REVIEWER: Pierre Cusson, database administrator
BACKGROUND: Staples Advantage Canada delivers various office products directly to businesses.
PLATFORMS: ModelRight3 runs on Windows XP machines. The application generates database scripts for SQL 2005 (32 bits and 64 bits) over Windows Server 2003.
PROBLEM SOLVED: We currently have multiple databases (data warehouse, e-commerce and other internal applications) but we did not have an integrated view of them. Modifications made to the databases had to be done manually, and the data models had to be maintained separately, leading to out-of-date models. ModelRight allows us to keep the data models and the databases in sync by applying changes to the model first and then generating the DDL script to push to the various databases. It also allows us to keep an up-to-date data dictionary.
PRODUCT FUNCTIONALITY: ModelRight’s reverse-engineering process helped us obtain an up-to-date data model based on production tables. The ability to understand legacy data models without the need to bring in high-priced specialty consultants saves time and money. The domains functionality helped us increase our productivity when building new data models. The DDL scripting engine made the process easy to transfer information from the model to different databases via DDL CREATE and ALTER commands. The export to XML feature allowed us to take any information from the model and export it to different applications.
STRENGTHS: Strengths include its ease of use and a powerful scripting engine for creating and maintaining our databases. A professional data modeling solution such as ModelRight 3 allows for rapid development of data models, which translates to immediate cost savings and increased speed to market.
WEAKNESSES: The scripting is very good for creating new objects, but less convenient when you have to work with releases, when you develop from one server and have to push your changes to other servers where the script could run more than once.
SELECTION CRITERIA: Three things led to our selection of ModelRight3. The interface is really easy to use and very intuitive. The number of useful, working features combined with the competitive price. And, the cost of other data modeling software can be up to 10 times more expensive.
DELIVERABLES: The software creates SQL DDL scripts that completely generate and maintain our database structures. We also generate XML to create a data dictionary including domain, table and column information.
VENDOR SUPPORT: Vendor support is very good to evaluate and fix bugs. The response is extremely fast. Incident turnaround times (including bug fixes and feature requests) are measured in hours or days, not weeks or months. They add new options very quickly when the requirements are worthwhile.
DOCUMENTATION: Because I could find the option I needed intuitively through the interface, I have not had much of a need to use the documentation. But the few times I referred to the ModelRight documentation, I easily found what I was looking for.
ModelRight, Inc.
66 Witherspoon Street
Suite 138
Princeton, NJ 08542
(609) 423-9297
Product reviews are customer testimonials. We thank the author of this review for taking the time to share his or her expertise.
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