Introduction to Analytics Reporting

MicroStrategy Education
Foundation for Creating Reports
Chapter 2
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MicroStrategy Web and the Intelligent Enterprise

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MicroStrategy Web is a highly interactive, intuitive, and simple-to-use interface for reporting, analysis,
and continuous business monitoring.

MicroStrategy is designed to:

• Fit the needs of business users

• Maximize BI investments

• Drive user adoption

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Reports are a focus of business intelligence analysis:

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Gather business insight

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To create a simple report, place at least one attribute,
Filter
one metric, and a filter on the report.

• Metrics represent a business measure or key

performance indicator, such as Revenue or Profit Attribute Metric

• Attributes represent a business concept, such as

Product, Employee, or Month

• Filters sift the data in your data source to bring back

pertinent information

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Calculating business data: Metrics

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Metrics are the calculations
performed on data stored in your
database.

• Represent business measures

and key performance indicators

• Define the calculations

performed on values in your data
source

• Display the results of the

calculation in a report

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Business context on a report: Attributes

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Attributes are the business
concepts reflected in your stored
business data in your data
source.

• Provide context for the data

calculations (or metrics)

• Describe, group, sort and filter

metrics

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Unique values: Attribute elements

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The elements of a business
attribute are the unique values
for that attribute.

• Elements are the data displayed

on a report in a report’s rows or
columns

• For example, 2015 and 2016 are

elements of the Year attribute

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Descriptive information: Attribute forms

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Attribute forms are additional
descriptive information about a Attribute forms of Customer
business attribute.

• Used for display, sorting, and

filtering

• Each attribute:

• Has a unique identifier, the ID form

• Usually has a primary description,

the DESC form

• Can have many description forms

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Grouping related attributes: Hierarchies

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Geography hierarchy
Year hierarchy
Hierarchies are groupings of
attributes that reflect the
relationships that exist between
the attributes.

• The highest level attribute in a

hierarchy usually reflects the
most-inclusive business concept

• The lowest level attribute is

usually the most granular
business concept

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Drilling into related data

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When you drill on a report, you
view the report data at a level
other than what is originally
displayed in the report. Drill up from Region to Country

• Drill to view the report data at a

different level

• Drill to retrieve more information

after a report has been executed

• Drilling executes another report

based on the original report to
get more detail

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Exercise: Report basics

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High-level steps
Get familiar with MicroStrategy Web’s report Grid and graph view of Call Center report
development environment.

1. Open a pre-designed report

2. Add additional attributes and metrics

3. View the report in different modes

4. Drill into the report

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Exercise: Report data manipulation

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High-level steps
Move Quarter from rows to columns
Manipulate a pre-designed report to display
data in different ways for analysis.

1. Open a pre-designed report

2. Pivot the report data

3. Page the report

Page the report by Call Center
4. Drill into the report

5. Change the background fill of the Revenue

metric

6. Save the report with a different name

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Creating Reports
Chapter 3
 Report creation methods

Report Editor: Design Mode

You can create a report in

MicroStrategy Web using any of
these methods:

• Pre-designed reports

• Templates

• Blank report

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 Building reports based on pre-designed reports

The MicroStrategy Tutorial

project includes sample data as Sample data and
well as predesigned sample pre-designed reports
reports.

• Business roles: For different

types of business intelligence
users such as sales and
operations managers

• MicroStrategy Platform
Capabilities: Contains examples
of MicroStrategy capabilities

• Subject Areas: Contains reports

that cover various topics such as
customer
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Building reports using templates

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Report templates

A template provides the underlying

structure of a report.

• Specifies the set of information from the

data source

• Contains common objects and basic

filters

• You can customize the report, by adding

subtotals, filtering the data, and
formatting

• You can create your own custom

templates

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Exercise: Create a report using the Employee Analysis

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template

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High-level steps
Create an employee report, based on the
Employee Analysis template.

1. Open the Employee Analysis template

Remove the extra Metrics
column
2. Select the attributes and metrics for the report

3. Display repeated row headers once

4. Add and remove attribute forms

5. Remove the extra Metrics column

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Building reports from scratch

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A simple report generally has at least one attribute, one metric, and one filter.

Filter

Attribute Metric

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Exercise: Create a simple report from scratch

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High-level steps Profit for Subcategories in the
Create a report from scratch to display profit East Regions report
data for subcategories.

1. Create a report using the Blank Report

template

2. Add the Region and Subcategory attributes

3. Add the Profit and Profit Margin metrics

4. Add the East Region filter

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Filtering Reports
Chapter 4
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Building filters to filter data on reports

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Report filters
A filter screens data from your data
source.

• Determine what should be included in or

excluded from a metric’s calculation

• Determine what should be displayed

• Reduce large quantities of data

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Reuse the same report with different filters to achieve

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different results

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Each report filter condition returns a Data table filtered by 3 different report filters
different result set. You can create:

• Report filters: Lets you apply filter

conditions to a report; this type of filter
appears in the SQL used to retrieve the
report result set

• View filters: Lets you create a filter on

the fly, based only on those objects that
are part of the report’s definition

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Viewing filter details: Report Details pane

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Indicates what data was included in a
report, as well as what data was Report filter based on Customer City
excluded.

• The definition of a report

• Including any filters and the details of

those filters.

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Narrow results by creating a View filter

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The View filter restricts data based only
on the report results already displayed
on the screen
View filter based on Category and Profit

• Created within a report based on the

objects in the Report Objects pane

• Dynamically limits the data being

displayed

• Created in the View Filter pane

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Exercise: Create a View filter

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High-level steps
Create a View filter to restrict an existing report Filter on Category
to the Music and Movies categories with profit
values less than $3000.

1. Open a pre-made report

Completed report
2. Create a View filter on Category

3. Add a second condition for Profit values to the

View filter

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Creating report filters

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Dynamically created filters Stand-alone filters Dynamic filter

• Created when you build the • Can use any object in your
report data source

• Can use any object in your • Can be used on multiple

data source reports and other objects,
• Saved within the report such as metrics

• Cannot be used on other

reports
Stand-alone filter

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Attribute qualification filters restrict data based on

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Attribute element list qualification Attribute form qualification

• Based on attribute elements, the values of • Based on attribute forms (such as ID and
an attribute description)

• For example, Region In List North, South, • For example, Customer Description Begins
and West With SMITH

• Customer ID = 001 – 100

• Ship Date between 1/1/2016 and 6/30/2016

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Set qualification: Create a subset of attributes

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Metric qualification Relationship qualification

• Based on a metric’s value, rank, or percent • Based on relationships between two

attributes
• For example, Revenue > 300,000
• For example, stores selling Nike shoes in
the Northeast
• Rank of Profit = 1

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Shortcut qualifications: Restrict data related to an

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Shortcut-to-a-report qualification Shortcut-to-a-filter qualification

• Based on the results from an existing report • Based on an existing filter

• For example, intersection of the 1/1/2015 • For example, add a qualification to

Active Customers report and 12/31/2015 determine active customers to the Region In
Active Customers report to display List North, South, and West filter described
continuing customers previously

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Joining filter qualifications with logical operators

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AND operator OR operator

• Must meet both qualifications • Must meet either qualification

• Default operator

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Joining filter qualifications with logical operators

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OR NOT operator AND NOT operator

• Must not meet the second qualification • Must meet the first qualification (the
qualification before the operator)

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Exercise: Create a report filter in a report

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High-level steps
Create a report filter in the report that we
applied a View filter to. Add Subcategory as a filter

1. Create a filter with the Subcategory attribute

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Exercise: Create stand-alone filters

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High-level steps
In this exercise, create a:
Report with metric qualification filter

1. Filer for revenue values over $5,000,000 (a

metric qualification)

2. Filter for specific items (an attribute list

qualification)
OR logical operator
3. Filter using a shortcut to a report

4. Report with the Region attribute and Revenue

metric, filtered by the revenue filter

5. Shortcut-to-a-report filters

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Building prompts to allow user input

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Book supplier prompt
A prompt is a question the system
presents to a user during report
execution.

• Dynamically modifies the contents of a

report

• Provides flexibility for report design

• Allows the report designer to create fewer

reports

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 Designing a prompt

Report filter Report template Page-by

Analysts determine the data Analysts select which objects Analysts select which objects
that is included to include to use to split a long report into
a set of individual pages

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Attribute element list prompts

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Based on attribute elements Customer region
attribute element list

• Users select prompt answers from a

limited list of specific attribute elements

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Attribute qualification prompt

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Based on an attribute form
Prompt based on Region

• Users select from a list of all the attribute

elements from specific attributes or are
guided through creating a qualification

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Hierarchy qualification prompt

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Based on elements from one or more
Geography hierarchy
attributes in a hierarchy

• Users select attribute elements from a list

of attributes

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Metric qualification prompt

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Based on metrics
Revenue prompt

• Users are guided through creating a

metric qualification

• Determines what data should be

displayed for one or more specific metrics

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Value prompt

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Based on a value for any object
Revenue prompt

• Used to define a filter or a metric

• Users type a single value

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Object prompt

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Based on a value for any object Attribute, metrics, and filter prompts

• Used to build a report by adding an object

to the report, choosing a filter, or adding
an object to the page-by

• Defines a metric or filter

• Users select objects to add to a report

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Creating prompts

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After selecting the type of prompt, the next step in creating a prompt is defining
the characteristics for your prompt.

• Definition: Set limits on the amount of content that can be selected in the prompt

• General: Provide title, prompt instructions, required answer, min/max limits, and personal answers

• Style: Define how the prompt will be displayed (style, font, size)

• Qualification: Choose whether to allow users to select prompt answers, create a qualification, or select
which to use

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Exercise: Create prompts to use in a filter

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High-level steps Report definition panel
Create prompts and use them in the filter of a
report.

1. Create a prompt on the Product hierarchy

2. Create a prompt on the Region attribute

element list Prompted report

3. Create a prompt on the Metric Qualification

prompt on Revenue

4. Create a report with Item and Revenue, and

add the prompts to its report filter

5. Run and save the report with a prompted filter

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Saving prompted reports

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Prompted Static

• Use the prompt answers as the default • You are not prompted when you rerun the
report
• Prompted to provide answers, but are
provided with previous default answers • Last prompt answers are used

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Exercise: Create object prompts to select the objects

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displayed on a report

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High-level steps
Create object prompts, which allow users to Object prompts
select the objects to display on a report.

1. Create a prompt to select metrics

2. Create a prompt to select attributes

3. Create a report using the object prompts

4. Save the report as a prompted report

5. Run the report, using the default answers

6. Save the report as a static, non-prompted

report
Prompted report

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Calculating Data on Reports
Chapter 5
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Building metrics to calculate data

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Metrics are calculations that are placed
directly in reports to calculate the values
from your data source. For example:
Sum of Cost metric

• Your data source contains a Cost fact,

which represents the cost per product
item

• To calculate cost, create a metric that

adds up the Cost fact

• In a report, cost is calculated for each

Sum of Cost for Item
item

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 Building metrics

Metrics can be built using facts,

attributes, or other metrics. For example:
Employee Headcount metric
• The Employee Headcount metric applies
the Count function to the Employee
attribute

• A report contains the metric, along with

Region and Call Center attributes Employee Headcount by
Region and Call Center

• The report calculates the Employee

Headcount for each Call Center

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Calculating metric values

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A metric value is calculated based on a Cost per Category
Calculates based on the
business concept, or attribute. For lowest-level business concept
example:

• Create a Cost metric that equals Sum

(CostFact)

Cost per Region

• Report = Cost metric + Category attribute
which calculates cost for each category

• Report = Cost metric + Region attribute

which calculates cost for each category

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Exercise: Create simple metrics

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High-level steps Revenue and Cost metrics
Create three simple metrics.

1. Create a Cost metric

2. Create a Revenue metric

3. Create a report using the object prompts

4. Save the report as a prompted report

5. Create a report that contains the Item attribute

and the new Cost and Revenue metrics

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Compound metrics: Metrics made up of other metrics

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A compound metric is a metric made up
of other metrics.

• Arithmetic operator between multiple

metrics, such as Sum(Cost) + Sum(Profit)

• OLAP or scalar functions, such as

RunningAvg(Cost) where Cost is a metric Compound
metrics

• Create compound metrics using the

Formula Editor mode of the Metric Editor

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Smart metrics: Define the evaluation order

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A smart total calculates subtotals on individual pieces of the compound metric, defining the final
calculation order.

• A regular total calculates subtotals by adding all the values for each row of the report.

• A smart metric uses the formula Sum (Metric1)/Sum (Metric2) rather than Sum (Metric1/Metric2).

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Exercise: Create compound metrics and smart totals

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High-level steps
Create a compound metric called Profit Margin Profit Margin metric formula
using the Revenue and Cost metrics.

1. Define the Profit Margin metric

2. Edit the Profit Margin metric to allow smart

Allow smart metric
totals

3. Add Category, Profit Margin, and Smart Profit

Margin to the report

4. Save the report as Compound Metric-Profit

Margin-Subtotals

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Selecting subtotals and totals for metrics

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Total = Sum of Revenue
When you show totals in a report, the
metric totals are calculated using the
Sum function by default. Total = Average Revenue

• Grand totals (usually called totals) and

subtotals calculate metrics at different
levels
Total = Minimum
and Maximum
• Can be applied dynamically to any report

• Can enable subtotals and grand totals,

allowing them to display on a report

• Select the function used to calculate a

subtotal or grand total

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 Disabling subtotals and totals

You can remove, or disable, a grand total or subtotals for a particular metric.

• To disable all totals, set the default subtotal function to None and clear all available subtotals

• To disable grand totals but allow users to select subtotals, set the default subtotal function to
None but do not clear available subtotals

• To restrict subtotals to a single function, select the default subtotal function and clear all available
subtotals

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Exercise: Display subtotals

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High-level steps
Display Average, Maximum, and Standard
Deviation subtotals on a report. First rows of the completed report

1. Create a Cost - Subtotals metric that allows

three types of subtotals

2. Create a report with the Item attribute,

Revenue metric, and Cost - Subtotals metric

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Building metrics within reports: Derived metrics

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Derived metrics are metrics that you can
use to perform calculations based on The difference between Revenue
report results. and Last Year’s Revenue

• Created based on existing metrics in the

report.

• Performs a calculation on the fly without

re-executing the report

• Often performs calculations between

columns of metric values

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 B
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Building metrics directly on reports

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The parentheses play a crucial role in the
order of operations.

• Calculations in parentheses are

performed before other calculations

• Without parentheses, the division would

occur first, producing undesired derived
metric values

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Exercise: Create a derived metric

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High-level steps
Calculate the difference in revenue values
between 2015 and 2016 Final report results

1. Create a report filtered for 2016 that uses the

Revenue metric

2. Create a transformation derived metric called

Last Year’s (Revenue)

3. Create, within the report, a derived metric

called Growth

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Delivering and Sharing Reports
Chapter 6
 Exporting reports

You can export a report in any of these

formats:

• CSV file

• HTML

• Microsoft Excel, Plain text (recommended

for large reports) or Formatted

• PDF

• Plain text

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Subscribing to reports for automatic delivery

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You can schedule deliveries to take place on a
regular schedule or when a specific event
occurs by creating a subscription. You can
have a report automatically delivered to:

• Your History List in MicroStrategy Web

• A mobile device (using MicroStrategy Mobile)

• An email address

• A network folder location

• A printer

• An FTP server

• Your cache

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Sharing reports with other users

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You can share a report with other
MicroStrategy users by:

• Emailing the report or a link to the report

• Adding the link in a document

You can split large reports into multiple,

smaller files using bursting. Each of the
smaller files contains a portion of data based
on attributes used to group the report in the
page-by.
Burst to split a large file into smaller files

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Sharing a link URL reflecting latest changes and prompt

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The link URL contains: You can share the link URL by:

• The object’s ID • Emailing it to users

• Any report changes made after the link • Copying it and adding it to a document
URL was generated • Embedding it in HTML code
• Any prompt answers saved in the report

83
Education at MicroStrategy
Empowering Success
Education Learning Path
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Visualizations

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