Norm's PerformancePoint Server Blog : SQL Server

PPS-Planning Intercompany Eliminations for a Financial Model

normbi — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:18:59 GMT

Forrest Dermid, a Microsoft BI technical specialist and my favorite (and only) contact for providing great video posts, has offered another. This video provides you with a how-to lab for performing PPS Planning intercompany eliminations for a financial model without shares. Forrest also demonstrates a simulation of activity between two entities in SQL Server 2005 --to show there is little magic to eliminations. Please let us know what you think of the video.

Intercompany elimination: In the process of preparing consolidated financial statements, it is necessary to remove evidence of transactions that took place between the parent and subsidiary. I don't think investors care to see intercompany transactions.

Other sources:

How do I set up a model for shares calculation and consolidation?

Notes on video demo for SSIS and PPS data integration demo part I

normbi — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:15:49 GMT

Here are my notes for the part I video demo that describes moving reference data from a source to the Planning app db. Good news, you can also download the SSIS package from which Forrest is working. Download the SSIS package, watch the video and try it out!

Make sure you see the setup instructions from the ReadMe folder and have the AdventureWorksDW database on SQL Server.

By the way, why so much effort on providing information for data integration? Here are some good reasons.

You can't use the PPS applications without data (the right data).
Integrating data can be costly. I want to make it easier by providing instruction.
Using SSIS and a good process will help you create a repeatable method for loading data.

Video notes

The demo covers the following:

How to prepare the Account dimension in PPS Planning Business Modeler before populating with data.
How to synchronize the staging database in SSIS using the Business Modeler command utility, PPSCmd.
How to Create a Data Flow Task to move data.
How to load from app db to staging db with the PPSCMD.
How to populate the hierarchy - using the CreateHierarchFromDim stored procedure.

How to prepare the Account dimension.

The Account dimension is a predefined dimension that acts as a starting chart of accounts for various financial models in the Planning application. Forrest adds the following two members to the Account dimension in Planning Business modeler.

ParentName - Want to create a Member View or just view the inventory accounts.
AccountKey - Added as a source primary key to join on between the source and planning application.

On the application database the following tables (notice the naming convention) are created.

d_account
h_account
h_account_report (a Member set Forrest creates in the demo) You create a Member set to organize the dimensions, so that each of the items and members within can be identified and utilized for different purposes.

Review the structure of the application db. Also review the structure of the staging db in the topic About the structure of the staging database.

Create and populate a temp table called T_Account_Report, a replication of the hierarchy table.

How to synchronize the staging database in SSIS

Why? to bring the application db and staging database to the same state. For more information see synchronize the staging database.

Drag and drop the Execute Process Task (Control Flow Item) onto the Control Flow area.
Right click and select edit. The Execute Process Task Editor will open.
Select Process in the left pane.
Enter the location of the executable (one of the circled fields in the image).
Enter the argument for the PPSCmd command utility.
Click OK.

You might be safer to synchronize all dimensions. In that case, your argument would look like the following.

StagingDB /Operation SynchronizeData /Server http://localhost:46787 /Path <path> /Collection dimensions

How to Create a Data Flow Task

OLEDB Source and Destination

Right-click and edit.

How to load from app db to staging db with the PPSCMD

Review PPS data integration considerations on loading dimensions.

Also review the function BizSystemFlag plays while preparing data to load and troubleshooting.

Really, you should just read all of the Planning data integration help.

How to populate the hierarchy - using the CreateHierarchFromDim stored procedure.

Review PPS data integration help on populating a property-based hierarchy.

Also the stored procedure signature bsp_DI_CreateHierarchyFromDimenstion.

Summary

If it seems like my notes are incomplete, it is because they are incomplete. I ran out of time. But look forward to the next part (loading fact data).

SSIS and PerformancePoint Server data integration demo part I

normbi — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:24:17 GMT

Part I includes some high level instruction on moving reference data to the stagingDB (created from the PPS Planning DB). I had to stop short, so...to be continued.

[update] I have added to part I the following:

The rest to follow might look something like the following:

Part II - Move fact data using SSIS
Part III - Video demo of updating

Introduction

Before data analysis and planning is available in the PPS business modeler application, you must get data from one or more combination of business data sources into the application database. PerformancePoint Server provides stored procedures and methodologies to help move data to its application databases. Data can be moved from any one of your data sources to a staging database. The data can then be validated and moved from the staging database to the application database. You could call it the data integration (DI) process.

All of this can be scripted in an SSIS package using the PPSCmd command utility (PPSCmd.exe) and SSIS. There is nothing better than making the DI process for planning modeler repeatable with the powerful tools in SQL Server 2005 and the PPS Planning Command Utility.

I should note that this post will only give you an idea of what you can do in SSIS with PPSCmd.exe and SSIS Control Flow, Data Flow & Maintenance tasks. My post will not discuss at length the tools in SSIS, the complete data integration process, or trouble shooting fixes for DI in SSIS (go to bottom for links to trouble shooting).

Before I continue, here is a simple diagram to show the process of data integration for PPS Planning.

The examples that I will provide come from an end-to-end solution using AdventureWorks and created by one of Microsoft's senior technical solutions professionals, Forrest Dermid. The complete end-to-end scenario will probably show up in a white paper later on.

Before we start, here are some more assumptions:

The Business Modeler Planning application structure is created (models, dimensions, etc...) -the holding structure for your data.
The staging database has been created -although you could also create it using the SSIS Execute Process Task and embed a statement similar to the following. Note: switches are case sensative.

PPSCmd.exe StagingDB /Operation CreateStaging /Server http://localhost:46787 /Path <path>

You have created an SSIS package before and have general familiarity.
You have read the Planning data integration documentation to understand the process that will be reflected in the SSIS package.

How to

Let's start where we must synchronize the staging database using SSIS to first copy the app db structure to the staging db.

Drag and drop the Execute Process Task (Control Flow Item) onto the Control Flow area.
Right click and select edit. The Execute Process Task Editor will open.
Select Process in the left pane.
Enter the location of the executable (one of the circled fields in the image).
Enter the argument for the PPSCmd command utility.
Click OK.

You might be safer to synchronize all dimensions. In that case, your argument would look like the following.

StagingDB /Operation SynchronizeData /Server http://localhost:46787 /Path <path> /Collection dimensions

...TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK

SQL Server 2008 & Windows 2008 Server and Free student downloads of Visual Studio 2008 !

normbi — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:49:51 GMT

Today Steve Ballmer officially kicked off more than 225 events in the world wide launch of the next generation of infrastructure and application platform products including Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5, Windows Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008.

The theme of the launch is “Heroes Happen Here” which highlights the heroic work that IT professionals, developers and partners do every day to create useful, cutting-edge solutions and applications.

What does it mean for PerformancePoint Server?

Generally speaking this means better performance, more out of the box connectivity, more Office integration, more scalability.

Free student downloads for Visual Studio 2008 an more

In the past I have painfully spent money for more than one student version of Visual Studio. I found out a few days ago that Microsoft is making an INCREDIBLE move by offering students free downloads of the professional Microsoft development tools. This is a dream come true for many students on a tight budget and educational institutions that want to simplify teaching students and teachers on the latest development tools and server products.

Channel8 described it as:

How would you like a free copy of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008? How about the entire Microsoft Expression Studio? Not enough...... how about Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and more?
For once, something that sounds too good to be true really is this good and really is true. Starting today (or soon in some areas), students worldwide will be able to download our professional development and design tools for free! It's called DreamSpark and it is upon us.

You can also download the 90 day trial here.

The Teradata - PerformancePoint Server 2007 White Paper

normbi — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 05:59:38 GMT

This white paper describes how to create and render reports using a ROLAP data source built with Analysis Services and Teradata. In addition, KPIs can be built using an ODBC data source that accesses data residing in the Teradata data source utilizing a SQL statement. I found this when I read Jeff Carr's Microsoft Business Intelligence blog, The Data Puzzle.

The following “how do I” solutions are addressed in the white paper (click here to download):

· Building a simple dashboard using the PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer.

· Performing ad-hoc analysis with chart and grid reports.