Training Video for Microstrategy Desktop BI Capabilities

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From the course by University of Colorado System

Business Intelligence Concepts, Tools, and Applications

362 ratings

University of Colorado System

Business Intelligence Concepts, Tools, and Applications

362 ratings

Course 4 of 5 in the Specialization Data Warehousing for Business Intelligence

This is the fourth course in the Data Warehouse for Business Intelligence specialization. Ideally, the courses should be taken in sequence. In this course, you will gain the knowledge and skills for using data warehouses for business intelligence purposes and for working as a business intelligence developer. You’ll have the opportunity to work with large data sets in a data warehouse environment and will learn the use of MicroStrategy's Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Visualization capabilities to create visualizations and dashboards. The course gives an overview of how business intelligence technologies can support decision making across any number of business sectors. These technologies have had a profound impact on corporate strategy, performance, and competitiveness and broadly encompass decision support systems, business intelligence systems, and visual analytics. Modules are organized around the business intelligence concepts, tools, and applications, and the use of data warehouse for business reporting and online analytical processing, for creating visualizations and dashboards, and for business performance management and descriptive analytics.

From the lesson

Business Intelligence Concepts and Platform Capabilities

Now that you understand the conceptual foundation of decision making and DSS, in module 2 we start by defining business intelligence (BI), BI architecture, and its components, and relate them to DSS. In lesson 2, you will learn the main components of BI platforms, their capabilities, and understand the competitive landscape of BI platforms. In lesson 3, you will learn the building blocks of business reports, the types of business reports, and the components and structure of business reporting systems . Finally in lesson 4, you will learn different types of OLAP and their applications, and comprehend the differences between OLAP and OLTP. You will need to use MicroStrategy Desktop to create effective and compelling data visualizations to analyze data and acquire insights into business practices in a peer evaluated exercise.

BI Platform Capabilities Video Lecture7:52

Training Video for Microstrategy Desktop BI Capabilities23:45

Meet the Instructors

Jahangir Karimi
Professor
Information Systems University of Colorado Denver

This is a product demonstration of MicroStrategy Desktop which is a brand

new interface that we've launched with MicroStrategy 10 as part of the release.

And it allows business users to connect to data regardless of the type of source and

to conduct visual data discovery on their own.

And to self serve without any support from IT.

I'm gonna start with this demonstration by launching a sales dashboard,

an MSDR file that we have saved on this Mac.

You can download and install the desktop tool on your Mac or

PC in a matter of minutes, and get started with visual data discovery.

By launching this tool you can see how it invokes the client that has been

downloaded and installed.

As you can see with MicroStrategy 10, we've moved away from Flash, and

this is a brand new HTML5 interface.

You can see how we've positioned the data on the left,

you can select all the visualizations from your right.

What you're seeing here is a dashboard that has revenue information

that has been plotted on a geospatial map.

We've integrated with Esri, which gives you out of the box mapping capability,

complete interactivity as you can see.

Free licensing is available with the product.

And it can readily drag and drop data onto a map

to visualize information like revenue rather easily and quickly as well.

If you'd like to interact with data on visualizations that are not out of

the box, in this case there are several D3 options.

In addition to D3, you can add any third party or

open source visualization into your analysis, and drag and

drop data in exactly the same manner, and drill down in values.

So, if you have revenue data and

you want to visualize some revenue over time, you can do that as well.

And really, interact with the data to make it a much more enriched experience

to make some insights on top of the data that you have.

In addition to being able to add visualizations, you can add multiple

visualizations and interact with them between each other as well.

In this case you can see how I can highlight certain data points on a map,

and use that as a filter with others.

So there's extreme interactivity between visualizations that give you that rich

analytical experience through the desktop interface as well.

To add some additional analysis on top of that,

you can even bring in new visualizations.

So let's say this in out of the box visualization for

me to be able to visualize revenue over time.

I can do that and just drag and drop the relevant information from that panel

onto the next one, and instantly I can plot all my information and

revenue information of a date attribute that I have within my data set and you can

see how quickly I have that information and then I can quickly observe any trend.

If I want to make the trends a little bit more evident and let's say I want to do

this over a month and I don't have the month attribute, I can select the month

option from this editor over here and really start enriching the dimensions

within my analysis even though it does not exist within my date source.

So I can build these attributes on the fly,

which really gives the analyst a lot more power to be self-serving.

So I can just select and

add month and instantly get that trend that I'm looking for.

It makes it a lot more easier to identify some patterns within my data.

Microstrategy 10 has really added a lot of the analytical workflow and

has exposed this with easy to use menu options.

So for instance, if I want to add let's say a trend line,

I can just go ahead an enable that with a single click.

So this is a brand new feature with MicroStrategy 10 and

really gives the analyst some savvy options to do some complicated analysis

in a very easy manner, and not only do we expose these features but

you also have the ability to format it.

So some rich formatting capabilities have been added into the ten release as well.

In addition to be able to create trend lines and

forecasting lines, you can also enable that rather easily.

You can see that within a single click I can start predicting values

by simply enabling forecasting and forwarding that.

In a matter of seconds I can start seeing, let's say for instance,

I don't have values beyond April 2015.

But now I can enable that.

So that makes me as an analyst who does not have any training on building some

complex metrics, but I have the ability to do some advanced analytics on my own now.

And again, this is a testament to how the desktop tool allows analysts

to do some enriched analytics on their own in a very self-sufficient manner.

So that was done really quickly.

To get started with showing you what the process is in terms of creating

a dashboard from scratch.

Let's start with showing you essentially what the desktop tool is, for

those of you who are going to get started with it on your own.

The process is fairly simple.

You connect to a data source.

You bring the data in, and you can start building your visualizations.

In cases where you need to start doing some data preparation,

you can do that as well with a brand new data wrangling capability that has been

injected into the desktop functionality as well.

So you can see this is the starting interface as soon as you launch

the MicroStrategy desktop.

This is the interface that you will see.

Here I already have some data, but if you want to bring in data

you can quickly start by clicking on this option and you'll notice how there

are several options available within the desktop interface.

You can choose from any of these native connectors and

options connectors we have over here.

Or you could choose the database option and

connect to multiple ODBC options to multiple database,

whether it's SQL server or [INAUDIBLE] or [INAUDIBLE] and really bring in data.

The key point that I want to make here is that you have the ability to bring

in data from multiple different sources and the experience is exactly the same.

So whether you choose an Excel spreadsheet, or

whether you choose a Hadoop option, the experience is exactly the same.

And there's no new learning curve.

You can do that fairly quickly.

In this example I'm going to start by choosing a cloud option.

I'll choose my Salesforce.com account.

It's native connector.

Again, notice how I'm not leaving the interface.

I'm bringing in information from my Salesforce account.

It's one seamless workflow.

So I log into the account.

And now I can browse into my Salesforce reports and drag and

drop data and bring that into my analysis.

So by bringing that in, readily it converts the information within

Salesforce and brings in those tables and columns and

converts them into micro-strategy translated attributes and metrics.

There's no data modeling involved at the desktop and

it is a complete business user friendly tool.

And notice how everything has been done without any requirement for

data architecting or modeling, and enables business users to start

doing analytics on their own in a very self serving manner.

So once you bring in data, the next stage is to start visualizing the data, but

often times it's a required for you to wrangle the information, or

prepare or cleanse the information.

Data wrangling has been added as a seamless workflow,

so let's say there's web channel in this table and I want to remove that.

I select the wrangling option and I come to this graphical user interface, and

I have multiple options over here to tweak and

cleanse the way my data looks for improved analyses on top of it.

For instance, in the city column over here, notice how there's some blank cells,

and if I want to fill those cells in, I don't have to take it into Excel.

I just click on it and then select from the recommended options, and

it automatically fills down those values.

Let's say there's some discrepancies within the value.

Let's say there's Washington D.C.,

Washington DC No one wants two of those within one single table.

No one wants two cities called Washington D-dot, C-dot.

It just creates wrong analysis.

So let's say if I want to consolidate that,

I have the ability to do that from within this interface.

So I just remove that, I change it to the way I want it to be, and

I apply it to the entire table.

And then instantly I can start recording all those values, and

you notice how when I select something it automatically makes some

recommendations intelligently on its own.

So everything is graphical in nature, and I can start editing it and

making those changes instantly.

Anything that I do is being recorded as a history script on the top right corner.

So this isn't really a one time process.

So if I bring in data from sales force for the first time, and

I constantly need to keep bringing it in on a daily basis.

Let's say when my information has been refreshed, I have the ability to reapply

this history script so I don't have to do this over again.

So there's a repeated automation that's built into this process, and instantly I

can apply that from using this history script that's on my top right hand column.

You can do several other things as well with data wrangling and data preparation.

So let's say I want to look at profile and profile my data and

find any spelling errors.

I can profile my text based columns instantly and

if I want to merge and cluster some of them

to create consolidated values I have the ability to do that.

Again completely graphical in nature for me to be able to make these changes

on the fly without breaking that process and taking it out into Excel.

These are just some minor examples and

you can do a lot more with this tool there are dozens of functions within it.

And we're constantly going to improve the way data wrangling has been seamlessly

integrated with this workflow for business users to prepare their data.

Once you prepare their data, you have the data again, it's been prepared for

better analysis and you could go ahead and visualize.

With version 10 we also make it easy for you to be able to convert Attributes and

Metrics.

Some of them are automatically identified but if there are some values like number

of purchases which is a metric, you can drag and drop that.

Again, anything that you do here is completely drag and drop based.

And it's fairly easy for you to do it in a very intuitive manner.

The big difference of version 10 is that you can bring disparate sources in.

And you bring disparate table from disparate sources as part of a single

in-memory queue.

This is a competitive differentiator for MicroStrategy.

And we introduced this a version 10.

So notice how I can connect a different source.

We can bring in a table from another source if I want or a Hadoop source or

an Excel spreadsheet, like so.

And really start making my analysis more complex, as complex as I want it to be.

And make that simple enough for me to blend data and

increase the cross functional nature of my analysis.

So now I have cable from disparate sources in one single queue and

I can create joins across them.

Again, completely intuitive and very graphical in nature.

I can again change attributes to metrics.

If there aren't any joins between tables and I wanna force it.

Let's say in the first column it's ID and IDs in the second column,

I just drag and drop it onto the other, and I can map it and instantly.

I have these joins created between my tables, and

these tables can be from different sources.

Again, a key differentiator for mciro strategy.

And using these graphical interfaces I can join and

define these joins across tables and across sources.

So I've made my data connection, I have cleansed it and now I can go ahead and

build my visualizations.

So in this case I have some customer profile information.

Let's say I want to build a bar matrix

to see how my customers can be profiled across age and city, and

see how loyal they are with number of purchases.

And I can build a quick visualization on this matrix.

And if I want to, let's say,

enrich how the colors make it a little bit more vivid.

I have the options to do that as well by these

formatting options that desktop provides.

In this case you can notice Toronto is a little bit different.

So I have the ability to identify those trends quickly.

To improve the way I can make these observations.

I can also build custom groups on the fly.

Previously you had to open up a ticket, use IT help, for them to create a you

custom group for you but with version 10, you can do this on your own.

You can select items from a single group and consolidate them and

create a brand new attribute called age brackets, so I have multiple ages.

I'm just creating groups over here from 21 to 30 from 31 to 40 and what not.

And thereby just creating these custom groups, and on the fly,

as a part of a seamless workflow.

And now from these multiple different data point, I can go down to four and

make the trend identification a lot more easier and you can see how it looks.

And it's easier for me to look at my data, and make my analysis a lot more robust.

Let's say I have different preferences, this is a bar matrix,

let's say you want to visualize this data in a very specific format.

Let's say you have identified this one visualization that you've found on a D3

website, a Sankey Diagram.

Something as complex as this and you'd like to visualize

your information with using this visualization specifically.

This might not be an out of the box visualization, but

it is an existing open source visualization.

You can build plugins with MicroStrategy.

So include that as part of your analysis.

All you have to do is, let's say just close this out of this,

I already have a plugin built for that visualization.

A lot of these plugins are available on GitHub and the MicroStrategy community.

And you can build plugins yourself.

For this specific one I already have the plugin.

I'll just drag and drop that plugin into the installation folder pack.

And I can bring that into my analysis.

So I'm gonna relaunch this dashboard, I can bring it up and

notice how that option is now available within my selection criteria over here.

And then I can go ahead and

visualize the data in a very unique manner, in exactly the manner that I want.

So now I've brought in that new visualization.

The great thing is you can interact with MicroStrategy Desktop

with these non-out-of-the-box visualizations

exactly the way you would with out-of-the-box organic visualizations.

You can add dimensions and really increase the interactivity with it, and

maintain that.

And use that as a filter if you will, and

richer analysis, and do it exactly according to your preference.

With desktop you can do some advanced analytics as well.

So I'm gonna create a scatter plot in this section, and

just let's say I wanna do this to create a loyalty program and segment my customers.

I can plot all of my customers onto a visualization and

then create a model using R analytics to identify loyalty programs.

So I can use and generate this R model based off several different key

attributes and metrics within my existing data source, and really

build an advanced analytical function that does not exist in MicroStrategy.

It does offer over 350 out of the box functions.

So let's say I want to use this clustering algorithm in my model from R and

include that as part of my analysis, I have the ability to do that.

I simply copy paste that into this editor and I've created that R metric,

I just drag and drop it and apply it just like I would with any other metric.

And in a matter of seconds I have created groups, or

loyalty clusters, to identify the customers that are loyal.

And I can create groups that I wanna target them with marketing campaigns.

Specific to marketing campaigns and

really do some cross-functional analytics on top of my data.

The great thing about desktop is all this that I am doing right now

is in an offline mode.

It's completely disconnected from my server so as a business user,

I have complete flexibility for my analytics.

I have no restrictions and I can have complete freedom to do what I want.

The great thing about desktop is the ability to migrate to govern data

discovery.

As a business user I can bring in data from my own sources and

promote that to a centralized environment and share that and

collaborate with others in a quick and easy manner.

So in this case, if I wanna convert, connect to my server,

all I have to do is go up here and upload this dashboard that was built on my

desktop to a micro strategy project on a server, that's on my intelligence server.

So essentially, I just log into that.

And I can save this dashboard that I built

on desktop by creating the connection quickly and easily.

So as you can see I'm browsing through Intelligence Server over here, and

rather quickly I'm able to save this dashboard or

update a dashboard that already existed on the server by creating the connection.

So if I move to the web interface, notice how I can log in using my smart phone.

I scan this QR code, and I'm in.

With ten there are a lot of new functionalities..

You can search and browse for dashboards quickly.

So if I wanna identify the dashboard that I just created, I just use the search tab,

and I can launch it in a matter of seconds.

So you can notice that, even with this new different web interface,

the experience is the same.

So whatever I built in [BLANK AUDIO] desktop looks identical on web.

So we have consistency across our different interface.

This is the web interface, and now I brought in the dashboard.

And the big difference here is I not only can browse through the data that I brought

in from my external sources, but I can also access model data.

And this really becomes the path to govern data, discovery.

I can also map back all the information that I bought from different sources to my

architect environment and really start leveraging some enterprise capabilities

and start applying security filters and whatnot.

So not only can I choose from model data and hierarchies that are available

within my server component, I can include that as part of my analysis and

make sure that I'm using trusted data as part of my analysis.

Even if I wanna add new data the process is exactly the same.

There's no new learning curve for the different interfaces.

Even though this is web.

So let's say there's some, they're brand new sources.

Let's say I wanna build a custom data source from a website.

I just copy the URL from a website that I want that has a table.

I don't have to use some separate web crawler.

And I bring that information in and it automatically identifies the tables

within that webpage, and I can select the tables that I want and bring it in.

And notice how it automatically converts those values that the MicroStrategy I

use in metrics, and even identifies location.

A country is identified as a location attribute if I wanted to generate

anything, if I have let's say bring in let's say zip code information and I wanna

generate a higher hierarchies, I have the ability to automatically enrich the data

and bring in new information that does not exist onto my data source, as well.

I can either rangle on this or I can continue into my analysis and

do some visualization on top of this and continue on the analysis that I was doing.

So broad and multiple sources it promoted it into my enterprise server, I now have

the ability to start building more visualizations and analytics.

So let's say I wanna build a new bar chart to identify

which of my customers are more likely to make a purchase.

We created a stepwise logistic dot R model and

we wanna leverage that as part of a MicroStrategy metric, and

again this metric has been generated, just copy and paste that into the editor.

And I bring in a complex advanced analytics metric into MicroStrategy, and

now I can quickly identify who is more likely to make a purchase and

make some advanced analytics on top of that.

And you can still maintain all the drill down sorting capabilities,

keep it very interactive, and identify those cities.

So as a world wide manager I can now distribute this out to all my regional

managers who can now conduct those specific marketing campaigns and

apply to their territories.

The great thing about MicroStrategy is that now that it's promoted to

the enterprise server I can leverage all of the enterprise capabilities,

whether it's mobile, transaction services, distribution services even.

So lets say I want to mass blast this out, the dashboard that was created on

a desktop tool originally, now using my server I can send this using our

distribution services capabilities and really create this option to start,

using data discovery at scale, and sending out personalized versions.

You can even automate this process, and sending out these dashboards out

to a larger group for some mass consumption of this dashboard.

So I've distributed this out to everyone who's

a regional manager now has access to this dashboard.

And let's say I log in as a separate user.

And this has been shared and

this regional manager now has access to this dashboard within the report.

This will now be personalized, can be personalized to them as well,

because we have the ability to apply security filters on top of it.

So if the regional manager runs this dashboard,

notice how they only see information that is relevant to them.

So there's that security layer and that personalization aspect to it once

you've been able to bring it back into theMicroStrategy enterprise server.

As a regional manager, I still have complete interactivity.

So I can drill down into any value and

I can identify those customers that I wanna do my targeted campaigns against.

Let's say I wanna consume this dashboard that I've created, originally on desktop,

then promoted to web, but now I wanna do it on a mobile device.

MicroStrategy has native apps that are available both on the Android and

iOS devices.

And I'm gonna project my iPad over here, so you can see how you can run these exact

same dashboards, and maintain that experience across multiple interfaces.

So I'm gonna run this dashboard now on an iPad, and

you can see that it looks exactly the same.

In our activities maintained, you can annotate and then you can share, so

let's say you want to highlight a specific trend, you are be able to do that,

as well, and create and add comments and

really start collaborating with other users in the manner that you want.

Whether you wanna do it via web, whether you wanna do it via desktop or via mobile,

you have the option to do that.

So MicroStrategy allows you to create these dashboards on desktop.

It really gives you a migration path of leverage.

All of our enterprise capabilities to really make a data discovery solution that

has the means for governed data discovery and the means for you to leverage

enterprise grade capabilities to make this truly enterprise caliber.

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