Patent ID: 7143112

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for collecting data from among a plurality of data sites to be stored at a central site, each data site having an associated data store, the method comprising: providing each data site with a corresponding extraction routine; for each data site, processing data contained in its associated data store in accordance with its corresponding extraction routine to produce first data, the corresponding extraction routine configured to store the first data in a storage location at the data site if the processing produces first data; collecting second data which is based on first data obtained from those data sites for which their corresponding extraction routines produced said first data; and loading all of the second data into a database, wherein the step of collecting includes communicating the first data to a central site in accordance with a remote copy operation, receiving at the central site the first data as mirrored data, and transforming the mirrored data to produce the second data, the second data being stored at the central site, wherein the step of providing a corresponding extraction routine comprises, for each data site: receiving a specification information which is descriptive of data stored in a data store associated with the data site; producing the extraction routine based on the specification information; and communicating the extraction routine to the data site.