Our IT manager is asking us to implement Local cubes against Analysis
Services for our Sales people.

Not sure what are the best scenarios for implementing and deploying
local cubes.

Thanks
Karen

Microsoft provides the ability to create local cubes in the following ways:

1. Through a wizard in Excel, which exposes some, but not all of the
possibilities for designing local cubes.
2. Through the CREATE LOCAL CUBE command, which is available in the ADO
object library.
3. Through the CREATE GLOBAL CUBE command, which is an MDX statement,
executed in ADOMD the same way as other MDX statements.

Several other OLAP client vendors provide the ability to create local cubes.
Support for local cube creation varies with different releases, so it's best
to check with particular client applications that you are interested in.

Our product, the OLAP Client Management System with the Local Cube Task,
automates the process of creating and distributing local cubes. We have an
option for creating separate local cubes for each member of the level of a
dimension. This is particularly useful in the situation you're describing. A
company may want to give each salesperson their own data in a local cube. If
each Salesperson is a member of a level, you can select the option in our
product to create a separate local cube for each one. Our product also
supports automatic zipping and e-mailing of local cubes, together with a
simple OLAP client tool for viewing them.

If you are interested in examining the syntax for CREATE LOCAL CUBE or
CREATE GLOBAL CUBE, our product displays the syntax that it uses to create a
local cube. We also have the option for exporting the cube creation code to
a VB procedure, so you can include it in a different application. A 30-day
full-featured free trial is available.

Not all of the features of Analysis Server cubes are supported in local
cubes. We believe they can be a valuable part of a Business Intelligence
strategy, but we encourage people to check to see whether or not local cubes
are practical for their business needs before deciding to use them.

Tim Peterson
www.localcubetask.com

<karenmiddleol (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Tim

Many thanks for your kind update on how local cubes are implemented.

Sorry, if my question is not clear our IT managers say Local cubes are
a very powerful concept and we must use it. I am not sure what are the
best applications suited for Local cubes.

Appreciate if you can throw more light on it.

Thanks
Karen

My previous answer was focused on creating local cubes. Are you asking about
what applications are best suited for browsing local cubes? If so, here's
the situation as I undertand it:

1. Most OLAP client applications (including Microsoft Excel, the Microsoft
Office Web Components, Microsoft Data Analyzer, ProClarity, Temtec Executive
Viewer, and Panorama NovaView) can read local cube files.

2. In most cases, the end user will not notice any difference between
browsing a server cube and browsing a local cube.

3. There are many factors in determining which OLAP client application to
use - cost, included features, and ease-of-use. If your users already have
Microsoft Office, then Excel or the Office Web Components are obviously the
cheapest. Purchasing one of the other OLAP client tools can give you more
functionality and ease-of-use - at a price. Support for viewing local cube
files is usually not an issue, because it is very common, and is not hard
for the vendors to include. Support for creating local cube files is harder
and is not as common in OLAP client tools.

4. OLAP client support was first introduced in Office 2000. In my opinion,
Excel XP and Excel 2003 and the Office Web Components for XP and 2003 do a
much better than the tools in Office 2000.

I realize that I still am maybe not answering your question. Is this what
you want to know or is there something else? Please try to be more specific.

<karenmiddleol (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

from a dts package you can make a connection to the olap server and in an
execture sql task you can write the mdx create global cube etc.

However - as i recall there is a problem regarding calculated measures
<karenmiddleol (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Hi Michael

Many thanks for taking time to clarify.

My question was more on what application scenarios are best suited for
deploying as local cubes. Specifically, when must I use local cubes -
because the whole question arose after our IT Managers say Local cubes
are a very powerful feature and we must use them. I am wondering what
problems or scenarios are best for being implemented as local cubes -
is it offline reporting.

Thanks
Karen

As stated from one of the others you could use an application but in my
message i'm saying that you can use microsofts own
server technology - using a dts package on the server you can automate the
creation on the server of these local cubes - the difference
from using dts technology from the application is that in the dts package
you need a front end for creating and maintaing who shall
receive local cubes - you need to do this directly on the server or create
your own.

In an application this front will be part of the product.


<karenmiddleol (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

But again

There are some limitations in these cubes regarding calc members - that
could mean that an approach where you use mdx statements on the server to
give the user his information not will be supported when put into a local
cube.

You need to consider this as well.

<karenmiddleol (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote