The SuperSTAR™ Platform is designed specifically to help Data Providers deliver data and analytical services to their customers. The platform delivers query results to SuperSTAR client applications and serves as a repository for officially released data, as well as end user-generated queries and reusable, customized query components. It includes support for special Data Provider requirements such as strong, customizable data privacy protection features, and automated annotations that help prevent users from misinterpreting analytic results.
The platform data loading tools guarantee high standards of data quality, ensuring completeness of any classifications and facilitating links to comprehensive descriptive metadata, including multilingual representations. Standard calculations and metrics are applied at one single point, guaranteeing consistency across tools, and mechanisms such as confidentiality rules for data privacy protection are applied to data prior to exposing results to the user.
The key componements of the platform are summarized in the following table:
| Component | Descripton |
|
Analytics Server |
SuperSERVER™ is the analytics server which performs fast cross tabulations and calculations. It allows the results of unit record queries to be provided to desktop or web client applications. |
|
The Data Control API allows the SuperSERVER to access plugin services for confidentiality rules, audit trails, and table annotations. New plugins can be added at any time. The Data Control API and the plugins that use it are optional and an additional license price applies. The sample plugins are:
Cell Disturbance
Query Auditing
Produce logs
|
|
|
Data Access API™ (Optional) |
The Data Access API facilitates development of web-based client tools and third party products for accessing, and viewing data. |
|
Authorization and Authentication |
Manages user access to the SuperSTAR databases and their content by user, group, and permissions. |
|
Metadata Server |
Allows users to access the business knowledge about the data. A key component of error prevention. |
|
Data Extract and Load |
SuperCHANNEL™ is the client tool used to read the source data via standard connections such as ODBC and build SuperSTAR databases. SuperCHANNEL functionality includes:
|
Data management
The SuperSTAR platform collates system data from a number of sources and makes available to the system. The SuperCHANNEL product is used to create the SuperSTAR format (SXV4) databases. Depending on how frequently the input data sources are updated, this creation process can be automated via a batch proces to keep the SuperSTAR database fresh.
These databases are managed by the SuperSTAR platform, SuperSERVER, for users to access via the SuperCROSS, SuperWEB, and SuperVIEW products. This has a number of benefits:
- Data enrichment: The addition of organizational contextual metadata with the input data sources. This transforms the data from being an IT domain resource to a business domain resource.
- High availability and cross-data analysis: Data is stored and managed centrally in a form that allows for analysis to be carried out across one or more fact tables collected from the input data sources.
- Performance and speed to process queries: The SuperSTAR databases are optimized for fast table report generation whilst preserving the original unit record data.
- Security and access controls: These can be enforced from a central location. SuperSTAR databases are created for analysis activities and are inherently read only. Data such as synthetic fields, metadata, and records can be added, but the original data remains unaltered.
SuperCHANNEL can directly access various data sources using JDBC and ODBC drivers. Where a solution requires disparate data sources to be integrated, we recommend using an intermediate staging database into which the source data can be gathered and preformatted. The smoothest process for constructing a SuperSTAR database occurs when the source dataset is in a star schema structure, and where that schema includes all the required classification tables.
User and database security
Access by the administrator and the internal users to the SuperSTAR system will be authenticated using the existing Active Directory service, enabled via SuperSTAR’s LDAP integration facility.
SuperSTAR database security consists of two main parts: access to databases, and access to specific fields within those databases. For internal users, database access will be managed on the basis of the SuperSTAR authorization group to which they have been assigned, in combination with the database access rights granted to that group.
Within each database, Field Level Security can be applied. This manages access to the fields and field values within a database for users. For example, you can choose to constrain access by a level of geographic classification, with no access to be allowed below a certain level.
Given its general audience, user security is not required for SuperVIEW.
Confidentiality for privacy protection
SuperSERVER, with the addition of the optional Data Control API and plugin components, applies confidentiality to your data on the fly before it is sent to the person making the request. This ensures the privacy protection of your data.
Space-Time Research has worked with many National Statistical Organizations in designing, testing and applying the confidentiality mechanisms. A very simple example of one is a rule that rounds any cell value in a table < 10 to the nearest base 5. This is done through the Data Control API, within the platform, that provides a framework against which plugins can be applied.
The benefit to your company is the time saved in building and manually testing cubes prior to release to the public, as well as the capability to offer much broader access to the data. This confidentiality can be applied against weighted and raw count data.
Usage metrics
It is important to the stakeholders, that they have measurable data on the usage of the solution. Being able to track the number of users and time/date when they visit the website provides information on the success of the solution and also usage patterns – for example which days of the week and hours of the day are the most popular? Usage metrics are also important to provide measureable data to justify investment for future surveys.
Space-Time Research recommends using Google Analytics embedded within the SuperVIEW pages. This will collect data about how many people visit the web pages, when they visited it, and how long they spent there (with the duration spent on the website, is a key indicator of usage). You can then access these statistics from a dashboard-style report from Google. Google Analytics is free to use.
Space-Time Research also provides a solution for Audit Trails, which tracks usage of SuperCROSS and SuperWEB clients from SuperSERVER.
“We started exploring business intelligence tools when our corporate data warehouse was no longer able to keep up with our rapidly evolving business. With SuperSTAR’s information integration capabilities and graphic functionality, our end users are able to quickly and easily access all the necessary information at the right time in order to support our decision-making process. We have full confidence that SuperSTAR is able to improve the way in which we handle our statistical data. Not only is the solution cost-effective for us, it is also not resource-consuming for us. When asked to supply a prototype of the solution, they were able to do so in just days.”
Ernesto Della Sala, Nethun IT, Venice Port Authority
“The thing about SuperSTAR is that it really is user friendly, no matter what your level of inquiry might be. While even a beginner user can be formulating tables in a very short period of time, none of the requirements of the experienced user are lost in this implification”.
Eddie Turnbull,The General Register Office for Scotland