MicroStrategy Basic Reporting Guide
Starting MicroStrategy Desktop:
We can access MicroStrategy Desktop from any computer on which Desktop has been installed.
To start MicroStrategy Desktop:
1 From your computer’s Start menu, select Programs, MicroStrategy, Desktop, and select Desktop again.
2 In the User Login window, type your Login ID and Password. Depending on how your administrator set up your user account, this may be the same login and password you use to access your computer, or it may be a MicroStrategy-specific login and password.
3 Click OK.
Starting MicroStrategy Web:
You can access MicroStrategy Web from any computer that can run a browser.
To start MicroStrategy Web:
1 In a browser, enter the URL of your company’s MicroStrategy Web site. MicroStrategy Web opens, displaying the MicroStrategy Tutorial project as well as any other projects you have permissions to access.
2 Click the project to log in to. (To follow the examples in this guide, click MicroStrategy Tutorial.) The Login screen appears.
3 Type your User name and Password. Depending on how your administrator set up your user account, this may be the same login and password you use to access your computer, or it may be a MicroStrategy-specific login and password.
4 Click Login.
5 Click the MicroStrategy icon and select Shared Reports.
To change your password on first login to Desktop:
1 When you are prompted to change your password, click Yes. (If you click No, you will not be allowed to access any MicroStrategy projects until you return to this screen and change your password.)
2 In the Change Password dialog box, type your current password in the Old password field.
3 Type a new password in the New password and Confirm password fields, and click OK. The system logs you in and you can open MicroStrategy Tutorial and any other projects available to you.
To change your password on first login to Web:
1 You are prompted to change your password with the Change Password page. (If you click Cancel, you will not be allowed to access any MicroStrategy projects until you return to this screen and change your password.)
2 In the Change Password page, type your current password in the Old password field.
3 Type a new password in the New password and New password verification fields, and click Change Password.
4 Your password change is confirmed. Click Continue. The system logs you into the project you selected when you first logged in.
Sample analysis areas:
- Business Roles
- Dashboards and Scorecards
- Enterprise Reporting Documents
- MicroStrategy Platform Capabilities
- Subject Areas
Opening a report:
Reports that display your business data are the focus and goal of business intelligence. Reports allow you to gather business insight through data analysis. The results displayed in any MicroStrategy report are often a starting point for further investigation.
To open a report in Desktop:
1 Follow the steps above to log in to Desktop
2 In the Folder List on the left, expand MicroStrategy Tutorial, expand Public Objects, and expand Reports.
3 Open the Subject Areas folder, then open the Enterprise Performance Management folder. The reports in this folder appear on the right-hand side of Desktop. Double-click the Revenue Forecast grid report to run the report and see the sample data results.
To open a report in MicroStrategy Web:
1 Follow the steps above to log in to MicroStrategy Web
2 In the Tutorial project, click the MicroStrategy icon and select Shared Reports.
3 Expand Subject Areas, expand Sales and Profitability Analysis, and then click Category Sales Report to run the report and see the sample data results.
Components of a report:
The image below shows a standard grid report in MicroStrategy.
- Rows and columns:
the rows represent business concepts, the columns of a typical report represent financial calculations that are important to the business, such as inventory, sales, costs, profits, salaries, and so on. MicroStrategy calls these calculations “metrics”.
- Cells:
Each individual cell on a report contains a single value which is produced by calculating data gathered from somewhere in your organization’s data source. That data is the focus of business analysis in a reporting environment.
Report types:
We can view a MicroStrategy report from different perspectives, depending on the type of work that we want to perform.
- Grids:
A grid report is the most commonly used type of report. Grid View displays grid reports using a formatted, cross-tabular display of the report data.
To see a report in Grid view, from the View menu select Grid
2. Graphs:
A graph report is a representation of data in a visual format that can help you see overall trends easily, identify medians and exceptions, and so on.
The following figure displays the Graph View of a report in the bar graph style.
To see a report in Graph view, from the View menu select Graph
3. Grids and Graphs combined:
Grid Graph View is a combination display of the Grid View and the Graph View of a report, side by side.
To see a report in Grid Graph view, from the View menu select Grid Graph
SQL View:
SQL View displays the SQL used to generate the report. This view provides a good way to troubleshoot and fine-tune the selection of data that is retrieved from your data source and displayed in reports.
The following figure displays the SQL View of a report.
Displaying multiple reports in a single presentation:
However, MicroStrategy also offers other ways to display data. While working in MicroStrategy Desktop or Web you might see boardroom-quality business presentations, invoices that go out to customers, all kinds of management reports and dashboards, and so on.
Report Services documents:
MicroStrategy Report Services documents (called documents) are available with the MicroStrategy Report Services product. Documents are a display of data from multiple reports with special formatting added, with interactive components, and so on.
To see sample documents in Desktop:
1. Log in to MicroStrategy Tutorial. For steps, see Starting MicroStrategy Desktop.
2. Expand the Public Objects folder, then expand the Reports folder.
3. Click the Enterprise Reporting Documents folder.
4. Double-click any of the documents listed on the right-hand side of Desktop, to execute it and see the results.
To see sample documents in MicroStrategy Web:
1. Log in to MicroStrategy Tutorial. For steps, see Starting MicroStrategy Web.
2. Click the MicroStrategy icon and select Shared Reports.
3. Click the Enterprise Reporting Documents folder.
4. Click any of the documents listed on the right-hand side of MicroStrategy Web, to execute it and see the results.
HTML documents:
An HTML document is another way to display and analyze data when you want to see multiple reports at the same time. In addition to report results, HTML documents can include text, images, hyperlinks, tables, and so on. HTML documents are one method to create dashboards and scorecards, which are a group of related reports displayed together.
OLAP Services:
MicroStrategy OLAP Services is a MicroStrategy product that lets MicroStrategy Desktop, Web, and Office users make use of features that slice and dice data in reports without re-executing SQL against your data source. This improves performance by resulting in quicker data display within a report as users analyze and manipulate the data. Information on OLAP Services is provided in the OLAP Services Guide.
Determining whether you have OLAP Services:
In Desktop, click the View menu. If Report Objects appears as an option, you have access to the OLAP Services product.
View filters:
A view filter is different from a report filter, which restricts how much data is retrieved from the data warehouse. A view filter dynamically restricts the data being displayed on the report without re-executing the report against the warehouse. This capability provides improved response time and decreased database load.
Derived metrics:
Derived metrics perform calculations on-the-fly with the data available in a report. They are an easy way to present data already available on the report in different ways, providing further analysis of data.
Derived elements:
A derived element is a grouping of attribute elements on a report. These groups provide a new view of report data for analysis and formatting purposes.
Dynamic aggregation:
Dynamic aggregation allows you to change the level of report aggregation on-the-fly, while you are reviewing the report results. This feature allows metric values to be aggregated at different levels depending on the attributes included on the report without having to re-execute the report against the data warehouse.
Printing, emailing, and exporting reports and data:
Printing a report
To print a report from MicroStrategy Desktop:
1. Double-click any report to execute it. The report opens.
2. From the File menu, select Print. The Print dialog box opens.
3. To preview the report before printing, to ensure that it prints correctly, click Print Preview. When you have finished previewing the report, click Print to return to the Print dialog box. For in-depth instructions, see the online help.
4. To modify the report’s appearance before printing, click Page Setup. After making your changes, click Print to return to the Print dialog box. For in-depth instructions, see the online help.
5. Select the printer from the Name drop-down list.
6. By default, the entire report is printed. To select which pages to print, type page numbers in the Pages field.
7. By default, the grid (that is, the report results) is printed, but you can print the SQL statements instead, by selecting SQL from the Print what drop-down list.
8. Select the Number of copies to print.
9. Click OK to print the report.
To print a report from MicroStrategy Web:
1.Click any report to execute it.
2. From the Home menu, select Export, and then click PDF. The PDF Options dialog box opens.
3. Specify the scaling and orientation of the report in the PDF Options dialog box and click Export. The report opens in PDF format.
4. On the PDF, from the File menu choose Print. The Print dialog box opens.
5. Use the options on the Print dialog box to scale the print size of the report, and to specify the number of copies to print.
6. Click OK to print the report.
Exporting data:
In MicroStrategy Desktop and Web you can export data to different formats or applications, such as a spreadsheet (.xls) or a word processor (.doc).
To configure export settings in Desktop:
1. Open a report.
2. From the Data menu, select Export Options. The Export Options dialog box opens.
3. Make any necessary changes to the export options. Click Help for details about each setting.
To configure export settings in MicroStrategy Web:
1. Open a report.
2. From the Home menu, select Export, and then select the required output format. The Export Options page opens.
3. Make any necessary changes to the export options. Click Help for details about each setting.
To export data in MicroStrategy Desktop:
1. Open a report and, from the Data menu, point to Export To.
2. Choose the appropriate format in which to export the file. The following applications or file types are supported:
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Word
- An HTML file
- A text file
- Email
- PDF
To export data in MicroStrategy Web:
1. From the Home menu, select Export, and then select the required output format. The Export Options page opens.
2. Make any necessary changes to the export settings and click Export. The report automatically displays in the selected application.