,
processes, modules, business rules,
files, data movement and individual file
elements. This rich meta data is a
tremendous resource for migration,
integration, consolidation and
documentation or remediation of
Sarbanes-Oxley controls. |
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Describe your
"scalability"? |
Syspedia is designed for
performance. Since Syspedia is 100%
Java based it is currently deployed on
the mainframe, UNIX and Windows
platforms. Syspedia scales by quickly
handling the searching of millions of
meta data entries. Performance and
scalability are Syspedia's strengths. |
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Describe your ideal
metadata solutions client or customer
implementation. What is your "customer
sweet spot" to sell to? |
Syspedia's is an ideal
solution for a large complex IT
enterprise that needs to understand the
relationships between platforms,
systems, job streams, applications and
files. Customers that need to quickly
discover business rules, dependencies of
a large number of JCL streams, COBOL and
Java applications. |
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Is your product designed
to be a stand-alone, fully independent
metadata Management solution ? Or is it
better utilized when it is combined with
other products ? |
Syspedia provides a
comprehensive stand-alone solution set.
Since it is java based and uses industry
standard interfaces it can be integrated
quickly and easily with other
complimentary products. |
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If you answered YES to
the "independent" question (above), do
you have actual customers that are using
your metadata product in a completely
stand-alone fashion? |
Syspedia is being used as
a standalone solution and has been used
as a resource during professional
services engagements. Syspedia provides
quick answers for solving complex
integration and migration issues. |
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Does your product
"browse" metadata? (describe) |
Syspedia is web
application implemented with a back end
meta data repository. The simple
intuitive web interfaces provides rich
deep information at your fingertips. |
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Is your product designed
to physically move metadata definitions
from one development tool to another?
(describe) |
Syspedia is best
integrated into the Change Management
system so all data definitions, business
rules and job stream meta data can be up
to date. |
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What are the different
product components called? |
Syspedia is very simple.
It is made up of the back end repository
that stores the information on any JDBC2
compatible database. The Knowledge
Discovery parsers that crawl your cross
platform environments, DBMSs,
applications, libraries, jobs, files and
automatically populate element level
meta data information. And finally the
intuitive web interface that runs on any
Java2 compatible application server. |
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What are your key product
strengths? What is your key competitive
advantage? |
Ease of use - Easily
obtain information from your Programs,
Databases, Data Elements, & JCL across
all of your enterprise computing
environments. Self-Service Analytics -
Syspedia’s intuitive and customizable
Web interface makes researching IT
assets and elements quick and easy for
corporate auditors, IT personnel or
executives. Harvest Business Rules -
Syspedia harvests all levels of IT
assets down to the data element level.
This provides relationships to all
levels of components so data lineage,
data movements, application decisions
and impact analysis for all components
and their aliases is quick and easy. |
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Do you offer an
Application Programming Interface
(API)? What technology or programming
language is utilized? (describe.) |
An XML interface is
currently being developed to interface
with Erwin and other third party tools. |
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Technical Environment -
what is the ideal hardware/software
configuration to run your product on for
maximum performance? |
Syspedia is 100% java and
runs on any platform. This allows
Syspedia to be the only meta data
solution that provides comprehensive
cross platform data element level
relationships and dependency
information. Performance and
scalability are not a problem with
Syspedia. |
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Does your metadata
product support concurrent access by
multiple users at the same time ? What
is the optimal number of concurrent
users and what is the limit of number of
users ? |
Syspedia is very fast.
Syspedia’s architecture provides web
browser concurrent access to a large
number of users. Large numbers of users
can use Syspedia to scale to the limits
of the hardware, database and
application server capacities.
Syspedia’s use of standardized software
components allows flexibility and large
numbers of concurrent users. |
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What hardware is required
to run your product? |
Syspedia scales to the
limits of the hardware, database and
application server capacities.
Syspedia’s repository was designed by
database performance experts that built
the underlying open database to support
easy, fast access to your enterprise
components and elements. |
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Give a list of
recommended (examples of hardware used
at other customer implementations)
including technical specifications. |
Syspedia can be
implemented in a variety of
configurations, on the mainframe, UNIX
or Windows platforms. Syspedia’s use of
standard SQL and application servers
allow it be implemented on DB2
(recommended) Oracle or SQL server. The
web browser application supports any
Java JSP2 web server including open
source Tomcat (recommended), Websphere
(recommended), or BEA. The most ideal
configuration is where Syspedia has
direct access to the component libraries
that will populate the repository. This
allows real time updates from the Change
Management processes to the repository. |
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Repository Database |
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Does your metadata
product use a repository database
structure? (describe) |
Syspedia uses its own
repository data structures to ensure
end-user concurrency and performance.
These database structures are based and
similar to the OMG and CWM standards. |
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Is your repository
database structure proprietary? |
Syspedia repository data
structures are proprietary but opened
and disclosed to customer so they may
attach and use their third party
products. |
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What database or file
system does your repository run on? |
Syspedia runs on
mainframe, UNIX or Windows systems using
DB2 (recommended), Oracle, or SQL
server. |
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What operating systems
does your repository database run on? |
Since Syspedia is 100%
java it can run on almost any hardware
or software platform. It runs on the
mainframe (z/OS), any UNIX, LINUX or
Windows system. |
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Are your repository
database tables "open"? Do you document
or publish the table structures? Can
you access the tables with SQL or a
third-party reporting tool? (describe) |
Syspedia repository
structures are open for non-disclosed
customers to access the repository from
third part tools and other SQL type
products. Since the underlying data
stores are similar to the OMG and CWM
structures they are disclosed to
customers so they can use any OLAP or
SQL product that support JDBC2
connectivity. |
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Can you access the tables
with SQL or a third-party reporting tool
? (describe) |
Once Syspedia is
purchased, the repository database
structures are disclosed to our
clients. Many of our clients hook in
their third party reporting tools to
access Syspedia directly. Syspedia can
be referenced by any third party tools
that provide JDBC2 connectivity and
SQL1999 compliant SQL. |
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Meta-Models and
Extensibility |
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What type of metadata is
your product primarily designed to
document, or provide access to?
Business metadata? Technical metadata?
metadata contained within 3rd-party
development tools? (describe) |
Syspedia maps, documents
and helps you harvest the business rules
and processes that run your business and
IT department. Syspedia harvest all
components of your software portfolio
down to the element level so you can
quickly understand the relationships,
data lineage, and business rules and
processes through your various
applications. Syspedia provides this
extensive technical metadata with a
wikipedia for business definitions and
discussions. Syspedia with its
wikipedia provides a forum for more
business metadata around the technical
metadata. The web interface then
provides a common interface for all your
enterprise personnel to discuss the
business definitions along side the
technical IT assets descriptions which
provides for a truly “business system
encyclopedia”. |
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Does your product ship
with any pre-defined meta-models?
(describe) |
Syspedia’s repository is
similar to the OMG and CWM meta
models. |
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Is the repository
database fully or partially extensible?
(describe) Can you truly model any type
of custom metadata object, attribute, or
relationship? |
Syspedia is extensible
through regular database processes. Any
extensions would not be available
through the intuitive web Syspedia
interface but would be available through
any third party tools. |
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Can you truly model any
type of custom metadata object,
attribute, or relationship ? |
Syspedia with its
wikipedia plug-ins is capable of
handling any metadata documentation.
This allows any diagrams, PDFs
spreadsheets or other documentation to
be tied to the business description or
technical metadata. |
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When you make extensions
to the repository database, how are they
implemented ? Are special DBA or
consultant skills needed ? |
Extensions to Syspedia
would be implemented as additional data
structures within the Syspedia
repository. These could be added
through normal DBA processes and
procedures. |
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In reference to part D.5,
do you need to take down and re-create
the repository database ? (describe) |
Syspedia incorporates new
metadata through it wikipedia using XML
and binary object types. These formats
allow a variety of information to be
captured without having to modify or
recreate the repository. Syspedia is
about availablity, scalabiltiy and
performance. |
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User Interface |
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Describe your User
Interface. How does it work? |
Syspedia has an intuitive
web interface to all the repository
functions and features. The web
interface is used to configure,
administer and access repository
information. The web application helps
you through defining your systems and
applications, harvesting your
application information and querying the
business rules and element meta data.
Syspedia has a Google type interface to
query meta data about any aspect of your
enterprise data and application
infrastructure. |
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What programming language
is the UI written in? |
Syspedia is 100% java,
java harvesting programs, java server
pages and enterprise beans. |
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How is the UI deployed?
Does the UI require any special
software? |
Syspedia is deployed as a
standard java J2EE application on web
application server such as the open
source Apache Tomcat (recommended),
Websphere (recommended) or BEA servers. |
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Do you offer a
"web-portal" user interface? |
Syspedia is a standard
web application that can be implemented
several different ways. |
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What operating systems
does the UI run on? |
Syspedia is 100% java and
can be hosted from the mainframe, UNIX,
Linux or Windows system that has java
JVM capabilities. |
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Internationalization -
what languages does the UI support? |
Currently Syspedia
support English. |
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Can the UI be
customized? What technologies can be
used? (describe) |
Syspedia’s web interface
can not currently be customized but the
Syspedia data structures are
non-disclosed to customers so they can
access Syspedia meta data information
from any third party tool or SQL
product. |
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Who is the UI primarily
designed for - a technical user or
business user? |
Syspedia’s intuitive web
interface is design so business users,
executives and IT personnel can all get
the information they want quickly and
easily. The web interface is a
Google-type interface to access all
aspects of the enterprise meta data. |
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How do you edit metadata
definitions? (describe) |
Syspedia’s web interface
provides additional meta data fields for
all the different contained components.
This allows end-user to add all types of
additional information for comments,
clarifications and documentation. |
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Do you offer a "favorites
dashboard" that lets users easily save,
find and re-use their favorites metadata
objects and reports? |
Since Syspedia has
standard reports these can be added to
the “favorites” web link of most web
browsers. |
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Metadata Interfaces |
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Provide a general
overview of your interfacing
capability. How do the interfaces work? |
Syspedia captures meta
data from mainframe, UNIX and Windows
platforms for an enterprise wide
solution. The Syspedia web interface
allow easy harvesting of the environment
libraries, modules and elements by
simply setting up the path to the
library and giving Syspedia your
harvesting criteria. This path and
criteria information is then used by the
batch Syspedia Knowledge Discovery java
component to extract meta data from you
environment. |
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Do you offer "scanners"
that copy and store metadata definitions
in a centralized repository? (describe) |
The Syspedia Knowledge
Discovery module harvests and builds a
comprehensive enterprise wide meta
data. Syspedia builds this meta data by
examining, scanning, and distilling your
libraries, JCL, programs, modules and
file definitions. business data |
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How do you keep
duplicated metadata definitions held in
your repository up-to-date and
synchronized with the real world? Can
you automate the process to refresh
metadata definitions? |
Syspedia Knowledge
Discovery process harvests meta data
from enterprise wide system components
based on several criteria. This
automated process can easily be
integrated with change management
systems or scheduled to a frequency that
can provide real time updates. Syspedia
can keep as many versions as needed to
show the component history since it
stores as many copies as you like via
both extract and component timestamps. |
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In reference to F.3, can
you automate the process to refresh
metadata definitions ? |
Syspedia Knowledge
Discovery automated process can be
scheduled to refresh or extract any
metadata on demand. |
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Do you offer "real-time"
interfaces that browse metadata from
other tools, but do NOT copy definitions
into a central repository? (describe) |
Syspedia’s web
application has a facility to interface
or browse enterprise database structures
or other third party products meta data
structures or interfaces. |
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What reporting or
business intelligence tools does your
product interface to? |
Syspedia’s underlying
meta data structures are disclosed to
customers so they can use any of their
third party SQL capable tools. |
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What DBMS does your
product interface to? |
Syspedia can interface
with any DBMS that is JDBC2 compatible
and capable. |
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What data modeling or UML
tools does your product interface to? |
Syspedia is moving to a
XML interface to interface with any
architecture or other open products. |
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What ETL tools does your
product interface to? Does it provide
access to the data transformation or
mapping rules? |
Syspedia currently only
harvests application programming
languages and mainframe, UNIX and
windows data structures. In the future
Syspedia's XML capabilities will be able
to harvest from any open product. |
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What EAI tools does your
product interface to? Does it provide
access to the data transformation rules? |
Syspedia currently only
extracts and parses application
programming languages for business rules
and data structures. In future releases
Syspedia looks to integrate with the XML
interfaces to the CWM and XMI standards
for all ETL transformation products. |
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What ERP or CRM
applications does your product interface
to? |
Syspedia supports
extracting and parsing the data
structures of any CRM or ERP system.
Syspedia does not directly interface to
these products it is able to extract and
parse data structures and application
programs. |
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What programming
languages does your product interface
to? |
Currently Syspedia parses
and interfaces with COBOL and JCL. XML
parsing is being added for extracting
metadata from third party interfaces and
multiple programming languages. |
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Does your product
interface to COBOL copybooks? MVS/JCL?
Does it recognize REDEFINES and OCCURS? |
Syspedia interfaces and
details the file layouts from all
platforms, copybooks, redefines and
occurs. It highlights the relationships
between the primary elements and their
subordinate elements. Syspedia also
parses and provides detailed analysis
capabilities of JCL. Syspedia is the
only metadata product on the market that
handles standard JCL. The Syspedia JCL
parser handles JCL PROCS and expanding
and cross referencing symbolic
parameters within JCL. |
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What other 3rd-party
products (not listed so far) does your
product interface to? |
Syspedia can be used to
interface with many programming language
data structures such as IDMS, PL/1 etc.
Contact your Syspedia Representative for
details. |
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What additional
interfaces will you be delivering in
2007? |
Syspedia is delivering
the wikipedia interface and the
cabability to associated any type object
to the metadata. |
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Does your product provide
a generic import/export facility?
(describe) If YES, what file formats
does it support? |
Syspedia does provides
database standard imports and exports of
its information. |
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Can your product
import/export metadata held in XML
files? |
Syspedia in 2007 is
building an XML interface to data models
along with other CWM and OMG standard
XML interfaces. These interfaces are
targeted for late 2007. |
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How do you establish
linkages or relationships between
metadata objects from different
development tools? Is this done
manually? Automatically? (describe) |
Syspedia reflects and
provides analysis capabilities of all
the enterprise objects automatically as
it parses and builds the meta data.
These relationships are maintained
inherently through the Syspedia data
model and the timestamps associated with
the meta data. This allows Syspedia a
tremendous amount of flexibility to
maintain versions and maintenance within
the product. |
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How quickly do you
upgrade interfaces to new versions of
the 3rd-party tools? What is your
policy? |
Syspedia follows 3rd
party tools within a reasonable period. |
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Do you offer "mass
update" or "mass purge" facilities?
(describe) |
Syspedia supports mass
delete purging of old versions of meta
data. For example I would like to only
have three versions of meta data.
Syspedia can easily and quickly handle
this request through its support of
timestamps. |
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Versioning |
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Version Control - does
your product provide "versioning"? How
does it work? (describe) |
Since Syspedia captures
the timestamp of the all the objects it
supports it can capture as many versions
as needed. For example program
timestamp of when the parsing was done
and the timestamp of the module was last
changed is capture. This allows meta
data versioning to handle multiple
versions based on any desired criteria. |
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Does the tool support
multiple metadata object definitions
over project or lifecycle phases - such
as "Test", "Development", "Production",
"Release 1.1", etc …? (describe) |
Syspedia uses an
Environment, Application, Module, Data
Structure, and Element architecture that
allows the administrator to capture or
set up as many unique separate
definitions as they need. These
different levels of objects can support
an unlimited number of object
definitions. |
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Can you compare different
versions of objects to one another?
(describe) |
Yes, Syspedia currently
supports the comparison of any metadata
elements across the enterprise and
within data structures. These
comparisons verify data definitions for
data movement and elements involved in
decisions and movement across the
various modules. |
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Industry Standards & Regulations |
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Does your product support
any specific metadata exchange
standards, such as CWM, UML, MOF, XMI,
CDIF, etc? (describe) |
Syspedia is going to a
full XML metadata interface to exchange
data with any thrid party tools. |
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Does your product support
any government or educational standards
such as ISO 11179? (describe) |
The Syspedia
Standardization section supports the
different aspects of the ISO11179
standard phases. This Syspedia process
supports data element consolidation, and
remediation. Syspedia has a complete
white paper on the different methods to
resolve different data elements. |
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Does your product offer
any prebuilt metamodels or reports for
emerging industry regulations, such as
HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, ACORD, BASEL II,
etc? |
Syspedia supports
Sarbanes Oxley by identifying data
lineage, relationships and dependencies
for IT controls. This information can
then be used to understand general
ledger data dependencies and help
auditors trace and remediate changes in
controls. |
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Is your company involved
in any standards committees or
memberships? |
Syspedia looks to
leverage the emerging UML and BPEL
standards for better XML integration
with other third party products. |
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Functional Support |
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