Chapter 3. Reporting – from Excel to Intelligent Data

Microsoft Excel is the most common tool for business reporting and analytics. Despite its excellent capabilities in that role, the final objective of Microsoft Excel is not concerned with its Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities. There is a set of specialized platforms and tools for that purpose, and MicroStrategy is one of the best providers for BI.

Gartner defines BI as:

"Business intelligence (BI) is an umbrella term that includes the applications, infrastructure and tools, and best practices that enable access to and analysis of information to improve and optimize decisions and performance."

In this chapter, we will learn the reporting concepts for data manipulation and their implementation in the MicroStrategy platform in a simple and practical way. Additionally, we will learn how to use the MicroStrategy platform to its maximum strength. At the end, using MicroStrategy will be as easy as using Microsoft Excel. Please keep in mind...