ZipRealty Deploys Pentaho for ETL

ZipRealty Deploys Pentaho for ETL

Leading Real Estate Company Delivers Threefold Performance Increase and Simplified Maintenance with Pentaho Data Integration

Pentaho Corp., creator of the world’s most popular open source business intelligence (BI) suite, today announced that ZipRealty (NASDAQ:ZIPR) has deployed Pentaho Data Integration as part of a MySQL-based data warehouse that integrates information from disparate systems to provide visibility into agent performance, customer service, and marketing effectiveness.

ZipRealty, a national, full-service real estate brokerage, provides home buyers and sellers with an innovative real estate solution. By using the efficiencies of the Internet, ZipRealty has streamlined the real estate process and is able to pass significant savings on to its clients. The brokerage’s licensed, local ZipAgents® in each of its markets allow home buyers and sellers to save thousands of dollars, without compromising on service.

Given the significance of ZipRealty’s online presence to its core business, the company continually gathers large volumes of data through its Web site and other systems. ZipRealty recognized the opportunity to integrate that information and leverage it strategically to measure agent performance, enhance customer service, and analyze the return on investment (ROI) of ZipRealty’s marketing programs.

The technical environment includes Pentaho Data Integration 2.4 feeding a MySQL-based data warehouse running on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux server. Most of the source data is extracted and integrated from operational sources based on the Oracle database. ZipRealty has used MicroStrategy since 2006 to provide information access and analysis capabilities for end-users.

Pentaho Data Integration was selected to replace a home-grown, java-based data extraction program. Since moving to Pentaho Data Integration, ZipRealty has significantly simplified ongoing ETL maintenance and realized a three-fold increase in data load performance, reducing their batch window by eight hours.

“With professional support and world-class ETL from Pentaho, we’ve been able to simplify our IT environment and lower our costs,” said Salvatore Scalisi, Director of Data Administration at ZipRealty. “We were also surprised at how much faster Pentaho Data Integration was than our prior solution.”

“We’re pleased to add ZipRealty as a Pentaho customer,” said Lance Walter, VP of Marketing for Pentaho. “ZipRealty is a pragmatic and increasingly common example of organizations complementing proprietary BI products with professional open source technology and services.”

About Pentaho

Pentaho provides a full spectrum of open source Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities including reporting, analysis, dashboards, data mining, data integration, and a BI platform that have made it the world’s most popular open source BI suite. Formed by a highly experienced team of industry veterans, Pentaho’s mission is to bring innovative, high quality technology and professional support to the BI market. Pentaho uses a revolutionary approach to development, distribution and support made possible by an open source business model. Pentaho is the primary sponsor and owner of popular open source projects including JFreeReport, Kettle, Mondrian, and Weka. Pentaho’s technologies support a wide range of business initiatives from sales and profitability analysis, customer analysis, HR reporting, Financial reporting, KPI dashboards, Supply Chain analytics, and operational reporting. For more information on Pentaho, please see www.pentaho.org.

About ZipRealty

ZipRealty is a full-service residential real estate brokerage firm. The Company uses the Internet, proprietary technology and efficient business processes to provide home buyers and sellers with high-quality service and value. Founded in 1999, the Company currently operates in 24 major metropolitan areas in 15 states and the District of Columbia. The Company’s client-centric business strategy utilizes a sophisticated Web site, which enables home buyers and sellers to access comprehensive local Multiple Listing Services home listings data and other relevant information. The Company also utilizes a proprietary business management technology platform, which reduces costs and allows the Company to pass on significant financial savings to consumers. This Internet-enabled, technology-driven, employee-based model provides the Company with a distinct competitive advantage, allowing ZipRealty to consistently deliver outstanding service to clients. For more information on ZipRealty, visit www.ziprealty.com or call 1-800-CALL-ZIP (1-800-225-5947).
Contacts

For Pentaho Corporation, Orlando
S&S Public Relations
Tony Keller, 719-634-8279
tony {at} sspr(.)com
or
Pentaho Corporation
Veronica Quinones, 407-812-OPEN (6736)
vquinones {at} pentaho(.)org