Bridging the gap between the data warehouse and XML

This paper considers the production of a Web based income and expenditure reporting and forecasting system for a national children's charity. The reporting element was deigned to enable cost centre to view and base business decisions on accurate and up to date financial information. The forecasting element of the system allows costcentre managers to inform the central finance department of their current financial situation. Based on consideration of the available Web technologies, a case is presented here for using a flexible model of Web delivery and offline accessibility, through the use of ADO, MSXML parser, JavaScript, ASP, XML and XSL(T). The approach is "future focused" and allows for rapid migration to new platforms in response to changes within both the industry, and the business e.g. WAP, PDA. The combined approach presented here results in an implementation where each independent technology is sued to do what it does best: the speed of SQL combined with the flexibility and portability of XML. BBM is currently in operation at The Children's Society (TCS) Headquarters and is serving the reporting and forecasting needs of approximately 150 budget holders based across the country.