Microstrategy Technical Questions

Technical

What are the minimum requirements for Microstrategy Desktop?
Minimum requirements are a computer with at least a 450MHZ Pentium- compatible CPU, 256MB of RAM and 500MB of hard disk.

Is Microstrategy Desktop available in other languages?
Microstrategy Desktop is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Italian, Swedish, Japanese and Portuguese.

How long does it take to get Microstrategy Desktop up and running?
Microstrategy Desktop installs in minutes and automatically presents a list of available Microstrategy Intelligence Servers. Within an hour, the installation and setup are completed.

How does Microstrategy Desktop integrate with the rest of the Microstrategy platform?
Microstrategy Desktop is the intuitive client-server interface used by business analysts and application developers. Microstrategy Desktop interacts with the Intelligence Server to build metrics, create and format reports, and retrieve timely, accurate information to the desktop to enhance the decision-making process.

What security is provided with Microstrategy Desktop?
Microstrategy Desktop provides a host of security options to ensure that data is kept confidential and private. To facilitate easy deployment and minimal maintenance, Microstrategy Desktop integrates with Windows NT and 2000 security and with Novell directory. As a result, users who have logged into these systems will not need to log on again.

To what extend can Microstrategy Desktop be personalized?
Each Microstrategy Desktop user has a security profile defined by their administrator. This profile controls access to application functionality, specific reports or particular data for individual users or groups of users. The Desktop interface will adapt and display only what this user is allowed to see.

Is the Microstrategy MDX engine certified by SAP?
Yes. This new Dynamic MDX Engine generates optimized MDX syntax that is fully certified with SAP BW using SAP's high performance BAPI interfaces.

Can users join data across SAP BW Info Cubes and Query Cubes?
Yes. Users can use Microstrategy Desktop to create reports that access SAP data and join data across SAP BW Info Cubes and Query Cubes as well as access multiple instances of SAP BW at once.

Can Microstrategy Desktop join data across heterogeneous data sources?
Yes. Microstrategy 8 extends the Microstrategy data modeling flexibility to include integrated views of data across heterogeneous data stores. By mapping conforming dimensions from different sources, Microstrategy Desktop can automatically join data from multiple different sources in the same report document. Data can come from any source accessible by Microstrategy 8, including the data warehouse, data marts, SAP BW, and any number of operational system databases

Does Microstrategy provide predictive modeling capabilities commonly available in data mining tools?
Yes. Microstrategy 8 can calculate four of the primary data mining functions including neural network algorithms, clustering algorithms, regression algorithms, and tree algorithms.

Can Microstrategy incorporate best-of-breed data mining insight into mainstream business reports and analysis?
Yes. Microstrategy 8 has extended its analytic engine with "Data Mining Services" capability that allows reports and analyses to include predictive capabilities in every Microstrategy report or analysis. Microstrategy 8 includes the new ability to import data mining models directly from best-of-breed data mining products from vendors like IBM, Teradata, SAS, and SPSS using the new PMML or predictive modeling mark-up language standard.

Can Microstrategy Desktop export data to other software applications?
You can export information from Microstrategy Desktop to text files, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access and HTML files. The formatting of the tables and data are preserved when you export to these file formats.

What data sources does Microstrategy Desktop support?
You can access data in all the major databases including Oracle, IBM DB2, Informix, NCR Teradata, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, Red Brick, Sybase and Non-Stop SQL.
To save time, can many reports be run at the same time?
Microstrategy Desktop can execute multiple reports simultaneously. Report results are saved in a personal History folder when ready.

Can reports be executed in off-peak periods?
Reports can be attached to time-based or event-based schedules that are defined by the administrator. These schedules automatically trigger the report execution and place a notification message in the History folder on completion.

What is Microstrategy OLAP Services?
Microstrategy OLAP Services is an extension to Microstrategy Intelligence Server that allows Microstrategy Web and Desktop users to manipulate Intelligent Cubes™. With OLAP Services end users can add or remove report objects, add derived metrics and modify the filter -- all with speed-of-thought response time against Intelligent Cubes. OLAP Services enables full multi-dimensional OLAP analysis within Intelligent Cubes, while retaining users' ability to seamlessly drill through to the full breadth and depth of the data warehouse.

What are the Intelligent Cubes used by OLAP Services?
Intelligent Cubes are user or administrator created multi-dimensional cubes that operate within Microstrategy Intelligence Server™. On Microstrategy's BI platform, creating an Intelligent Cube is as easy as creating a report. Intelligent Cubes enable Microstrategy to combine the speed and interactivity of multi-dimensional OLAP analysis and the analytical power and depth of relational OLAP.

What specific features and functionality do I get with OLAP Services?
With OLAP Services Microstrategy Web, Desktop and Office users can:
• Create unique report views based off an Intelligent Cube.
With OLAP Services, users can create unique report views by adding or removing attributes and metrics contained within the Intelligent Cube. This allows speed-of-thought report creation and modification with no need to extract data from the data warehouse.
• Create new on-the-fly metric calculations from existing metrics in an Intelligent Cube.
The new calculation is performed without submitting a new request to the data warehouse.
• Filter their view of the data within an Intelligent Cube.

The filtering will be performed on Microstrategy Intelligence Server within the Intelligent Cube.
How are Intelligent Cubes different from ordinary cubes?
Intelligent Cubes are created automatically when a new report is run against the data warehouse. Subsequent requests by other users can seamlessly hit this new Intelligent Cube. The logic to match user requests with the appropriate Intelligent Cube is automatically handled within the Microstrategy platform. Users don't have to specify the cube to which they want to connect.
Benefits of Intelligent Cubes include:
• Greater Efficiency - Intelligent Cubes are automatically generated and shared among all users whenever a report is executed by a user or pre-cached by the administrator or a user.
• Easy to Use - Intelligent Cubes can be designed by mainstream BI users, using the same interface and the same operations as are used with basic OLAP analysis.
• More Scalable Cubes - Intelligent Cubes do not need massive pre-calculations or pre-aggregations. The mid-tier Intelligence Server can do these calculations on-the-fly as the cubes are being used.
• Increased Manageability and Reliability - Intelligent Cubes can be configured to expire or refresh automatically whenever underlying data or definitions change.
• Increased Power for End-Users - Users can seamlessly drill through to the full depth of the data warehouse, or slice and dice with speed-of-thought response time within the Intelligent Cube.

What end user products leverage OLAP Services?
Microstrategy Web (Analyst and Professional versions), Microstrategy Desktop (Analyst and Designer versions) and Microstrategy Office all leverage the functionality enabled by OLAP Services.

What does an end-user need to do to take advantage of this?
The usage of OLAP Services is transparent to end-users. Users do not need to know the name and location of an Intelligent Cube, or even if it exists. OLAP Services works with Microstrategy Intelligence Server to automatically use the appropriate Intelligent Cube or create a new one to satisfy the end user request.

How is security handled?
Intelligent Cubes used by OLAP Services automatically inherit all of the security provisions of every report object used within the Intelligent Cube, and those provisions are dynamically applied to each user's security profile when the cube is accessed. If a user only has privileges to use four of the five metrics contained in an Intelligent Cube, that restriction will automatically and seamlessly apply when the user accesses the Intelligent Cube. The user will still have access to the Intelligent Cube for the four metrics he or she has privileges to use.

Can I access Intelligent Cubes without OLAP Services?
Yes, with the appropriate version of Microstrategy Web or Desktop, certain functions leverage the Intelligent Cubes. These functions include: report formatting down to cell level, column aliasing, drilling, pivoting, page-by, adding metric thresholds, adding subtotals, ranking and sorting. Please see the Web and Desktop version comparisons to determine exactly which Web or Desktop version includes the desired functionality.

Is OLAP Services sold as a separate product?
Yes, OLAP Services is sold as a separate product that is installed with Microstrategy Intelligence Server. It is licensed either on a per-user or per-CPU basis.

What is Microstrategy Narrowcast Server?
Microstrategy Narrowcast Server is a software product that monitors and delivers individualized information to users via email, web portals, and wireless devices such as PDAs, pagers, and phones. Through a easy-to-use web page, users specify what information they want, when and how they want to receive it.

What are the business benefits of Microstrategy Narrowcast Server?
Microstrategy Narrowcast Server provides an easy and inexpensive way to send corporate information to untrained employees, partners, and customers. As a result, decision-makers have the information they need to maximize revenue generation and streamline business processes that cut operating costs.

What kinds of applications can Microstrategy Narrowcast Server support?
Microstrategy Narrowcast Server supports: enterprise reporting applications, executive information portals, corporate information dissemination, sale force automation, working capital management, supply chain management, extranet portals, secure business to business portals, customer service applications, and intelligent alerting applications.

Why do businesses need to send information out to users proactively?
People do not have time to search through information to identify information that requires immediate action. An intelligent alerting system understands and constantly monitors the information users need, and delivers information only when users need it. Users save time and take action when required.

How do current Microstrategy Narrowcast Server customers use Intelligent Alerting?
Customers use Microstrategy Narrowcast Server to deliver inventory alerts, business performance alerts, supply chain alerts, customer activity alerts, stock and personal finance alerts, last minute travel alerts, data load alerts, customer account activity alerts, and fraud alerts. New uses are constantly being developed for intelligent alerting.

How do users receive only information that they want?
Through an easy-to-use subscription web page, users specify what information they want. Some personalization options include the language choices and specific information criteria such as certain products. Using this user profile, Microstrategy Narrowcast Server sends only the information that the user has requested.

Can users turn off the information delivery?
Yes, users can switch on and off their own information delivery. Administrators can also set up some ‘non-optional’ information delivery so that everyone receives the information. As a result, users can obtain information without having to wait for IT to develop the reports.

What kinds of information can users receive?
Users can receive both tables and charts from the Microstrategy platform, and content from current information sources such as transaction processing systems, Enterprise Resource Planning systems, databases, XML files, and web servers.
What formatting can be applied to the information that is sent out by Microstrategy Narrowcast Server?
Information can be formatted into HTML, plain text, Microsoft® Excel, or PDF files. The size and display of these files are adjusted to suit the email type or the wireless device for different users.

To which devices can Microstrategy Narrowcast Server deliver information?
Narrowcast Server can deliver information to email, mobile phones, pagers, faxes, PDAs, intranet and extranet web portals. Businesses can also build and plug in their own Information Transmission Module to support their own devices.
How does the Microstrategy Narrowcast Server support enterprise wide mission critical applications?
Microstrategy Narrowcast Server's world-class clustering and fail-over ensures support for mission-critical 24x7 systems. Rigorous in-house testing has proven that Narrowcast Server can personalize and deliver millions of messages a day. The system tracks fail-over down to each message.

What are the Hardware requirements for Microstrategy Narrowcast Server?
The following minimum hardware requirements are recommended for installing all Narrowcast Server components on one machine:

Requirement Minimum Recommended
Processor 300MHz Pentium or equivalent
Memory 512MB RAM
Storage 1GB Free disk space

What are certified system configurations for Microstrategy Narrowcast Server?
Microstrategy Narrowcast Server is certified to run on Windows NT 4.0 and higher, and Windows 2000 SP1 and SP2.

What languages does Microstrategy Narrowcast Server support?
The following languages are supported by Microstrategy Narrowcast Server: English (US), Spanish, German, French, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Swedish, Portuguese (Brazilian). Microstrategy Narrowcast Server also allows organizations to quickly add support for other languages.
What web browsers will work with the Microstrategy Narrowcast Server?
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 and higher
• Netscape Navigator 4.0 and higher

Can Microstrategy Narrowcast Server functionality be incorporated into other applications?
Microstrategy Narrowcast Server can be integrated into any application in order to incorporate proactive information delivery functionality. Through a Software Development Kit that includes sample code, businesses can easily add new information sources, file formats, devices and email types.

How long does it take to set up Microstrategy Narrowcast Server?
Microstrategy Narrowcast Server installs in minutes, and automatically presents a wizard to help administrators through the setup. Within an hour, the installation and setup are completed.

What is Microstrategy Administrator?
Microstrategy Administrator™ is a powerful suite of applications that gives you a complete environment for developing, deploying, monitoring, and maintaining small-, medium-, and enterprise-scale systems.

What does Microstrategy Administrator allow administrators to do?
Microstrategy Administrator lets system administrators manage and administer a business intelligence environment, at low cost and risk, quickly and efficiently.

What are the benefits of using Microstrategy Administrator?
System Administrators gain accurate information regarding system usage and performance, and can tune the business intelligence environment based on this insight. Full life cycle project management, from development, through test, to production systems, is made possible in an easy-to-use interface.

Does Microstrategy Administrator contain more than one application?
Yes. Microstrategy Administrator contains three applications to cater for different administrative aspects. They are:
• Enterprise Manager, which gives important insight into system usage that can be used to optimize performance
• Object Manager, which provides full life-cycle project management for business intelligence applications
• Command Manager, which enables easy system administration using text-based commands and scripts

Do I pay for these applications separately?
No. The price you pay for Microstrategy Administrator includes all three applications.

How long does it take to get Microstrategy Administrator up and running?
Microstrategy Administrator installs in minutes, and automatically presents a list of available Microstrategy Intelligence Servers. Within an hour, the installation and setup are completed.
How does Microstrategy Administrator integrate with the rest of the Microstrategy platform?
Microstrategy Administrator contains user-friendly graphical interfaces and command line capabilities that centrally maintain any number of remote business intelligence environments. All the Microstrategy Administrator applications utilize Microstrategy Intelligence Server fully; no connections to the database are needed on administrator machines.