Category Archives: MicroStrategy Inc

What’s new in Microstrategy Dashboard ?


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MicroStrategy Inc, Setup

Introduction: The designer can create more flexible data presentations with dashboards than with documents, since more users can be served with a single dashboard. Each user can interact with the dashboard to display only the subset of data they are interested in (using panels and selectors) or only specific attribute elements or metrics (using a selector)

What is a dashboard?
A dashboard is a display of related sets of data on one screen. A dashboard is commonly used to assess company or personal performance work or work group contributions to overall goals of the business. Dashboards summarize key business indicators by presenting them in visually intuitive, easy-to-read, interactive documents.

Provides interactive functionality so users can change how they see the data. Used online rather than printed out.

While Designing Dashboard , you can choose selectors, widgets, panels, and other controls, to create a personalized, custom dashboard that suits your user’s specific needs. Various formatting options such as gradient colors and 3D effects also help you create dashboards with a style appropriate for the boardroom.

Adding interactivity to dashboards:
A key aspect of a dashboard is the interactivity it allows. Interactivity lets analysts dynamically change the data displayed in Grid/Graphs or change other objects on the dashboard.

  • Button bar
  • Analyzing ranges of time: Slider
  • Analysis at a glance: Gauges, thermometers, cylinders, funnels

Gauges

Thermometer

Organizing interactivity features on a dashboard
The result of a user’s interactive selections can affect multiple objects simultaneously. You can design this using a panel stack, which is a collection of panels, each of which can contain groups of objects. Panels help you display only those groups of data that should be seen at the same time.Additional features let the user navigate between panels, and quickly change the display of data within a panel.

Panels and panel stacks
Text field, line, rectangle, image, panel, panel stack, selector, or Grid/Graph object are controls and grouped together put into a place holder is called panel.
A panel stack is a collection of individual panels, stacked on top of each other. Example of Panel Stack
panel stack to provide the Corporate, Regional, and Detail Data “views.” Each view is an individual panel in the panel stack.

Selectors
A selector can be displayed as a button bar, a drop-down list, radio buttons and much more..

Title bars
A title bar is simply an area across the top of a panel stack or Grid/Graph.

  • The title identifies the panel, panel stack, or Grid/Graph.
  • The buttons allow users to minimize and maximize Grid/Graphs in MicroStrategy Web.


Quick switch
Quick switch is a button that allows an analyst to quickly change a Grid/Graph from Graph view to Grid view and back, with a single click.


Widgets
A widget is a type of Report Services control that presents data in a visual and interactive way. You can think of widgets as interactive Flash-only graphs that dynamically update when you select a new set of data to view. The dashboard user can even interact with some types of widgets to manually select a set of data to analyze. A variety of widget types, such as Gauge, Heat Map, and Stacked Area widgets, are available for use in MicroStrategy dashboards.


Graph styles for dashboards
•Gauge •Funnel •Area •Vertical stacked bar •Combination: Line and horizontal bar •Bubble •Pie


Important points to be consider in the interactive dashboards:

  • Layering data on dashboards: Panels & Panel Stacks
  • Providing interactivity to users: selectors
  • Enabling Grid/Graphs to control other Grid/Graphs
  • Providing Flash analysis and interactivity: widgets
  • Enabling transition animations in Flash
  • Adding title bars to Grid/Graphs
  • Quick switch for Grid/Graphs
  • Drilling in documents

Layering multiple dashboards in a single document

It is similar to having tabs created in one web page. It used call Page Bys in the earlier versions of Microstrategy like having Corporate level , Regional level ..

Defining a selector

DHTML style Selectors

Flash Style is how the selector is displayed in Flash Mode in MicroStrategy Web

  • Automatic: Default DHTML type even in the flash style
  • Fish Eye Selector: An interactive style of selector that is displayed only in Flash Mode. It magnifies an item when a user hovers the cursor over it. This style of selector is useful because it allows a user to choose from a large list of elements without having to see all of the elements displayed at once

  • Action Type determines whether the selector displays elements, metrics, or panels.

In non-Flash modes in MicroStrategy Web, a Fish Eye Selector can display as a Grid/Graph (if it was created as a widget) or as a standard selector such as a listbox or button bar (if it was created as a selector).Selector items of a Fish Eye Selector with images instead of Names.

Design View

Understanding and working with widgets:

  • Bubble Grid: Bubbles of different colors and sizes representing the values of two metrics.
  • Cylinder: A simple status indicator that displays a vertical cylinder with fluid in it. The level of the fluid within the cylinder is a visual representation of a single metric value.
  • Data Cloud: A list of attribute elements displayed in various sizes to depict the differences in metric values between the elements.
  • Fish Eye Selector: An interactive selector that magnifies an item when you hover the cursor over it. It allows a user to choose from a list of attribute elements, metrics, or images without having to see all of the elements, metrics, or images displayed at once.
  • Funnel: A variation of a stacked bar chart that displays data that adds up to 100%. It allows a user to visualize the percent contribution of a metric to the whole.
  • Gauge: A simple status indicator that displays a needle that moves within a range of numbers displayed on its outside edges.
  • Graph Matrix: A group of area graphs that display actual values and line graphs that display forecasted values. It allows a user to quickly analyze various trends across several metric dimensions.
  • Heat Map: A combination of colored rectangles, each representing an attribute element, that allow you to quickly grasp the state and impact of a large number of variables at once.
  • Interactive Bubble Graph: A conventional bubble plot that allows you to visualize the trends of three different metrics for a set of attribute elements.
  • Microcharts widget :The Microcharts widget consists of compact representations of data that allow analysts to quickly visualize trends in data.

Mainly lot of the issues had been fixed & introduced easy way handle interactive dashboards. Previous versions we used create & configure using SDKs now it gives very powerful interactive dashboard.

Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have to explain.


How to cheat MicroStrategy activation


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License, MicroStrategy Inc

I’ve not tried this, but this just flashed in mind when a friend asked this question while chatting. Basically, he wanted to learn MicroStrategy and I give away my v9 download and trial key. I do not know if I’m doing a license violation by that. I do not have MicroStrategy installed on my local machine and last attempt was a let down.

This is something that I suggest if you want to cheat (you can’t bypass) the 30 day trail. 30 days are not really sufficient to even understand MicroStrategy. MicroStrategy, Inc should think of getting a 3 or 6 month Learning License Serial Key for this mass of MicroStrategy learners and should give next versions Learner License Key to current client under this license.

Coming back to the issue: Use VMWare Server/Microsoft Virtual PC to safely cheat. VMWare is a Virtual OS product (it is much more then that too). You need to have a machine with better hardware configuration. Both are free downloads. MS stuff is free where as VMWare needs site registration.

  1. Create the basic Microsoft 2000 OS image of 25 GB.
  2. Install all latest SP/Patch to it. MS ODBC patches are very essentials for 2000 OS.
  3. Install latest version of Acrobat reader, Flash player, Java Runtimes, IIS and Tomcat Server
  4. Install Eclipse if you do MicroStrategy Java SDK or .net or MicroStrategy ASP.net SDK.
  5. Install Adobe Flex 3 Builder if you do Visualization SDK (Flash dashboard)
  6. Move MicroStrategy installation files into the OS image.
  7. Now make two more copies of this image (for safe backup if you mess with any of backup in future).
  8. Using 30 days Trail Serial Key, install MicroStrategy.
  9. Activate your installation.
  10. Use it for 30 days.
  11. Move back the metadata to host OS. You may not require this step if you already have it in host OS or any machine over LAN. VMWare/Virtual OS image can also access machine over LAN.
  12. Make another copy of image created in step 7
  13. Repeat after step 8.

Disclaimer: This steps are for demonstration purpose only and you hold all legal responsibilities of using this method to cheat License agreement. It may be outright illegal if you do so and may land you in legal trouble. Kindly check your license agreement before proceeding.

Update 2009-08-22 15:38:53: The Trial serial key(s) can not be used indefinately for installations, so one need to turn back time of the VMWare image too 😉

Is MicroStategy BI implementation recession proof


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MicroStrategy Inc

This question I had all the time I’ve been working on MicroStrategy, but with an exception that I had not seen recession.

Prima facie, the answer is Big NO. Most of my friends, who are working on different clients in varied domain, are not working on any important projects or not working at all (including me). All of a sudden the clients have deferred further implementation of MicroStrategy project(s). Around 14 friends of mine have changed job in last 6 months and none of them is actually working on a MicroStrategy project, so one can easily imagine the situation in developed countries, mainly USA.

TARP is yet to come into picture. Scene is going to be same for next 2 months, the time taken for TARP to show effect.

This time clients are simply trying to optimize the current BI not trying any new BI implementation. Few MicroStrategy or other core BI vendors are moving/thing to Open source BI.

MicroStrategy commands a loyal customer base but repeat business or sale of Orion will be something hard to see in near future.

Cease and Desist Letter received from MicroStrategy, Inc


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MicroStrategy Inc

I’ve just received a Cease & Desist letter for having registering domain names “microstrategy.co.in” and “microstrategy.in”. The reason behind this is

1. Using companies trademark, illegally.
2. Domain names made in bad faith since you are not using domain names for any legitimate purpose.
3. abusive registration of domain names

Pretty much pissed off against MicroStrategy, Inc as I love the company for which I’ve worked (though outsourcer) and I receive this kind of letter.

microstrategy.in directs to microstrategy.co.in which is a MicroSteategy forum.

Can’t comment legally, but I do not use anything that can be trademark violation. Site is fully operational and happening so nothing can be bad taste and I need to know what’s an abusive registration of domain name.

If you have any legal/para-legal advice to let me know.

If they would have had asked politely or tried to contact though common acquaintances, I would have had given to them. But this D&C is torturous. Nothing is illegal on site or site itself is not illegal. I would contest the domain name ownership in Indian court under Indian IT Act 2000.
———————

Update 9th Feb 6:30 pm IST

Indian IT Act 2000 doesn’t define anything like cybersquatter. Such case can be only fought in court of law or can be settled by Arbitrator of .IN Registry (which still can be challenged in court, extremely tedious and slow process).

One can check the list of domain that were awarded to the Complainant here. I’ve been though most of them and found that the Registrars were indeed cybersqatters and it was pretty easy for rightful owners to get back the domain (this includes monster.in, pizzahut.in, sonyericsson.co.in, gmail.co.in, morganstanley.in, youtube.in, kfc.co.in, franklintempleton.in).

If one reads the case document on the link above, one would come to know that there were people who had simply parked the domain or had opened shell/ad site not hosting anything actually. But I have a strong case and I would be fighting tooth and nail for the hard work I’ve done in setting up the forum and bringing some good people knowing MicroStrategy.

MicroStrategy is not planning a development center in India


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MicroStrategy Inc

Peer BI compnaies have established IDC for quite some time but MicroStrategy is yet to setup an office in India. They currently outsource to Cybage a part of their Testing, Documentation and Widget development. It is least likely that MicroStrategy would start anything like development center, sales or consulting at India anytime for next 4-5 years. They are currently setting up the base at China and that’s becoming their center too much focused. A center in China make sense for MSTR as 1) Compared to India there would be large probable customer 2) i18n into Chinese and other languages (Korean, Japanese etc) would be easy to do.

Though not development wise but mainly making the product ready into different languages (They are having it for quite some time) and thus marketing the prospective customer base is a killing thing to do business in China not in India. There are just 3 clients of MicroStrategy and Indian are brought up with mentality “sasta hai to achcha hai”.