10 reasons to use xlcubed for managed self-service ...managed self-service business intelligence...

EXCEL & XLCubed – Whitepaper page 1

10 Reasons to use XLCubed for

Managed Self-Service Business Intelligence

Introduction

Excel at the centre of the solution

If you handle reports and dashboards you already know Microsoft Excel, like 750 million

other users. The amount of data produced

and available has increased

exponentially through social

networks, controllers,

management systems, results of

surveys, etc. Everything has

become measurable.

Long reserved for the IT

department, Business

Intelligence has now proved its

worth for many organisations. BI

has long required complex and

expensive tools, but recent years

have seen the arrival of new tools

combining both simplicity and

power. Today, demand for

Business Intelligence is

exploding caused both by the needs and

demands of users and the democratisation of tools that serve

them.

XLCubed is unique as it transforms the most popular data analysis tool of all, Microsoft

Excel, into a rich front-end BI tool for the analysis and visualisation of data, operational

reporting and dashboards.


Managed Self-Service BI

The search for Agile BI, or Managed Self-Service BI, is an organisational response to the

increasing demands of users. It is also a recognition that queries are best answered, and

indeed best asked, directly by the users themselves.

However, to maximise the efficiency and value created from the solution, we believe that

the autonomy of the users is best supervised and supported by the IT Department, or for

more mature organisations a Centre of Expertise for BI (CEBI).

Figure 1 – Managed Self-Service BI process

Coaching: Coaching will normally be at two levels, upstream to identify solutions to meet a need (data, processes, tools) but also downstream of the work done by the user at the point of making the data available more widely in the rest of the organization. With XLCubed, this problem is solved by the introduction of a simple and effective process whereby Excel developed reports and dashboards can be quickly and easily published to the web server.

Support: Support through the provision to users of high performing, complete and reliable data sources. Most often, these data sources take the form of data stores (Data Marts), with a significant semantic layer. The exploitation of these data sources is made possible by tools such XLCubed, which offer an intuitive and powerful interface and require a minimum of training to get started and become proficient.

•Identify needs

•Identify solutions

•Confirm the existence of the required components

Imagination

-> Support CEBI

•Creation

•Iteration until the final result

•Dashboards & Reports

Creation

-> Self-Service User•Technical validation of the

solution

•Implementation of security

•Move to production

•User communication

Dissemination / Sharing

-> Support CEBI


Reason #1 – No matter how good your BI tools, users will want the data in Excel

It’s a recurring message whether working with Business Analysts, Financial Controllers,

Category Managers or Sales Managers: Excel is their productivity tool, period. XLCubed

gives users data in the Excel environment they want, but with hugely improved query,

analysis and data visualisation possibilities. Sophisticated analysis, report books and

pixel-perfect dashboards can all be designed using XLCubed in Excel.

For example: I need to conduct sales analysis on a list of 500 clients I’ve been provided

with, with sales figures of 200 products classified into 20 subcategories and 5 years of

monthly history, and a sales budget for comparison.

In this kind of situation, the use of an OLAP cube will render data instantaneously.

XLCubed can link the cube to Excel ranges and you can add your own data to the model. In

the case of Budgeting or Planning, it is also very easy to provide a data entry system to

adjust these figures over the period.

Vital data remains centralised but ad-hoc analysis remains local and I don't have to

involve the IT Department for this type of requirement. I can publish my analysis on to

the intranet with a mouse click.

Reason #2 – Overcome the Restrictions of Pivot Tables

Pivot tables are fine for the basic requirements of a simple data-pull, but they have many

limitations which can make them cumbersome and time consuming in many business

situations.

XLCubed Grids are designed from the ground up with multi-dimensional analysis in mind.

They provide advanced selections, embedded visualisations, simple user calculations and

full interactivity.

Flexibility in selecting members and sets of members from the hierarchies are key

in multivariate analysis. XLCubed gives powerful but intuitive ways to filter the

selection as needed, define Pareto Analysis and select the customers or products

which meet the criteria of your business problem

Data can be visualised directly in the grid using a rich in-cell chart library, with the

charts based directly on the cube data and fully dynamic.

User calculations are added using standard Excel formulae, but become an

embedded part of the grid and available for further slice and dice analysis.

Interactivity: All XLCubed components can be controlled by slicers, or by Excel

cells and ranges, opening up the full scope and flexibility of Excel to the XLCubed

BI tool.


Reason #3 – Visualisation leads to understanding

Excel allows simple graphics from series of numbers. XLCubed provides

three additional resources to help you visually present analysis.

Small multiples are a way to compare items across either one or two

categories in a matrix of charts where the scales on the individual charts

are consistent. Separating into different charts is often easier than trying to

compare on one chart. The charts can be drilled to additional detail, or

used as a selector for other parts of the report.

TreeMaps: The TreeMap can represent a dimension (products, customers) graphically as

a rectangle, the first dimension defines the area of the rectangle, and the second the

colour. This type of visualisation allows the comparison of two uncorrelated dimensions,

and the quick identification of the important elements and exceptions.


Geospatial maps: XLCubed provides point and shape based interactive mapping through

the Google Maps API. Data can be represented either by a point, where the size and colour

can depict two values, or by colour shading surface areas of a region. The region can be a

standard geographic boundary, or potentially customer-specific areas of managed sales

regions. Maps can be drilled and panned as with a regular Google Map, and map

components can easily be linked to any other components of XLCubed reports.

Reason #4 – Freedom of Formula Reporting

Formula reporting provides a perfect solution for Financial and Management Controllers.

XLCubed provides formulae to retrieve values and hierarchy members from the cube. The

formula approach gives total control over layout and formatting, and the formula are easy

to understand with simple user dialogs. You have control at the cell level and the report

can be built cell by cell, typically referencing the column and row headers.

Formula are most often used in dashboards and formal financial reports where the layout

is key. The simplest approach to create a formula report is to create a grid and then

convert to formula.

Formula can connect to multidimensional cubes or Tabular models.


Reason #5 - 'Look and Feel'

Formatting reports and dashboards is more complicated than it seems. First of all Excel,

by nature, requires no framework but provides a free canvas, unlike most other reporting

tools. Each element can not only be formatted properly, even dynamically with

conditional formatting but each of these components transfer seamlessly to XLCubed Web

Edition when the report is published.

Maximum freedom, pixel perfect…

Reason #6 – Dynamic publishing

A few clicks and it’s published! The XLCubed Web

server allows you to view and interact with

XLCubed solutions directly from a browser. The

reports are dynamic, secure, and always

connected to their data source.

The server also provides a platform for ad-hoc

analysis, for report automation and scheduling,

and for integration to SharePoint and other

custom portals.

Reason #7 – Mobility

Mobile access is provided through Apple,

Android and Windows Phone 8 applications.

Any report or dashboard developed in the

Excel client can be available on tablets and

mobile devices within minutes. It provides a

pragmatic and quick to deliver mobile

capability. Whatever you build in Excel, can

be available on your tablet in a few minutes.

Once published to XLCubed Web, reports are

immediately available through the mobile

apps.


Reason #8 - Office 97 to 2013, SQL 2000 to 2014

If you have not yet moved to Office 2013, don't panic. XLCubed is compatible with all

versions of Excel from 2002 to 2013 64 bit, and for SQL server Analysis Services 2000 to

2014 including tabular models (DAX) and relational sources.

For Excel 2010 and 2013, XLCubed can also use PowerPivot as a data source.

Reason #9 – Learning Curve

Users already know Excel, and this is a big advantage when it comes to learning XLCubed

as they are already comfortable in the environment. 80% of the functionality of XLCubed

can be learnt in a single day of training. Video training is available to explain, step by step,

all facets of the product.

Reason #10 - Price

XLCubed is highly competitive in comparison with its competitors, while offering more value.

Why?

XLCubed relies on existing solutions: no need to reinvent a table or multidimensional engine,

it uses Microsoft SQL Server BI. No need to completely reinvent a user interface. XLCubed is in

Excel.

The price takes this into account, but also maximises the investment already made in the

implementation of the Microsoft technology platform.

On the other hand, the licensing model is extremely simple. XLCubed Excel Edition is by

named user and XLCubed Web Edition is based on the maximum number of concurrent

users required.


XLCubed fits perfectly in a

'Managed' self-service model,

with an Excel component for

creation and XLCubed Web

Edition for distribution.

XLCubed is compatible with all

versions of Excel from Office XP

to Office 2013, and SQL Server

2000 to SQL Server 2014,

multidimensional and tabular.

XLCubed can span and link

different cubes, tabular

models and relational data

sources, in a single report or

dashboard.

XLCubed provides

additional business effective

visualisations such as in-cell

charting, small multiples,

treemaps, and geospatial

mapping.

XLCubed offers two primary

reporting modes:

Grids to quickly create reports

and dynamic dashboards and

Formulae which offer total

flexibility of layout and

formatting.

10 reasons to use xlcubed for managed self-service ...managed self-service business intelligence...

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