Dear Group,

Yesterday in the Data Migration Meeting I stated that we need also historical data for Reporting which I felt caused some confusion.

I would like to explain on that.

I didn't mean the case in which one is migrating from one system to another and wants to report on the old data (e.g. circulation data in the old system) in the new system (FOLIO).

What I meant is the case in which one changes the Reporting Tool of a running system or adds a Reporting Tool to the production system for the first time. Then the newly added Reporting Tool should be able to report on all (reporting relevant) data which are in the system.

(I had a discussion with an expert for Reporting Tools earlier yesterday who raised that concern.)

Applying to FOLIO I conclude:

* it should never happen that the Reporting Tool will be added for the first time and there are already production data in the system. Because we said "no go-live without reporting" - so the Reporting Tool (RT) will be installed right away, along with the core modules during installation of the system.

* In FOLIO I consider it likely that one wants to change the RT of a running system - due to the modular nature of the system and there might be better RTs on the market from time to time.  As long as one keeps the Data Warehouse (DW) from the start and just connects a different (or even an additional) RT to the DW, this will be fine. The new RT can report on data sets which have been created (in the DW) prior to its installation, and are so-to-speak from its point of view "historical". I think the term "historical" was misleading in this context.

But I think this example stresses the importance of the DW and we should take great care in designing it (which we already do in the Reporting SIG), because it will be the heart piece of Reporting in FOLIO.

I plan to present a Reporting Tool used in Germany (and desired to be used also with FOLIO) and some of the concepts behind it in the April 9th meeting of the Reporting SIG.

- Ingolf