Siebel Customer-Centric Enterprise Warehouse Installation and Configuration Guide > Storing, Extracting, and Loading Additional Data >

About Adding More Metrics to the Data Model

There are two different types of metrics—quantities and amounts. Quantity metrics are basically counts of items. For example, the number of dining tables ordered is a quantity. Amount metrics are monetary values. For example, the cost of a dining table is an amount metric.

Determining the Type of Table to Use for Metrics

Regardless of the type of metric, it is recommended that you load metric data into fact tables.

However, before loading a metric into a fact table, perform the following checks:

• You must make sure that the grain of the table is the same grain as the new metric. If the table and the data are not at the same grain level, it is strongly recommended that you do not change the grain of a table to match the grain of the metric data. By doing so, you may negatively affect joins to other tables, as well as reports.
• Determine the type of extension column you use to store the metric. Different extension columns are provided for both the quantity and amount type of metric. Extension columns for quantity are identified by the QTY suffix, and extension columns for amount are identified by the AMT suffix.
• The metric data must be associated with the subject area of the fact table.

In addition to determining the appropriate fact table, you must also determine which type of extension column to load the metric data into. The following section suggests the type of column to use for each type of metric data.

Determining the Type of Extension Column to Use for Metrics

It is recommended that you use a Quantity extension column (*_QTY) to store quantity metric data. As well, it is recommended that you use an Amount extension column (*_AMT) to store amount metric data.