OLAP reports delivery

Transcription

1 Intersoft Lab OLAP reports delivery 1

2 Intersoft Lab This article describes OLAP-report delivery technology powered by Contour Analytical Platform. Introduction Business consolidation, branch office circuits extension, e-commerce and media technologies development make the task of information and report delivery increasingly urgent. Organizations require it to accomplish following tasks: To provide branch offices staff, trade delegates and business agents with corporative reports To inform dealers and counteragents of current prices, etc To distribute statistical and other kind of information to information service subscribers More and more companies turn to the modern technology of financial management, leaving the old team control system. As a result, organization is split up into Cost and Profit Centers, which receive operational independence, but are responsible to the center for their financial plans and reports on their implementation. This increases the reporting stream in both directions. In this case, the old manual report producing technology (e.g. in an electronic spreadsheet format or as PDF) becomes very and very ineffective and expensive and leads to report transmission delays. Yet, an access to a single central database is not always possible. Furthermore, it doesn t solve all the problems of information exchange, such as the problem of concurrent resource access by users, performing transactions and users, producing reports. But even having a Data Warehouse set up, simultaneous report production initiated by many users leads to overall system deceleration and requires high computing power. Some reporting facilities (OLAP tools) vendors offer their solutions in this area. Usually, they offer quite expensive and heavy corporate portals or broadcast servers, not always affordable for a small or middle-sized company or for every single project of a large corporation. This article proposes several affordable and easy to deploy and maintain solutions, which make use of the Contour Analytical Platform. The idea of report distribution Intersoft Lab proposes a model of data collection and report distribution, which allows using all the organization s computing facilities (including all modern powerful personal computers) effectively. Owing to that, the problem is solved without resorting to total reequipment and large investments. How reports are distributed to branch offices In the case that data is either collected at the head office regularly, or the central office receives it by its own channels, the reports for its branches may be generated in the center. This model has two data streams: Original data flows to the center, Ready-made reports are sent to the branch offices from the central office. Reports for the subscribers categories are generated, either on the event of calculation completion or by a scheduler. They are automatically delivered to the departments and branches via any available communication means, such as local network, , intranet, ftp server. Users view reports via universal programs, which don t require new software to be deployed each time new report category is defined. Users work off-line, they stay disconnected from the central database. Their PCs computing power is used if some additional calculations are required. 2

3 Report sale Intersoft Lab Consulting companies, specialized on data collection and processing ha ve their own database, where the data collected is stored. Reports are generated regularly, either daily, monthly or each quarter. They are delivered to the subscribers by or through web site. Interactive Report For corporate reports distribution an interactive report (OLAP-report) idea is offered. We propose to consider OLAP-report a standard corporate report form. Switch to this report form allows banks to abruptly decrease technological expenses on the one hand, and give staff a new kind to work with data on the other. This technology makes the work of manager or specialist especially comfortable. A report, saved to a microcube, opens up instantly, even if it contains hundreds of thousands records. While manipulating data, system response time is not more than a second. That s why the user can perform much iteration in a single session. OLAP-report provides many data manipulation instruments: Fast data filtering Data sorting Data regrouping At that, system instantly calculates intermediate and final totals. User can generalize or get deeper into data with simple operations. The attached diagram is simultaneously synchronized with the table being manipulated. Resulted reports can be printed or exported to office applications, such as Word or Excel. OLAP-report s field of application OLAP-report has its own area of application. Not all kinds of reports can be generated with this technology. The paradigm of OLAP consists in the capability to build table reports with multilevel data aggregation. Those reports always have one and the same regular structure, conformable to certain rules. Because of that OLAP cannot be used to build regulated reports for state institutions. However, this technology allows producing almost all of the integral financial and business reports for internal use or for passing to the stockholders and counteragents. These are such reports as: Balance sheet Cost and profit reports Sales reports Marketing reports Reports on the structure of bank s clients base Reports on clients operations Reports on assets and liabilities Loan portfolio reports Budget reports Reports multi-dimensionality raises their informativity and usefulness for verification as well as for business analysis and decision making support. 3

4 What s a microcube Intersoft Lab Contour Analytical Platform report delivery and information distribution solutions are based on the idea of Contour microcube. Contour Microcube is a multidimensional database. It contains compressed (up to 40 times smaller) data and metadata, describing a number of reports. This allows considering it a mobile container of reports, which can be displayed by universal programs. Microcube can be wired by such protocols as http, ftp and file. That s why it is possible to build flexible delivery schemas. Microcube is loaded by data of a relation database, for example, from a Data Warehouse, directly from a transaction system or from some other data source. Microcube generation time varies from a second to 5 minutes. That is why an ordinary scheduled regeneration is used with microcubes, instead of complicated and expensive incremental data update used in OLAP servers. Microcube is viewed by universal programs. This means that any report saved as Contour microcube can be viewed by a single program without additional software installation; just the same way it is done with Word or Excel. Universal microcube viewers let users work highly interactive. CubeMaker Microcube generation is done with Contour CubeMaker software. It s a command-line utility. It takes a microcube generation script as an input, presented as an XML file, consisting of: Database query, Microcube template link, A list of external query parameters, Master Field a field, each and every unique value of which spawns a separate microcube. CubeMaker does the work in the following way: Ran by scheduler, on event or manually It executes microcube generation XML-script, Receives data from a relation database, Creates microcubes based on specified template, Creates a set of reports for each branch office, Saves the reports in a given folder: o o o In a shared folder on LAN On the web In a folder of a mail robot software Report distribution solutions Depending on a task, different approaches are used for publishing reports saved in Contour microcube format: Publishing reports in the Network. Those reports can be accessed by Central Office staff, and the staff of those departments and branch offices who has access to local network. 4

5 Intersoft Lab Publishing reports on the Web site. The reports are published that way if they are to be viewed by staff of branch offices and all the mobile staff, who can access the Internet when they are in a business trip or working at home. That way is also used for reports exposed to public. Publishing reports on the FTP server. This way is almost the same as previous, except for the fact it utilizes more optimized protocol to transfer data. Distributing reports by . This technology is suitable for public subscribers. It can also be used for branch office staff and for head chiefs, who should receive data regularly or in case of any troubles. Publishing reports in the Network Let s examine an outline, in which microcubes are published on a local network each one in a separate folder intended for a specific group of subscribers. XML script Departments Contour CubeMaker Reports Database Microcube template????????? File server directories This outline uses a microcube generation script which specifies a shared folder on the local network as a destination, which can be accessed by the users. Below is a fragment: <DestMicrocube> e:\sales_department\cubes\sales.cube </DestMicrocube> Cube generator, ran by a scheduler, creates or updates microcubes and saves them in the end user folder. At runtime the program can take additional parameters: C:\CubeMaker.exe sales_script.xcube d curmonth As far as microcube name is permanent throughout the updates various departments users, having set it all up once, produce the reports regularly. They know that data in the microcubes is updated by known regulations. For example, users can save links to single microcubes in the favorites list in Contour OLAPBrowser. They will be able to produce reports regularly by a single click. Using this technology, functionality, very close to real-time, can be reached. This outline is suitable for solutions bounded by a central office only. Staff of various departments can be considered subscribers. Publishing reports on the Web site Let s examine another outline, in which microcubes are published on a web site for end users to be able to view them. 5

6 XML script Intersoft Lab Branches in any city or country Contour CubeMaker Web pages Database Microcube template World wide Mobile users In this outline, microcubes are generated by a script and placed on a site. Links to those cubes are then generated on a site page, e.g. Sales from till now. This link points to the microcube file, for example Any visitor, having Contour OLAPBrowser installed, can click the link and receive a number of interactive reports, contained in the microcube. This outline is suitable for Intranet solutions. Reports subscribers are central office and remote branch offices staff, counteragents and customers all around the world. Distributing reports by The next outline shows how microcubes are generated and sent by . XML script Branches Contour CubeMaker Managers Database Microcube template Mobil users Unlike the previous outline, here we have arbitrary distribution software. In the case that microcube count is small and distribution is done rarely, files can be ed manually. 6

7 Intersoft Lab After receiving the with a microcube attached, recipient clicks the attachment and the report viewer software is started automatically. He now can work with the report, save it, sent to his colleagues and do everything in the same way he does it with an Excel Book. This outline is suitable for selling information to the subscribers as well as passing it to the counteragents and stockholders and distributing inside the organization as a corporate reporting. Interactive report request Let s examine an outline where user, entered a web site page, requests to generate a specific microcube. XML script Script parameters Branches Contour CubeMaker Web pages dialogs Managers Database Microcube template Mobil users A report distribution system can easily be extended by an interactive report request system. A user can enter a web page, type in his and choose some options. Then he clicks the Submit button, after which a web page script chooses one of the predefined microcube generation scripts, e.g. Sales by regions or Sales by quarters and generates the script parameters. Then, microcube generator is run with a given script and parameters. Generated microcube is placed on the branch office, department or user s web page or sent by to the subscriber. Such a technology allows extending the range of produced reports and generating them only by request, not by a scheduler. This outline combines the aforesaid Intranet and distribution solutions. Subscribers are central office and remote branch offices staff, public users. Benefits Offered technology has a number of serious advantages compared to traditional report generation and distribution systems. Technology has the minimal cost, due to the follow facts: Affordable inexpensive software No need for additional servers (OLAP-servers, notification and broadcast servers) No need for continuous m aintenance A minimal traffic, owing to data compression (up to 40 times smaller data) Technology provides rapid deployment. To deploy it the only things to be done are: 7

8 Install microcube generator, consumes no more than several minutes; Intersoft Lab Install the viewer, for example Contour OLAPBrowser, at all the workstations ; Set up scripts and templates for report generation. The most time-consuming operations are report design and settling organizational questions. Technology provides additional features for users convenience: Instant report generation Capability for generating reports of tens of different kinds in a single session Capability for report design with no programming Solutions powered by this technology are indefinitely scalable. This is due to no nee d for installing new servers when the number of users increases. All the work happens at the client side. Case studies Contour s report distribution technology is applied by companies in over 40 countries. Urban Science Today, one of the largest consulting companies in USA Urban Science creates report generation and delivery solutions based on Contour products. Analytical reports on retail sales of customer corporations are generated and published on ten private sites. Customers receive those reports th rough the Internet as Contour microcubes. It is planned that the project will have over users staff of such corporations as Honda, Audi, IBM, Volkswagen and so on Ukrsibbank A very interesting solution is built in one of the leading Ukraine banks Ukrsibbank. Contour Corporation Data Warehouse is daily filled by data from branch offices. All internal reports are generated as microcubes. It is done by scheduler in the Kharkov branch office. Microcubes are made available to other branch offices staff and to bank leaders, residing in the central office in Kiev, via an Intranet. Besides the regular report set, a report request system is also implemented. Associate of Russian banks The site monthly publishes obligatory reports of 800 commercial banks of Russia in Contour microcube format. It s a public site created under the aegis of ARB and with the help of Central Bank of Russia. The reports are available for public viewing. Decision Tree Consulting Decision Tree Consulting, an English consulting company, specializes in electronics market information collection and selling. During last one and a half year marketing research results are 8

9 Intersoft Lab shipped to the customers by in Contour microcube format. Among the customers are Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Toshiba in all, 200 leading electronics makers. Resume In addition to above-listed microcube report delivery solutions there exist other schemas, designed taking into account aspects of certain tasks of existing information infrastructures. Contour Analytical Platform, owing to its module architecture and simplicity, allows building flexible report delivery solutions. 9

10 ContourCube home site: ContourCube (c) 2004 Intersoft Lab Contour CubeMaker (c) 2004 Intersoft Lab Contour OLAPBrowser (c) 2004 Intersoft Lab Intersoft Lab 10