We currently have a number of SSAS 2000 physical cubes and a single KPI
virtual cube that our finance department reports from. A colleague is
prototyping a new approach in SSAS 2005 and I’m looking for some feedback.

Please see http://www.dailyware.com/SSAS2005Design.jpg for a high level
overview. The lines in red illustrate custom .Net applications that push
aggregated data from cubes to some other reporting source (SQL tables, XML?)
that our finance department will report from.

Thought that come to my mind include: many points of failure, significant
custom development required, none-mainstream, high maintenance cost….

Thanks,
Gary

Hi Gary.

One thought that immediately comes to mind concerns everything to their
right of the cubes. You ~could~ accomplish the same thing with a tool like
Business Scorecard which would alleviate the need for the custom apps.

You could also consolidate the KPIs into a cube and report from that (either
custom reports with tools like RS or analysis books with tools like Pro
Clarity). What specifically does the business user need?

-Tim

"GaryV" <GaryV (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote

Agreed...this model could put us in a position where we're unable to leverage
many tools coming out later this year.

Today users connect to a single KPI virtual cube (replace KPI Report Data
with KPI Virtual cube in the attached document) and publish a static PDF
files monthly. They have a requirement to continue publishing a static PDF
file but also provide users with the abilitiy to drill into the data. I'm
not sure how well the model supports drill through???


"Tim Dot NoSpam" wrote:

Are you talking drillthrough from the "KPI cube" to the underlying cubes?

"GaryV" <GaryV (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote

Let me ask another question....do you consider the attached design to be very
non-mainstream and difficult to support?

"GaryV" wrote:

Everything to the right of the cube consumers is semi-suspect, but this is
considered the "Kimball" approach; a data warehouse with subject area data
marts stemming from it.

I question the need for custom .NET apps though with so many tools available
for pre-built and ad hoc analysis. What is the need for the custom apps?
Are they "assembly" containers for the visualisations or are they used more
as transport mechanisms to push the data to satellite business users? You
could get a much bigger bang for your buck using a combination of
Sharepoint, Reporting Services and Business Scorecard. Also, ProClarity was
purchased by Microsoft and will become Performance Point. I personally
think it's superior to other products I've looked at for ad hoc AND it has
the ability to push what it calls Analysis Books; pre-defined one-offs from
the cubes for focused analysis.

-Tim

"GaryV" <GaryV (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote