MicroStrategy ONE

SAP BW Terminology

The following list provides information on SAP BW objects for reference when Relating Objects from SAP BW to MicroStrategy:

For a comprehensive explanation of SAP BW objects, refer to your SAP documentation.

  • InfoObjects: are the building blocks for individual cubes. They include objects such as characteristics and key figures, which are roughly equivalent to attributes and facts in a MicroStrategy project.
  • InfoProviders: are all SAP BW data structures available for reporting and analysis purposes, such as the following:
    • InfoCubes: are multi-dimensional cubes are the primary objects that SAP BW uses to store data for analysis. InfoCubes define a specific domain of analysis in special areas, for example, finance or sales. Data is organized by dimension and stored physically in a star schema. The fact table at the center of an InfoCube contains the data available for analysis.
    • ODS objects: are operational data store objects. ODS objects are flat relational tables and are similar to MicroStrategy fact tables.
    • MultiProviders: are logical unions of two or more InfoProviders that are used to combine data from two different subject areas, for example, three InfoCubes or two ODS objects.

  • Query cubes (or query): defines a subset of data from an InfoCube or another InfoProvider. A query cube includes characteristics (dimensions/attributes) and key figures (metrics) from its source provider. The relationship between the query cube and the InfoCube is similar to the relationship between a MicroStrategy report and your data warehouse, in that a MicroStrategy report includes a subset of modeled attributes and metrics that are available in the data warehouse.

    Query cubes generally offer better performance than InfoCubes because they are smaller and can be scheduled and cached within SAP BW. Query cubes also provide MicroStrategy users access to additional InfoProviders including ODS objects, InfoSets, and MultiProviders.

    Any existing SAP BW query can be released for analysis within MicroStrategy. To release a query for analysis in MicroStrategy, choose the Allow External Access to This Query check box under the Extended tab in the SAP Query Properties dialog in the Query Analyzer interface. With this option enabled, report designers can quickly access existing query cubes and business content when working in MicroStrategy.

  • Characteristics: provide classification possibilities for a dataset, such as sales region, product, customer group, fiscal year, and period. For example, a Sales Region characteristic can have North, Central, and South specifications.

    SAP BW characteristics are similar to MicroStrategy attributes. However, when each characteristic is translated into a cube, it is treated as a separate dimension for analysis. In addition, SAP BW hierarchies can be associated with a specific characteristic within SAP BW. These hierarchies are also available when you work with an MDX cube in MicroStrategy.

    SAP BW also has an object called an attribute, which is equivalent to an attribute form in MicroStrategy, not a MicroStrategy attribute.

  • Key figures: describe numeric data, such as revenue, profit, and number of call centers. Key figures include amounts, quantities, numbers, dates, and times, all of which can be used in InfoCubes, ODS objects, and master data attributes. You can also create calculated key figures and restricted key figures in the query definition in the Business Explorer, similar to creating derived metrics and conditional metrics in MicroStrategy.
  • Hierarchies: are objects that define the relationships among elements within a characteristic. For example, the Item characteristic might have a hierarchy that includes Category, Subcategory, and Item. This is a different paradigm from MicroStrategy's model where each attribute defines its own level, even though they are presented with the traditional attribute-based parent-child relationships when viewed in MicroStrategy.

  • Variables: are used as parameters of a query in SAP BW. Defined in the Query Designer, variables can be of such types as characteristic values, hierarchies, hierarchy nodes, texts, and formulas. When a query is executed, these variables include values supplied by the system or by the user.

    When an MDX cube is imported into a MicroStrategy project, all the variables in the MDX cube are represented as MicroStrategy prompts. When the MDX cube is used to create a MicroStrategy MDX cube report, the MDX cube report inherits all of the prompts. See Relating Objects from SAP BW to MicroStrategy for more information on converting variables to prompts.

MicroStrategy lists all available MDX cubes for reporting and analysis in the MicroStrategy MDX Cube Catalog, including all of the published query cubes, InfoCubes, and MultiProviders. For information on using the MDX Cube Catalog to import MDX cubes, see Importing MDX Cubes.