Dynamics NAV Business Intelligence & Reporting

Using Calculations across cubes (calculated measures in virtual cubes) and freehand mdx

2007-06-15T17:09:37Z

As promised in a previous post I will provide examples on how to use the new features of Business Analytics Basic. I will be running on SQL 2005 as these features are only available when using SQL 2005.

First of let's look at BA Db. Overview form where i choose to create a few new measures/expressions in the Virtual Cube Customer Ledger.

I mark the cube and click Card to get access to detailed information on the cube. I then choose Expressions to get to the Editor

The Expression form opens and the name, expression and format of the expression can be entered.

By clicking the assist-butten the measures that are already in the cube appears and can be choosen to create calculations based upon them.

Using this approach (by picking measures this way) simple operations are supported (plus, minus etc.)

What is also possible is to write a freehand expression. All that is needed is to name the expression and the start typing away. The caveat to this approach is that the statement/expression is not validated before the configuration is implemented. If the there are errors in the expression and Analysis Services cannot validate the MDX the entire configuration will fail.

The use of this type of expression will enable scenarios where a virtual cube based on one cube containing some measures that are based on actual figures and one cube based on budget figures. Expressions calculating budget deviation are possible. Including forecast numbers gives even a wider window.

Using MDX numbers like YTD, Rolling average and measures like that can easily be created.

After implementing the configuration the two new measures are available (here in the Advanced client)

What is new in Dynamics NAV 5.0 Business Analytics (BA)

2007-06-04T22:58:00Z

A while a go we released Dynamics NAV 5.0 and with that a new version of Business Analytics Basic and Advanced. I want to spend a few lines of text to share what is new in this release and the reasons for these features making it into the product at this time.

First of all the Advanced client is now up to speed with version 2k5 of the Targit release with everything in that. This gives us support for presenting cubes created in SQL Server Analysis Services 2005.

Of other new things i can add gauges as a way of graphically representing KPIs in a trafficlight way. I also add improved integration with SQL Server Reporting Services.

In BA Basic list of new features looks as follows:

Ability to apply filters on fact tables
(Allows customers with large volumes of data to create cubes containing only subsets of data. Filters can be set by the members of any of the dimensions in a cube)
Create calculations between virtual cubes
(Allows for cross cube calculations to be handled by BA Basic. An example would be having a cube with actual figures and one with budget figures. It would be obvious to create a measure reflecting the deviation between the two. This is possible with this feature)
Multiple active configurations
(In previous version one could have only one active configuration. A configuration is made up of a set of cubes, dimensions etc that are implemented in databases with fixed names (BA for MBS Navision 400). This would mean that whenever a given configuration was implemented the database names etc was overwritten by the new content. In this version the database/configuration name is customizable meaning that you can create configurations that can be updated at differing schedules etc. without interfering with each other)
Support for named instances of SQL Server It is now possible to have the BA databases and or NAV run on something but the default instance in SQL)
Freehand MDX
(This is the ability to create formulas/calculated members that go beyond what the simplistic calculator will enable inside NAV. This is also something that potentially can break the implementation if syntax is wrong in the statements written. This unleashes the power of the language but with the freedom comes responsibility)

In coming posts I will create examples of the usage of each of these features so stay tuned. If you would like to see one over the other leave a comment and I will try to do this.

BA changes in NAV 4.00 SP3

2006-11-30T15:33:00Z

So we released SP3 for NAV 4.00. For Business Analytics this means a few things. First and most important we now are able to support SQL Server 2005 with the Configurator. This means that you now can create cubes from NAV 4.00 SP3 on SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services. This also means that the version of Business Analytics Advanced can't connect the cubes that can be created with the new version of the Configurator. In SP3 we didn't release the next version of the Advanced Client but we will do that as soon as possible.

First the W1 version which is in English will be released. After that, probably in the 5.00 timeframe, localized versions of the Advanced Client will be released. Until then there are plenty of other ways to consume the cubes that can be created with the new Configurator. Excel, Reporting Services, Report Builder, Proclarity and Business Scorecard Manager are all good examples of clients that can connect and consume the cubes on SQL 2005.

I will follow this with a series of posts on how to set up these components to connect to cubes on SQL 2005 so stay tuned

SQL Server 2005 SP1 has been released

2006-04-20T10:29:00Z

This release includes SQL Server Express with Advanced Services that includes Reporting Services. The service pack can be downloaded here http://www.microsoft.com/sql/sp1.mspx This Service Pack also include tools for SQL Server Express that allows creation of reports and management of the SQL database...(read more)

Convergence follow up - Business Scorecard Manager and Dynamics NAV

2006-04-19T08:13:00Z

I've had the question for additional information on both Reporting Services, Business Scorecard Manager and SQL Server in general from several people approaching me after the sessions at Convergence so I figured I'd post them here. For information on Business Scorecard Manager go to: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX012225041033.aspx For information on and download of Service Pack 1 for SQL 2005 go to: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=57856CDD-DA9B-4AD0-9A8A-F193AE8410AD&displaylang=en...(read more)

22 Free Reporting Services Reports for Dynamics Nav available

2006-04-03T10:59:00Z

Together with the SQL Server team we released a report pack for Dynamics Nav running on SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. This is done together with a series of other Report Packs that can be seen here.
The Nav Reports will run on the W1 demo database but can easily be customized to run on any database. The Nav Reports can be picked up at the location below:

SQL2005RPNAV.MSI

As we are very interested in feedback please leave comments

First day at Convergence

2006-03-28T13:19:00Z

My first day at Convergence is over and it was a packed day. Meetings, presentations and Expo duty back to back. Presentation was full and went ok. We need to cut some slides to make all the demos fit and the rerun will reflect that. All in all good questions from the participants. Good buzz around the Expo and a lot of interesting discussions with partners and customers around problems they are facing and interest in the next version of Nav.

Arriving to Dallas

2006-03-27T13:18:00Z

Arrived to Dallas last night to the location of Convergence. Came in at 10:45 pm sunday night after 15 hours on the road with lots of time to think about the presentations for today. Arriving here also ment reading mails from team members that arrived earlier. It seems that there are good vibes around presentations of the next version of Navision and I'm looking forward to see the Bill Gates keynote today where among other things we will see a preview of Dynamics Nav. This demo is interesting to...(read more)

Off to Convergence

2006-03-23T12:10:00Z

Convergence is just around the corner and I'm preparing my presentation (NAV05: NAV -- Reporting & Analysis). It will be a powerpacked tour of how to integrate from Navision to the Microsoft BI and reporting stack. There will be lots of demos in Reporting Services, Report Models, Business Analytics and Business Scorecard Manager.

I am looking forward to this as I do expect lots of questions and feedback.

New category - Reporting

2005-12-04T01:23:36Z

I have just created a new category called reporting. Here I will discuess the possibilities in reporting in conjunction with Reporting Services. There are several ways to use this tool to do reports on top of Navision and will try to cover most of them in my next posts.
If there are special topics in this area that you would like adressed here please leave it in the comments and I'll pick it up.

Top reporting pains - request for feedback

2005-12-04T01:23:00Z

Here is a way to provide me some direct feedback with regards to the current reporting solution in Navision. What are you top pains in the current reporting solution and what is the best with regards to the current reporting solution. Leave feedback in comments.

Creating a Fiscal Calendar in BA 4.00

2005-07-22T12:07:00Z

By request I'll briefly run over generating new timedimension in BA. By default BA is not able to create a Fical Calendar that fits the content of the table AccountingPeriodes. Nor is it able to handle calendars from Service. These can however be created manually. It is really simple and requires only editing of the Analysis Services database. It is important to note that changes made this way will not show up in the BA configurator inside Navision and the changes will be overwritten if the configurator is run from inside Navision.

To start editing open Analysis Manager. In the database BA for MBS Navision 400 right click the Shared Dimensions node and choose New Dimension - Wizard as shown below.

Choose Start Schema as the dimension type and click next

In the Select dimension table box select the table wPostingDate that contains a list of dates.

Select Time dimension as the dimension type and make sure that the Date column is set to thedate column.

If you wish to create a Fiscal Calendar where the fiscal year begins in July this is set in the Create time dimension levels box shown below. Valid selections are any month and any given day within that month.

Clicking next will enter the Dimension Editor where advanced settings can be defined and the dimension can be setup to fit more specific needs. Since the dimension at the current point doesn't show a date as the lowest level by a day number this will have to be changed to obtain having a date shown as the lowest level of the dimension. This is done by marking the Day level which is shown in the upper left hand pane and afterwards editing the Member Name Column property in the lower left hand pane.

To have a date shown instead of a number choose DateName and click ok.

Clicking data to browse the dimension will render the result below. Save the dimension and process it.

The dimension can now be added to any cube in the database. Given the fact that the table wPostingDate already is added to some cubes in the Default setup no further editing should be necessary for those cubes when adding the new dimension. If the dimension is added to a cube where the table is not part of an existing dimension the join to the fact table should be specified when adding the cube. This should be done by pointing the column TheDate from wPostingDate to the appropriate datetime column of the fact table.

I is important to note that this works as long as no editing of the setup takes place from inside Navision as it overwrites any manual changes made since the last deployment when running.

The optimal solution to creating a Fiscal time dimension would be extracting the starting period end closing period from the AccountingPeriods table. If the interest is there I will do a post on this at a later point in time. Also please let me know if this was of any help and if you would have suggestions on other topics. My next post will be on incremental updates instead of the default full loads supported by BA. Especially I'm interested in the relevance on posts on Reporting Services in conjunction with Navision.

Navision DEV is blogging

2005-07-21T15:19:00Z

Just a service message - Henrik Skydtsgaard has a blog on .Net and Navision here http://blogs.msdn.com/skydtsgaard

Movement of pictures

2005-07-18T14:30:00Z

Just a note on the update of the configuration post. I had to move my pictures to new location.

Running more than one active configuration in BA 4.00

2005-05-23T09:35:00Z

As promised at my session last week I would post a detailed walk through of how to be able to run more than one active configuration with BA in Navision 4.00. First of all I would like to state that this is not a thing that I'd recommend doing unless you are used to working with both SQL Server, Analysis Services and Data Transformation Services. For more info on those technologies - see my previous post on the components used in BA 4.00.

First we will move the Relational database created by BA to new one. This is necessary because BA always will create a database with the same name. If we do not complete this step the database will be overwritten when creating a new configuration. Navigate to Query Analyzer located in the SQL Server program group in the Start menu. there connect to the database server and execute the script below:

sp_renamedb 'BA for MBS - Navision 400', 'BAVendorDB'
go
sp_detach_db BAVendorDB
go
xp_cmdshell 'rename "c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\BA for MBS - Navision 400_dat.mdf" BAvendordb_dat.mdf'
go
xp_cmdshell 'rename "c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\BA for MBS - Navision 400_log.ldf" BAvendordb_log.ldf'
go
EXEC sp_attach_db @dbname = N'bavendordb',
@filename1 = N'c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\bavendordb_dat.mdf',
@filename2 = N'c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\bavendordb_log.ldf'
go

Note that this is specific to your installation and rights on the server. You will have to be a member of the sysadmin group on the database server to be able to execute this. Also note that there should be no users running on the database when doing this. Normally I'd recommend scripting the database and then edit the script and run it appropriately or backing up the database and restoring it with a new name. For the sake of the demo I did it this way which is easy but requires a specific setup to run.

When this is done the cubes should be copied and edited to point to the new database. Start by navigating to the Analysis Services administration tool. Here browse to the server where the Navision Cubes are placed.

Copy the database by right-clicking the database and chose copy

Right-click on the Server name and chose paste.

Since there is already a database of that name you are asked to choose a new one. Write an appropriate name for the configuration at hand. In this example it will be Vendor Database which is the name I will use for the rest of this post.

You now have an exact copy of the Analysis Services database. Expand the Data Source folder and right-click the data-source that is in it. We need to edit this to make it point to the new database that we just created named BAVendorDB.

Point to the server (in this case (local)) and chose BAVendorDB from the drop-down.

After this we have a new Analysis Services database pointing to the relational database BAVendorDB in SQL Server.

The next task is to alter the DTS packages created by BA. Open Enterprise Manager and browse to the Data Transformation Services folder. In Local Packages there are 4 packages that we will need to alter.

First open the package BA for MBS-Navision 400 - initialize. This will open the package in DTS Designer which is where DTS Packages can be edited.

Double click BA for MBS-Navision and create new connection called BA Vendor DB. Point the connection to the new database called BAVendorDB in the drop-down.

After this the task Create Company needs to be altered to point to the new connection

The task Truncate tables also needs to be pointed to the new connection.

Click the Package menu – chose Save As and choose a new name for the package. In this case I will call the package BA Vendor DB Initialize

Now open the package BA for MBS-Navision 400 - Transfer [CompanyName]. In this package we also need to create a new connection called BA Vendor DB. this step equals the one above.

When clicking OK a pop-up called Task References will appear. DTS has detected that several tasks are using the connection we just changed and asks if it should delete the mappings. This is not needed and clicking OK without selecting any transformations will preserve the transformations. We can do this since the databases are exact matches.

To make sure that all transformations are pointing to BA Vendor DB all connections called BA for MBS-Navision 400 should be changed. For each of them repeat the step about preserving all mappings in the tasks. Screen shots are below for each connection in the package.

Click the Package menu – chose Save As and choose a new name for the package. In this case I will call the package BA Vendor DB Transfer [CompanyName]

Now open the package BA for MBS-Navision 400 - Post Process. In this package we also need to create a new connection called BA Vendor DB. this step equals the one above.

Double-click the task Populate Posting Date. Point the connection to the connection created above called BA Vendor DB.

Double-click the task Update Posting Date. Point the connection to the connection created above called BA Vendor DB.

To be able to edit the connection settings for the task Quality Check we need to do a Disconnected Edit. In disconnected edit all properties can be edited with no check on the validity of the value. This means that one can really mess up in this and I cannot stress enough that you should not do this unless you know what you are doing. Doing the wrong things here can ruin the package for good. To enter Disconnected Edit right-click the Quality Check task and chose Disconnected Edit.

In Disconnected Edit locate under Tasks the Quality Check task double-click the ConnectionID property.

In the Edit Property box set the value to 2 and click OK.

Exit Disconnected Edit and double-click the Quality Check task. The connection name should now be BA Vendor DB.

Double-click the Update Statistics tasks and set the connection to BA Vendor DB

Click the Package menu – chose Save As and choose a new name for the package. In this case I will call the package BA Vendor DB Post Process

Now open the package BA for MBS-Navision 400 - Process Cubes. Double-click the Process Shared Dimensions task and point it to the dimensions in the Vendor Database.

Double-click the Process Cubes task and point it to Cubes in the Vendor Database

Click the Package menu – chose Save As and choose a new name for the package. In this case I will call the package BA Vendor DB Process Cubes

The next task is to alter the Agent Job created by BA. The job will enable you to schedule the job in running the packages at a given time of day/night.

Browse to Management and SQL Server Agent. Under Jobs you will find a job called Update Business Analytícs Database.

Double-click the job. Here you will see four steps representing each of the four packages mentioned above.

Edit the first step and change the name of the command to reflect the new name of the initialize package. In this case BA Vendor DB - Initialize

Alter the following steps accordingly to reflect the new names of the packages. Also note that you will have to give the job a new name to be able to coexist with other parallel configurations.

To run the job either schedule it or right-click and chose run from the menu.