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Discovering Business Intelligence using MicroStrategy 9
Discovering Business Intelligence using MicroStrategy 9

Discovering Business Intelligence using MicroStrategy 9: The MicroStrategy platform can make your Business Intelligence (BI) activities so much more communicative and collaborative. With this book you'll learn the capabilities of the platform and how to use them to revolutionize your BI.

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Discovering Business Intelligence using MicroStrategy 9

Chapter 2. Mapping Typical Business Needs

What is the best way to start to using the MicroStrategy platform? In this chapter will answer that question.

At first, we need to have our business needs clearly identified in order to design the solution to leverage the platform (the response we are looking for, the location of the data, the issue that we need to solve, the person responsible taking decisions with the information, and so on).

But prior to that, we need to understand what a BI solution is. According to Forrester Research:

"Business Intelligence is a set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-making"

When we use this definition, a BI solution also includes technologies such as transactional-source data systems, data transfer process, data repositories, final-user tools, and information distribution and control. But...

Understanding the business needs


Let's assume for a moment that you are the commercial director of a retail chain with a massive growth during the last two years, and we need to identify our top five / bottom five stores in terms of revenue, cash flow, and sales representative's rotation, and totalize the profit, operative and net income, and most importantly, determine what is the rationale for identifying the top and bottom performers.

You need this information as soon as possible as your Regional VP is asking for those reports, and you can't wait for your IT fellows or consultants to deliver the reports because your institutional BI platform is under construction or definition, and you do not have any platform in your company for BI or is already in production but requires several processes, documents, testing, and validation in order to meet your requirement.

The business need is already defined, the question to answer is set by your Regional VP, and you have already enabled the MicroStrategy...

Summary


We understood what a BI solution is and its components. We laid out a strategy to solve a business issue that requires a BI platform. We also loaded our data onto the platform to start designing our reports and dashboards without any IT-support personnel or complex software usage, in a self-service, do-it-yourself approach.

It was similar to accessing our preferred social network or the Internet navigation on our smart TV but is now more business-oriented and focalized to solve a business issue and makes better decisions to leverage Cloud-innovative solutions, such as MicroStrategy.

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Key benefits

  • Understand the value proposition of MicroStrategy and their products portfolio
  • Design and build BI reports and dashboards with real business examples
  • Share your reports in a secure schema, including mobile devices

Description

Business Intelligence is a type of technology that has been proven to support business decisions in an organization. MicroStrategy 9 is a fully-integrated BI platform that makes Business Intelligence faster, easier, and more user-friendly. It enables businesses to generate their own reports and dashboards without the need for technical knowledge.This practical, hands-on guide will provide Business Intelligence for executives, as well as enable BI reports and dashboards without the dependency of IT savvy personnel. It will allow you to design, build, and share business relevant data in hours, in a secure way, including mobile devices and show you how to leverage your transactional information.This example-oriented book looks at the value proposition of cloud computing and the MicroStrategy platform, and features practical exercises for BI reports and dashboard enablement, including the design phase and best practices for when we design a BI report.The book begins with an exploration of MicroStrategy along with typical business needs. Our focus then shifts to best practices for BI reports and dashboard definitions from the functional stand point, with easy-to-do exercises that will allow you to enable the reports in the platform. You will learn about scorecards and dashboards, along with sharing the reports. Next, you will get acquainted with cloud-based services provided by the MicroStrategy platform. By the end of this book, you will able to design, enable, and share BI reports and dashboards without the need for comprehensive technical knowledge, and leverage the latest technology on the market.

Who is this book for?

If you are a BI developer who would like to use MicroStrategy to build BI apps, this book is ideal for you. This book is also for mid-management executives who need to analyze data and Excel files that are too complicated to manage. A basic concept of BI is assumed.

What you will learn

  • Understand and apply best practices for BI reports and dashboard design
  • Enable the MicroStrategy platform
  • Leverage transactional data for your BI reports and dashboards
  • Design reports and dashboards independently
  • Apply advanced features to your reports
  • Secure your data and enable collaboration
  • Automate your reports
  • Explore the complete portfolio of MicroStrategy
  •  

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Dec 24, 2013
Length: 142 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782170044
Vendor :
MicroStrategy, Inc.
Category :

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Product Details

Publication date : Dec 24, 2013
Length: 142 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781782170044
Vendor :
MicroStrategy, Inc.
Category :

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Frequently bought together


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Total $ 154.97
Discovering Business Intelligence using MicroStrategy 9
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Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy Cookbook
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Practical Data Analysis
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Table of Contents

7 Chapters
The Value Proposition of MicroStrategy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Mapping Typical Business Needs Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Reporting – from Excel to Intelligent Data Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Scorecards and Dashboards – Information Visualization Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Sharing Your BI Reports and Dashboards Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
MicroStrategy and the Cloud Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
BI Reports at Your Hands Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
(3 Ratings)
5 star 66.7%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 33.3%
1 star 0%
AB Mar 16, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Discovering Business Intelligence using MicroStrategy 9 is one of the few books available on MicroStrategy (outside of the product manuals) and gives a clear Insight into the visualization/cloud based features of MicroStrategy. The authors, without getting in depth into technical or architectural details have basically covered all the critical features of the product that are beneficial to the end business users or beginners. The book is well organized with appropriate screenshots and will be extremely useful as a quick reference / do it yourself handbook.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Andres Mar 20, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book offers a clear and fast insight on how to start building sophisticated dashboards and reports using the MicroStrategy platform, I have used the platform extensively for C-level dashboards and it’s refreshing to see a book that can jumpstart the effort so users can start generating value instead of getting bogged-down in technical details. I would recommend this book to any new users who want to quickly build great-looking dashboards using the MicroStrategy platform.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Ben Davis Oct 20, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
This book is just a rehash of the MicroStrategy courses (Many of which are free). If you are a new user I guess this is helpful but if you have worked with MicroStrategy for more than a year this is a waste of money.I also ordered "Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy Cookbook" and give it one star.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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