Available for users of the Affinity Bureau Service, users will be able to safely access information held in Affinity from a secure database hosted in Microsoft Azure’s data centre. This will enable partners to gain complete, unfettered access to their data which can then be used according to their precise needs.
Union Street introduced the Azure Data Feed in response to increasing demand from partners for advanced and bespoke reporting. The product sends a regular feed of data from the Affinity billing system to a secure cloud environment hosted in Microsoft Azure. From there, users can query the data as required or hook business intelligence tools into the database to conduct reporting.
Because all data is supplied in read-only format and no data is sent back to the Affinity platform, data integrity is safely maintained with no risk of corruption through human error.
To ensure best results, Union Street has advised partners that its Azure Data Feed requires in-house technical resource with proficiency in SQL and managing table structures.
Samantha Dennahy, product owner for Union Street (pictured) said: “Affinity’s out of the box reporting is already extensive but, due to the increasingly diverse and complex requirements of our partners, we introduced the Azure Data Feed so that they may harness the full power of the data held within our Affinity billing platform.
“Microsoft’s Azure cloud environment was the perfect choice for hosting and facilitating the Data Feed. It offers high availability, and its robust data security protocols help us to ensure sensitive data is managed securely and in compliance with industry regulations.”