Mastering Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy

By Ning Ma, Himani Rana and Dmitry Anoshin

About This Book

• Fix the gap between BI tools and implementation/integration processes with big data and predictive analytics using this comprehensive guide to MicroStrategy 10
• Highly practical, example-rich guide that lets you implement business intelligence with MicroStrategy 10 in your organization
• Create the best user experience with BI dashboards using MicroStrategy using this up-to-date, comprehensive guide

Who This Book Is For

This book is intended for BI, DWH, and ETL developers, BI, DWH, and Analytics managers, analysts, and business users who already have MicroStrategy in their organization and want to take it to the next level in order to increase performance and improve user experience. In addition, it helps the reader to migrate from MicroStrategy 9 to MicroStrategy 10 and to start using the new functionality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Release date: Jul 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781785886263

Book preview

Table of Contents

Mastering Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why subscribe?

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Getting Started with MicroStrategy

Modern BI

BI market

Maturity level of the organization

BI project life cycle

Meet MicroStrategy 10

MicroStrategy 10 education and certification

History of MicroStrategy

Deploying MicroStrategy 10

Overview of training architecture

Creating a Red Hat Linux virtual machine

Performing prerequisites for MicroStrategy 10

Installing MicroStrategy 10 Intelligence Server

Installation process

Configuring Intelligence Server

Installing a PostgreSQL database

Creating a metadata database

Creating a metadata data source

Creating metadata tables

Installation of MicroStrategy Web

Web application server installation

Deploying WAR files

Creating a network

Installing MicroStrategy 10 tools

Installing Oracle database

Deploying data in Oracle database

BI tips

BI skills

BI users' development

BI portal

Summary

2. Setting Up an Analytics Semantic Layer and Public Objects

BI architecture

Components of BI architecture

The project design process

Logical data model design

Data warehouse schema design

Project creation in MicroStrategy architecture

Creating a data source

Creating a project

Using the project creation assistant

Using MicroStrategy Architect

Creating schema objects

Managing project schema

Schema objects

Attributes

Attribute types

Attribute form expression types

General attribute example

Creating an attribute from Architect

Creating an attribute from the Desktop

Facts

Fact types

Fact expression types

SQL representation

Creating a fact from Architect

Creating a fact from the Desktop

Hierarchies

Example

Creating a user hierarchy and attribute relationships

Creating a user hierarchy and attribute relationships from Architect

Creating a user hierarchy and attribute relationships from Desktop

Public objects

Metrics

Types of metric

Creating metrics

Prompts

Example of creating an Object prompt

Filters

Create a standalone filter

Filter operators

Example of how these filters are used

SQL based on report filter

Summary

3. Building Advanced Reports and Documents

Advanced reporting components

Custom groups

Creating a custom group

Custom group examples

Custom group SQL

Custom group display options

Custom group interaction with report filters

Consolidation

Consolidation elements

Creating consolidations

Consolidation examples

SQL based on consolidation

Consolidation and custom group comparison

Transformations

Building a transformation

Transformation components

Drill maps

Freeform SQL

Creating a Freeform SQL report

Freeform SQL features

Prompt

Security filters

Intelligent cube

Enabling and disabling intelligent cube usage

Advanced reports

Creating and adding data to the document

Document controls

Moving towards a dashboard

Linking reports and documents

Summary

4. Advanced Visualization Techniques

Dashboard style document

Panels

Filter panel

Selectors

Types of selector

Basic visualization (graphs)

One attribute, one metric - Vertical Line - Absolute graph

One attribute, two metrics - Budgeting

One attribute, three metrics - Bubble chart

One attribute, four metrics - Stock: Hi-Lo-Open-Close

One attribute, five metrics - Boxplot

Complex graph - Gantt

Widgets

Date selection widget

Graph matrix widgets

Heat map widget

Map widget

Network widgets

Survey widget

Timeline widget

Visual insight

Adding additional visualizations

MicroStrategy and ESRI map integration

Creating reports in MicroStrategy for Geo-based analysis

MicroStrategy and Google Maps integration

Summary

5. Customization of MicroStrategy

Before we start

What is SDK

Where to get documentations and resources

Overview of Web SDK

MicroStrategy Web architecture

MicroStrategy plugin architecture

Deploying SDK and configuring WCE in Linux

Installing SDK and configuring WCE in Windows

Best practices for customizations and upgrades

Customization pages

Web Beans

Applications of Web Beans

Customizing MicroStrategy styles with CSS

Applications of CSS customization

Adding advanced visualization with SDK

Installing Visualization SDK

Introduction to Visualization Builder

Application of Visualization Builder

Overview of advanced web customization with MicroStrategy API

Overview of Mobile SDK

Mobile SDK for iOS

Mobile SDK for Android

Application of Mobile SDK – Rebranding

Set up the MicroStrategy Mobile project

Rebranding the application

Summary

6. Predictive Analysis with MicroStrategy

Predictive analysis in MicroStrategy 10

Licensing requirements

Native analytical functions in MicroStrategy 10

Integrating R with MicroStrategy

Installing R

Installing R Integration Pack

Creating a neural network model in R and exporting it as a PMML file

Data mining overview

Purpose of data mining

Limitations of data mining

Terminologies

Target variable, explanatory variable

Continuous variable, categorical variable

Training, validation, modeling

Supervised learning, unsupervised learning

Classification, prediction

Data mining techniques

Four steps to achieve data mining in MicroStrategy

Creating a dataset

Selecting variables

Developing the model

Creating a validation report

Deploying the model

Business applications of predictive analysis

Forecasting quarterly revenues using linear regression and exponential regression with seasonality

Forecasting quarterly revenues for different regions using tree regression analysis

Forecasting monthly revenues using time series analysis

Telco churn analysis using classification

Telco churn analysis using decision tree

Telco churn analysis using logistic regression

Automating the predictive mechanism

Summary

7. Accelerating Your Business with Mobile Analytics

Before we start

Mobile Server

Mobile Client

Mobile Server installation and configuration

Creating a mobile application

Determine business goals

Storyboarding and planning

Creating an iPad Landscape template

Unhide document templates

Creating templates

Dataset creation

Panel stack and panels for Sales Performance App

Creating a Home page for Sales Performance App

Creating a profit pie chart for Home

Creating a revenue time series graph for Home

Creating KPI for Home

Creating a top 5 units sold bar chart for Home

Creating a Product page for Sales Performance App

Creating a Region page for Sales Performance App

Creating a Trend page for Sales Performance App

Creating a Customer page for Sales Performance App

Prompts in mobile applications

Views in mobile applications

Linking

Best practices

Dedicated vs unified design

Purpose, audience, and prototype

Extending mobile capabilities

Transaction services

Mobile SDK

Deployment

Summary

8. Data Discovery with MicroStrategy Desktop

Meet MicroStrategy Desktop

MicroStrategy Desktop interface

Building ad hoc schemas

Data mashup of Oracle and flat files

Data profiling of geography data

Building a dashboard

Line charts

Area charts

Bar charts

Bubble charts

Publishing the dashboard

Performing Pareto analysis

Performing cohort analysis

Deploying D3 visualization

Desktop versus Tableau

Summary

9. MicroStrategy System Administration

Managing MicroStrategy platform

Monitoring MicroStrategy

Deploying Enterprise Manager and collecting statistics

Project life cycle with Object Manager

Integrity Manager overview

System Manager overview

Activating Change Journal

Summary

10. Design and Implementation of the Security Model

MicroStrategy security overview

Users and groups

Privileges and security roles

Row-level security

MicroStrategy objects permission

Security design

Security model deployment

Building an advanced security model

Summary

11. Big Data Analytics with MicroStrategy

Hadoop and MicroStrategy

Hadoop architecture

MicroStrategy Analytics Platform over Hadoop

Hadoop and MicroStrategy use cases

Example of log file analysis in a Hadoop system

Configuring Hortonworks and MicroStrategy

Connecting Hortonworks with MicroStrategy

Setting up an ODBC connector

Setting up a MicroStrategy environment

Design your first Hadoop dashboard

Data wrangling

Splunk and MicroStrategy

What is Splunk

Splunk architecture

Splunk and MicroStrategy use cases

Deploying Splunk

Installing the Splunk ODBC driver

Creating reports from Splunk

Summary

12. MicroStrategy Troubleshooting

Meeting the MicroStrategy Community

Setting up MicroStrategy Health Center

Discovering MicroStrategy logs

How the DSSErrors file works

Overview of the MicroStrategy Diagnostics and Performance Logging tool

Contacting MicroStrategy Support

Exploring problems with security

Discovering data discrepancy issues

Summary

Mastering Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy

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Mastering Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy

Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: July 2016

Production reference: 1250716

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

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Birmingham

B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78588-440-5

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Credits

About the Authors

Dmitry Anoshin is a data-centric technologist and a recognized expert in building and implementing business/digital analytics solutions. He has a successful track record when it comes to implementing business and digital intelligence projects in numerous industries, including retail, finance, marketing, and e-commerce. Dmitry possesses in-depth knowledge of digital/Business Intelligence, ETL, data warehousing, and big data technologies. He has extensive experience in the data integration process and is proficient at using various data warehousing methodologies. Dmitry constantly exceeds project expectations when he works for financial, machine tool, and retail industries. He has completed a number of multinational full BI/DI solution life cycle implementation projects. With expertise in data modeling, Dmitry also has a background and business experience in multiple relation databases, OLAP systems, and NoSQL databases. He has a technical blog at http://techbusinessintelligence.blogspot.ru/ and publishes his presentations at http://www.slideshare.net/dimoobraznii. In addition, he has written books for Packt Publishing, SAP Lumira Essentials and Learning Hunk. In addition, he reviewed the following books for Packt Publishing: SAP BusinessObjects Reporting Cookbook, Creating Universes with SAP BusinessObjects, and Learning SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards.

For my beautiful wife Svetlana, for my son Vasily, who is a champion of everything, and my daughter Anna, who is a little princess. Thank you for support. I love you! 

Himani Rana is a senior data scientist and has been working as database developer and MicroStrategy specialist for multinational companies since 2007. She is currently pursuing her PhD in data mining and big data. She completed her master's in data mining and vehicular ad hoc networks. She has to her credit the following publication: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6557928. Himani possesses in-depth knowledge of Business Intelligence and big data technologies. She specializes in insurance and financial data analysis because of her Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) designation. In addition, she was a committee member and reviewer of Information Systems, Technology and Management (http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783642291654) and 2011 Third International Conference on Advanced Computing (ICoAC) (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6156880).

I would like to thank four pillars of my life: my father (V.K. Rana), my mother (Usha Rana), my husband (Rahul Jaswal) and my daughter (Samaira Jaswal), for their love and support. Also, I would like to thank everyone who helped me in completing this work.

Ning Ma is an experienced data analyst working in an insurance company. He is experienced with statistical modeling, creating executive dashboards, fraud detection, text mining and teaching. He is also knowledgeable about implementing predictive analysis in MicroStrategy.  He enjoys helping business users discovering knowledge from data, by visualizing data patterns and testing hypotheses. He is passionate about producing easy-to-use data products to support business decision making. Prior to his current position, he worked in China doing IT and investment jobs.  He did his computer science and economics undergraduate studies in Beijing, economics and finance graduate studies in Canada, and did research on quantitative finance in Canada. In his free time, he loves reading, electronic arts, and all kinds of outdoor activities.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Karen Kramer, who opened the door of MicroStrategy for me, and funded my advanced training programs. I am deeply in debt to Charlene Harris and Heather Morrison for teaching me applied MicroStrategy skills. I am also grateful to Neil Mehta for assembling the team together. I thank Dmitry Anoshin for being a great team leader, and a whip. I also thank Himani Jaswal for her help, Riddhi Tuljapurkar and Pranav Kukreti for giving me comments and for their amazing patience.

About the Reviewer

Felipe Vilela has worked for many years with system development, and then started working with BI/DW mainly using MicroStrategy. He worked with many companies in Brazil and the United States, implementing MicroStrategy projects, customizing and administrating the tool. He taught BI/DW and MicroStrategy to many companies using the company’s courses and MicroStrategy’s official courses. He also has a blog (www.vilelamstr.com) and is a guru in the MicroStrategy official community, Guru. He was one of the developers of MicroStrategy’s official app for MicroStrategy World 2016 Miami and he has the MicroStrategy’s MCEP certification.

First, I would like to thank God, who is my father and savior; my wife, who I love so much; my family, who are always there for me; and my friends.

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Preface

According to Forrester and Gartner, MicroStrategy is one of the leaders in the Enterprise Business Intelligence (BI) market. MicroStrategy constantly improves their BI product in order to meet the requirements of all sizes of businesses, from small businesses or startups and to worldwide international companies.

MicroStrategy 10 is an absolutely new product and has lots of new capabilities. It allows companies to quickly analyze their data and find business insights. It has rich functionality for all kinds of users, such as powerful desktop clients, in-memory technologies, and great visualizations capabilities. In addition, it supports modern trends of machine learning and data science because it can be integrated with analytical vendors such as SAS and IBM, and open source technologies, such as R and Python. Moreover, it allows us to use extended visualization libraries such as D3.js and others in order to create dashboards with the best user experience ever. In addition, MicroStrategy is a leader in mobile analytics, and offers the best solutions for mobile devices. Finally, MicroStrategy 10 was designed specifically for working with big data and big data technologies.

This book will be focusing on providing an extensive guide to plan how to design and develop complex BI architecture for real-world scenarios using MicroStrategy 10, best practices, and collected experience working with BI, predictive analytics, MicroStrategy, and big data.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with MicroStrategy, will talk about how to download and install MicroStrategy Analytics Enterprise as well as create a MicroStrategy repository. Moreover, the reader will learn about the various components of MicroStrategy as well as learn MicroStrategy architecture. In addition, the reader will meet the analytics project life cycle. Finally, the reader will learn about real-world business scenarios and deploy data marts in local databases.

Chapter 2, Setting Up an Analytics Semantic Layer and Public Objects, covers schema design; schema objects such as attributes, hierarchies, facts, and displays; and the parent-child relationship between these attributes. It will also cover public objects such as metrics, prompts, and filters, which are important in creating reports.

Chapter 3, Building Advanced Reports and Documents, explains the design of reports, documents, and interactive dashboards. It discusses advanced techniques such as creating banding and other custom groups using year-to-date or month-to-date transformations, and creating virtual attributes using consolidations.

Chapter 4, Advanced Visualization Techniques, covers graphical techniques of presenting data for analysis using maps, graphs, and advanced charts. Also, we will discuss integrating third-party ESRI map tools with MicroStrategy to create geo-based reports.

Chapter 5, Customization of MicroStrategy, will provide information about the MicroStrategy SDK and how to use it in order to customize the web interface or