Hi Fineract community,
I have been reviewing the draft GSOC concept around the "BI connector and
analytics demonstration" and, understanding that this is still a draft idea
and not finalized yet, I wanted to share some early exploration and ask a
few clarification questions to help guide my learning and research. Over
the past days I have been trying to better understand how analytics
workflows could integrate with Fineract and what architectural approaches
might make sense for extracting and organizing data for Business
Intelligence use cases.
My current understanding of the problem space:
-
Fineract is primarily optimized for transactional operations, while BI
tools require structured analytical datasets.
-
A connector may need to bridge operational data models to
analytics-friendly schemas (possibly via ETL or streaming approaches).
-
Security considerations (especially PII access and role-based
visibility) appear critical for any analytics integration.
Some approaches I have been exploring conceptually:
1.
Direct query connector:
-
BI tools connect via REST APIs or query layer.
2.
Data warehouse pipeline:
-
Extract data into a separate warehouse optimized for analytics.
3.
Event-driven or CDC-based pipeline:
-
Use domain events or change-data-capture to maintain analytical
datasets.
Each approach has its own pros and cons .
I would really appreciate guidance from maintainers on a few points:
-
Are there existing reporting or analytics integrations that should be
considered as starting points or avoided?
-
Is there a preferred direction between batch ETL vs near real-time
event-driven pipelines?
-
Should the primary goal be a reusable connector framework or mainly a
demonstration/reference implementation?
-
Are there any known pain points or requests from current Fineract users
regarding analytics/reporting workflows?
My intention at this stage is only to explore and understand the problem
space better, not to start implementation since the idea is still evolving.
I have been actively exploring and contributing to the Fineract codebase
and trying different tools and integration approaches, to understand what
could fit best within the ecosystem, and I would really appreciate any
feedback or pointers from the community.
Thank you for your time and guidance.
Best regards,
Aira
