RMS Reports
The standard RMS reporting tools provide a full suite of analysis tools for operations, financial and statistical data so we recommend speaking to the RMS support team about your requirements to see if everything you need is available already
In cases where standard RMS reporting covers most of your requirements, ask the RMS support team about creating custom reports to cover your extra requirements. There will likely be a charge for custom report development but it is the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to get all of the information you need out of the RMS system.
Data Warehouse
If you have specific needs that are not covered by RMS reporting or want to create a Data Warehouse, there are 2 primary options for getting access to your RMS data
1. RMS REST API
The RMS recommended option to build a data warehouse using your RMS data is the RMS REST API. It is designed specifically for data warehouse requirements and is the easiest way to extract the RMS data. Extensive business rules and data massaging is performed on the raw data to ensure you have all the data you need in a format you can understand.
The RMS REST API acts as a gateway to the RMS database. It can be used to extract a broad subset of data for a range of uses. The information can be extracted periodically as an automated routine or on demand.
The API can also be used to write data back to RMS for cases where you want to keep RMS data in sync with an external system. For example, Membership or CRM systems.
There is some initial development required, however, once that is completed, ongoing maintenance is minimal and you can be confident that any database or business rule changes are seamlessly applied to the API data feed so there is nothing for you to do.
The API is under constant development to expand and improve the data available so if you have a requirement for something not currently available, please submit a request to the RMS API Support Team - apisupport@rms.com.au
Info
Click Here for API Specifications & Test Credentials.
2. Direct SQL Access
An alternative option for data extraction is direct SQL access to a read only copy of your database. If this is your preferred option, RMS will create a read-only copy of your database and give you SQL credentials to access it from a specific IP address.
RMS does not recommend direct SQL access for the following reasons
- There is a monthly cost to host the read-only copy of your database.
- There is no business logic in the database so the SQL database only contains raw data
- The data schema is not publicly available so understanding it will take time and most likely help from RMS technical resources charged on a per hour basis
- The database schema changes regularly which will affect any custom queries you have created so ongoing maintenance will be required. RMS schema changes are made for all clients at the same time, so custom development cannot be taken into account when planning our upgrade cycle.
If you would like to discuss having Direct SQL access to your database further, please contact a member of the RMS Sales Office