A foundational element of indyco is that is based on what’s called a Conceptual Model.
Through Conceptual Modeling you can create Conceptual Schemas: “a conceptual schema is a high-level description of a business’s informational needs. It typically includes only the main concepts and the main relationships among them”
This means that indyco uses conceptual schemas for multidimensional modeling, which is a key issue in Data Warehouse design. While practitioners often deal this task by directly designing star or snowflake schemas, distinguishing between a phase of Conceptual Design (that delivers an implementation-independent and expressive representation of multidimensional cubes) and one of Logical Design (that creates a corresponding logical schema on the chosen platform) brings doubtless advantages to both designers and end-users.
A necessary foundation
Conceptual Modeling provides a high level of abstraction in describing multidimensional data, and is aimed at achieving independence of implementation issues. It is widely recognised to be the necessary foundation for building a database that is well-documented and that fully satisfies user requirements; usually, it relies on a graphical notation that facilitates writing, understanding, and managing conceptual schemata by both designers and business users.
This means that, on top of being a good practice for IT people, it’s a must-have when you need to design your System hand in hand with your Business Users… and this is usually the case, isn’t it?