Data import and data capture

One of the most important tasks is to capture your data in Alfabet FastLane so that you can begin using its powerful analytics. Alfabet FastLane recognizes that you may have various data sources or even unstructured data. Some of the data may be simple to add manually or you may have complex data sources across multiple files. Alfabet FastLane enables the system administrator to import large amounts of data via XLSX files in the context of the Portfolio Admin functionalities. For more information about data import by the system administrator via XLSX files, see Get Your Data in Alfabet FastLane

Typically your system administrator will import at least some of your company's IT assets to Alfabet FastLane. In some cases, system administrators might import only the data required to analyze a business question. Depending on access permissions, users with the Portfolio Manager, Application Manager, or Technology Manager user profiles can add new assets and edit the information about existing assets in the repository.

In order to start working with Alfabet FastLane, it is not necessary that all object classes are in the repository. You only need to capture data for the object classes that are relevant for the immediate task at hand. However, depending on the data you want to capture, some assets should already exist in in your repository so that you can define an asset's relationships to other objects. Please note the following dependencies:

Users and user groups: This is the first data that must be captured so that the user community can access Alfabet FastLane. Only a user with the Portfolio Admin user profile can capture this information.

Organizations, locations, vendors, physical servers, and virtual servers: This structural information is necessary to describe who owns assets and where they are located. This data can be imported by a user with the Portfolio Admin user profile. It can also be manually capture by a user with the Portfolio Manager user profile.

Business capabilities or business processes, business data, and application groups: These assets are necessary to be able to capture information about applications in the IT landscape. Whether your company captures how applications support business capabilities or business processes will depend on your company's methodology. This data can be imported by a user with the Portfolio Admin user profile. It can also be manually capture by a user with the Portfolio Manager user profile. Please note that this data should be in the repository so that users with the Application Manager user profile can document the relationships that applications have to other assets.

IT capabilities: These assets are necessary to be able to capture information about components in the IT landscape. This data can be imported by a user with the Portfolio Admin user profile. It can also be manually capture by a user with the Portfolio Manager user profile. Please note that this data should be in the repository so that users with the Technology Manager user profile can document the relationships that components have to other assets.

Project groups: These assets are necessary to be able to maintain and analyze projects focused on IT change.