Beta Experience and Feedback on MicroStrategy 9

Bryan BrandowMicroStrategy ArchitectBluegreen Corp.bryan.brandow@bluegreencorp.com

January 15th, 2009

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History

Founded in 1966 in Massachusetts, the company’s core business wasbuying, improving, selling and financing recreational land in more than32 states. In 1986 the company was listed on the New York StockExchange and in 1991 it was relocated to Boca Raton, Fla.

Bluegreen Corporation (NYSE:BXG) is a leading provider of Colorful Places to Live and Play®. With over 185,000 owners, Bluegreen Resorts markets and sells a flexible, real estate-based vacation ownership plan with access to over 40 resorts and an exchange network of over 3,700 resorts and other leisure products such as cruises and hotel stays.

Overview

About Bluegreen

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Bluegreen BI Project Statistics

• 150 users• 2,000 Jobs a day• 50% are Narrowcast• Average Execution is 30s• 200GB Data Warehouse• MS SQL Server 2005

6 Projects from 9 Data Sources including Sales, Marketing, Inventory, HR, and IT systems

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Presentation Outline

• Quick overview of MicroStrategy Beta Programs

• Particular focus on Distribution Services

• Demo important Web enhancements to Bluegreen

• Quickly highlight additional features throughout

• SQL Engine Enhancements

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MicroStrategy Beta Programs http://www.microstrategy.com/BetaPrograms/

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Bluegreen as Beta Partners

CostMicroStrategy sent experienced Beta Consultants for free to work with us in our environment. All that was required was some of our time and the use of a dedicated server (virtual). Consultants visited for one week at a time on two separate occasions and were mostly self sufficient. Regularly scheduled meetings and responsibilities did not impact testing. There was little to no interruption to our normal BI operations.

ValueDedicated face time with MicroStrategy to discuss issues important to us. The majority of the issues and enhancements that we discussed during our visits found their way into the final product. Access to the product before release allows for better planning in the deployment cycle for next year’s initiatives. We have advanced knowledge of what will be required from a hardware perspective and can rally project interest by showing off future features.

8.1 Beta Evaluators: 11 issues reported9.0 Beta Partners: 40+ issues reported, including performance benchmarks

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MicroStrategy 9 represents the most feature-packed release since a near complete platform rewrite for 7.0 in 2000. Some projects featured in MicroStrategy 9 began development over 4 years ago.

This presentation will highlight some of the beta features we have tested that are pertinent to the Bluegreen Business Intelligence project.

* Please note that all test results contained in this presentation are the results of our testing on our platforms using various Beta releases. These results may vary from the final release and from other platform configurations.

MicroStrategy 9 Overview

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Bluegreen’s Beta Goals

1. Distribution Services Migration and Performancea) Procedures for converting existing subscriptions.b) System Performance.c) User Interface and Administration Interface improvements.

2. SQL Engine Performancea) Enhancements to the existing architecture.b) New technology that could be leveraged.

3. Web Interfacea) Improvements to usability and functionality.b) Process changes due to new features.c) Impacts to design decisions due to new capabilities.

4. Separate Web/Narrowcast and IServer?a) With Distribution Services moving to the IServer, is it still

recommended to have two separate machines or to bring all product functionality into a single box?

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Upgrading from NCS to DS

Starting in 9.0, all Web Delivery subscriptions previously handled by Narrowcast Server will be handled by Distribution Services, a new component of the Intelligence Server. Desktop includes a tool for upgrading subscriptions into the new metadata.

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Upgrading from NCS to DS

To perform the upgrade, simply select the “Upgrade Narrowcast Server Web Deliveries subscriptions” option from the Desktop. This will begin a wizard similar to Project Duplication.

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Distribution Services Administration

Command Manager now has the ability to create and alter subscriptions. This will allow for batch migrations of physical subscriptions from one user to another, an important feature that was missing from Narrowcast.

Subscription Monitor allows for administration to be done directly in Desktop.

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Distribution Services vs. Narrowcast

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9.0 Beta 2 CPU% 8.1.2 CPU %

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9.0 Beta 2 Disk IO 8.1.2 Disk IO

RAM Availability

Disk IO

Test detailsTwo virtual servers with identical specs and configurations using the same data warehouse server.

Executing 33 identical reports of various sizes and output methods.

8.1: 16.5 minutes9.0: 15.1 minutes

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Distribution Services: Web Deliveries

• Free form Subscription Name

• GUI Shared Address Book

• Multiple Send Method Options

• Multiple Delivery Formats

• Zip Protection

• Automated Expiration

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8x Problem 1 – Prompted Subs

These 4 prompted reports represent over 35% of our requests.

There are 5 or 6 prompts on each of them, resulting in many users requiring dozens of subscriptions per report.

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If a user creates multiple subscriptions to the same report, but with different prompt answers, there is no visual indication to the user concerning which report is which.

8x Problem 1 – Prompted Subs

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8x Problem 1 – Prompted Subs

To make the subscriptions more manageable, the user saves copies of the report with the prompt answers saved in their My Reports folder. Now the subscription names are representative of the reports and prompt answers.

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8x Problem 1 – Prompted Subs

Unfortunately, this creates many copies of the main reports which makes change management very difficult.

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9.0 Solution 1 - Subscription Renaming

Although a seemingly small feature addition in 9.0, the ability for users to rename subscriptions will have a very large impact in our project. We will begin initiatives to retrain users to not create multiple copies and work towards consolidating subscriptions back to their original source versions.

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325 Subscriptions

8x Problem 2 – Copying Subs

In 8x, there are no methods of moving subscriptions between users. In some cases, a user with hundreds of subscriptions changes roles or leaves the company. How do we handle all of their subscriptions?

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8x Problem 2 – Copying Subs

1. Rename the User Account

We can rename the user account in IServer and link itto the new user. We also have to rename their login id in Narrowcast Subscription Book.

This method works, but does affect statistics history as all record of the original user is replaced by the new person. It is also an all or nothing, and doesn’t work if the destination user already has their own account with subscriptions.

2. Make the new user rebuild the subscriptions from scratch

New User

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9.0 Solution 2 – Command Manager

Command Manager 9.0 interfaces with Distribution Services and provides scripting functionality to alter subscriptions. Now we have the ability to move individual subscriptions or all to specific existing users.

Bonus: We also now have the ability to execute individual subscriptions for the first time!

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9.0 Solution 2 – Command Manager

Command Manager 9.0 also includes new Java based scripting syntax. This will enable the development of even more complex scripts to automate tasks or complete complex moves.

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Improvements to Web Interface

• Web is still zero footprint and multi-browser compatible. The interface has been updated to feel like Office 2007 for user familiarity.

• Multi-select rows and columns for advanced formatting

• Integrated back button with full session history.• Web Prompt Creation• Web Filter Creation

• Notes section allows for user driven footnotes and comments.

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Web Interface: Prompts

8.1.2 9.0

Saved prompt answer sets for easier report execution.

New AJAX technology makes prompts operate smoother and faster than before.

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Web Interface: Prompts Demo

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Web Interface: Thresholds

New web based threshold interface allows users to define and modify thresholds directly in Web.

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Web Interface: Thresholds Demo

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Web Interface: Other Stuff

• View folders in tree view for easier navigation• Drill on Page Bys• Grid banding by Columns• Drill on Graphs• Improved Subtotals editor• Graph Design Mode• Web based user security administration

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• Horizontally repeating data for more flexible report layouts.

Documents and Dashboards

• Tabbed layouts allow for multiple documents to be combined into a single report book.

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Documents and Dashboards

Additional New Stuff

• Table of Contents creation in PDF• Page/background image (watermark)• Vertically-oriented text fields• New HTML container can display any HTML content in AJAX or Flash• Include advanced functions in calculated fields• Include OLAP Services objects (derived metrics and elements) in a document• Drilling on grids/graphs in a document• Export to Flash/MHT format• Export to multiple worksheets in Excel• Drill link editor defines drill target attributes• Convert standard grid/graph report to a Document with one click• Link standard grid/graph report to document – maintain format changes across both• Manage join relationships between datasets in a document

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Server Core Enhancements

• Runs in 64-bit on Windows 64 operating systems• Improvements to caching architecture• Cache Report Services documents in final output format (PDF, Excel, XML)• Log performance counters for Report Services caches• Provide complete visibility into the cache key• More granular control of invalidation and deletion of caches

• Improvements to clustering functionality• Improvements to the SQL Engine to allow more analytical sophistication• Enhancements to the Export Engine to accommodate the changes to Report Services• Improved History List administration and monitoring• Improved encryption for report caches and data transmission

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SQL Global Optimization Settings

Bluegreen’s Benchmark of 20 Common Reports

* All Measurements from MicroStrategy 9.0 Beta 2

2.5x Faster than 8.01.5x Faster than 8.1

Settings

S0: No optimizationS1: Remove Unused and Duplicate PassesS2: S1 + Merge Passes with Different SELECTS3: S2 + Merge Passes, which only hit DB tables,

with Different WHERES4: S2 + Merge All Passes with Different WHERE

Seconds

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SQL Global Optimization SettingsLevel 2 (Best as of 8.1.2)

23 lines, 1 pass

59 lines, 3 passes

Level 4 (Best as of 9.0)

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Additional Engine Enhancements

In addition to reportdata being cached, copies of the XML, PDF and other export options are saved on the server.

This greatly improves response times of large documents.

Transformations in Where clauses

This eliminates the need to join to a static date lookup table.

Document Caching

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MicroStrategy 9 will introduce newly designed Enterprise Intelligent Cubes that complement the current Intelligent Cubes in OLAP Services. In addition to true sharing of the in-memory instantiation of the Intelligent Cubes by many users, additional features and capabilities have also been added to provide a richer user experience.

Intelligent Cubes

Regular Cache Lookup

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MicroStrategy 9 will introduce newly designed Enterprise Intelligent Cubes that complement current caching strategies. In addition to true sharing of the in-memory instantiation of the Intelligent Cubes by many users, additional features and capabilities have also been added to provide a richer user experience.

Intelligent Cubes

Intelligent Cube

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Intelligent Cube Features

• New Shared Enterprise Intelligent Cubes• Define custom groupings of attributes (shown below) in the cube• Define custom display sequence of attribute elements in the cube• Supports security filters and prompts in the cube• View filters using metrics are evaluated at the view

• New Cube Monitor to administer New Intelligent Cubes• Advanced functions can be used to define derived metrics

Multi-select elements to create new groupings on the fly.

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Eclipse plugin for Customizations

New Eclipse plugin allows for graphical editing of configuration files and settings. This enables rapid deployment of modifications in the event of upgrades or new environments.

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Thank You

Bryan BrandowMicroStrategy ArchitectBluegreen Corp.bryan.brandow@bluegreencorp.com

January 15th, 2009

Beta Experience and Feedback on MicroStrategy 9

http://www.microstrategy.com/BetaPrograms/

Questions?