It works that way because it's organized that way, not because it's SQL. You can do the same thing with U2.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Boydell, Stuart Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 10:42 PM To: U2 Users List Subject: Re: [U2] [UV] Essbase or other BI While I completely agree that U2 is totally flexible and easy to interface with - even though U2 is multidimensional it is not an OLAP or BI system. BI solutions are specifically designed to crunch data into a form that will return (usually aggregated) answers across millions of rows in milliseconds. ie What were sales figures for New South Wales in December, for 2007,2008 & 2009? A user on our BI system (MS SSAS) can drag & drop that query and have it answered in a few seconds. The user can add and change filters and parameters on the fly (which categories performed, how much is still outstanding) and the cube will respond instantly. Much of this speed is due to several hours nightly processing which pre-builds the data into optimised aggregates. But it is also the fact that the DBMS itself is highly optimised for the task of data analysis. I just don't think you'd get the RIGHT performance from U2 if you tried to replicate what the BI systems do - U2 is designed for more generalised information and reporting (pun intended). Cheers, Stuart Boydell -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tony Gravagno Sent: Thursday, 4 March 2010 12:16 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [U2] [UV] Essbase or other BI > From: Brian F. Paige > 1. Does Essbase integrate with U2? As I've mentioned in my blog and in forums, U2 can connect to anything - don't let anyone convince you otherwise. One of the biggest things holding the MV market back is that even people who use and love the platform have an overwhelming tendency to wonder whether the system can actually do things that are advertised elsewhere. Sure it can! The primary concern for integrating U2 to anything else is how fast you need transaction data reflected in the new environment. That determines whether an interface will be online, offline, or near-line, and that narrows down your selection of tools to be used for integration. For anyone who's curious, here's info on Essbase: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essbase Side note: What's more interesting to me is how this is defined emphatically as "a multidimensional database management system (MDBMS)", and this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multidimensional_database simply redirects to Online Analytical Processing unless you stop it from doing so. (MV Marketing people should get some clues here... the rest of the world equates MultiDimensional to OLAP while most people in our market don't use the term OLAP in relation to their MV/MD DBMS.) Anyway ... what I get from wikipedia is that Essbase really is nothing more than a database, novel to relational folks but nothing unusual to us. So Essbase Analytics is a pretty GUI on top of a system just like what you have now, just marketed as something special. (Perhaps MV Marketing people will find another clue there.) The important thing is not Essbase itself, but what the pretty GUI provides. And that leads us to an evaluation of functionality... > 2. What other packages are out there that would be comparable? What I recommend is that you define specific goals for reporting and then decide if you need extended reporting tools or if you need Business Intelligence. For MV-centric tools you'll find products like MITS from MITS, Informer from Entrinsik, Velocity from Tantiva, DeepSee from InterSystems, and Viságe from Stamina. Some of these are for BI and others reporting... In addition to the more common mainstream offerings, many people like Jasper Reports, but (arguably) that's not BI. I have been very impressed by ClickView and some of our colleagues are integrating MV with it. I'd welcome an opportunity to do so as well. You may also get what you need using off-the shelf development tools like Telerik Reporting (for less than 1k plus development time compared to 50-100k just to start working with some of the others). You'll find many discussions on reporting and BI in the archive for this forum, and in comp.databases.pick. Here is a link to one such thread: http://tinyurl.com/ydx52rd Google using query: group:comp.databases.pick and terms like mits, entrinsik, reporting, etc. Example: group:comp.databases.pick mits group:comp.databases.pick reporting HTH BTW, I used to contract for Serta Corporate back in the early 90's when they were running on Microdata. Fond memories... Tony Gravagno Nebula Research and Development TG@ remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com Nebula R&D provides Pick/MultiValue products worldwide, and provides related development services remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/blog Visit PickWiki.com! Contribute! http://Twitter.com/TonyGravagno _______________________________________________ U2-Users mailing list [email protected] http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users ****************************************************************************************************** This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of addressed recipient(s). If you have received this communication in error, please reply to this e-mail to notify the sender of its incorrect delivery and then delete it and your reply. It is your responsibility to check this email and any attachments for viruses and defects before opening or sending them on. Spotless collects information about you to provide and market our services. 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