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DSV, KTH / SU IS5/2I1224PETIA WOHED HYPERION ESSBASE

020417

HYPERION ESSBASE INITIAL EXERCISE

In this exercise, you will learn the basic navigation in MS Excel as an interface tool toDB2 OLAP server. The tool you will use is called Hyperion Essbase and it is simply anextension of the MS Excel, which is done by the addition of a new menu, Essbase, to Excelstoolbar. (Naturally some mouse shortcuts for the commands from the Essbase menu aredefined too.) However, the rest of the Excel operation remains unchanged.

In this exercise you will train on the standard OLAP functionality. For doing this you willdisplay information from the predefined database Sample Basic. The Sample Basic databaseis based on a hypothetical company in the beverage industry. The major products of thecompany are various kinds of sodas. These products are sold in US markets, which arecategorised by state and region. Financial data for the company is collected monthly and issummarised by quarter and by year. The company uses Hyperion Essbase to calculatefinancial and accounting data, such as sales, cost of goods sold, and payroll. The company

tracks both actual and budget data, as well as the variance and percent variance betweenthe two. The definition of the outline we are going to use is given below. Take few minutes forstudying it and do not forget to come back to it when you need it later on.

Fig 1. Sample Database Outline

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Fig 4. The settings for Mode tab Fig 5. The settings for Global tab

Now, you are ready to connect to the Sample database.1. Select Essbase > Connect

Hyperion Essbase diplays the Essbase System Login dialog box.2. Select Olapfrom the server list3. Print your username (Jdb049 is mine) and password and click the OK button (Fig 6).4. Select Sample Basicfrom the Application/Database list and click OK once again (Fig

7)

Fig 6. Login window 1 Fig 7. Login window 2

When ending your work, to disconnect from the database select Essbase > Disconnect. (You

do not need to disconnect now.)

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Retrieve data from the database by1.Select Essbase > Retrieve

Hyperion Essbase retrieves data into the Excel worksheet (Fig 8).

Fig 8. Initial Data Retrieval from Sample Basic

When retrieving data into an empty worksheet, Hyperion Essbase returns data from the toplevels of each dimension. The top level is used as a starting point for navigation and drill

down into levels of more detailed data.

An alternative for retrieving data is double-clicking (with left hand side button of the mouse) ina data cell.

During the rest of this exercise it may happens that you want to take a step back (i.e., undo astep). This is done by selecting Essbase > FlashBack. NB! You cannot go back more thanone step.

If you at any moment want to start over from the beginning select the entire worksheet andselect Edit > Clear > Allto empty the worksheet and start again. At any point during theHyperion Essbase session, you can of course save the active worksheet with the Excel

command File > Saveor with the command File > Save As.

In the next following steps we are going through the standard OLAP functionality. A summaryof the Hyperion Essbase commands we are going to use is given in the table below

FUNCTION COMMAND SHORT COMMAND

Drill down(the results are organisedin rows, which is thedefault situation)

Select the member andselect Essbase > Zoom In

double click on a member with theleft-hand side button on the mouse

Drill down(the results are organisedin columns)

press Alt key anddouble click on a member with theleft-hand side button on the mouse

Drill up Select the member andselect Essbase > Zoom Out

double click on a member with theright-hand side button on the mouse

Movea member to a newposition (i.e. exchangethe places of row(s)and/or column(s))

mark the member, press the right-hand side button on the mouse andmove to desired position.

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Pivot Select the member andselect Essbase > Pivot

like move

Retaina data subset

Select the desiredmembers and selectEssbase > Keep Only

Removea data subset

Select the desiredmembers and selectEssbase > Remove Only(this command is acounterpart to the KeepOnly command)

Retrieve data SelectEssbase > Retrieve

double click on any sell

Undo(one step back only)

SelectEssbase > FlashBack

Now, how du you get to the worksheet on Fig 9? Try to do it by the help of commandssummary above. If you do not succeed, follow the instructions below. (If you after havingperformed the steps below still do not reach the worksheet on the figure below, it may beeasier to start over from the beginning, Fig 8, and repeat all the steps once again.). However,the steps suggested below are not the only way to reach to the required worksheet.

Fig 9.

1. Drill down on Yeardouble click on Year with the left-hand side button on the mouse

2. Drill down on Marketdouble click on Market with the left-hand side button on the mouse

3. Drill down on Scenario, so that the Scenarios attributes are typed in columnspress Alt key anddouble click on Scenario with the left-hand side button on the mouse

4. Remove only the data for the South regionselect South andselect Essbase > Remove Only

5. Keep only data for East and Westselect East and West (by holding the Ctrl button when selecting West)

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select Essbase > KeepOnly

Now, try to get back to the starting worksheet on Fig 8 by using Drill Up and Movecommands. If you do not succeed to do it by yourself follow the steps below.

1. Drill Up Marketdouble click on East with the right-hand side button on the mouse.

2. Drill Up Yeardouble click on Year (or Qtr1, or Qtr2, or Qtr3, Qtr4) with the right-hand sidebutton on the mouse.

3. Drill Up Scenariodouble click on Scenario (or on some of its attributes, i.e., Actual, Budget,Variance, or Variance%) with the right-hand side button on the mouse.

(the intermediate result after performing those three steps is shown in Fig 10)4. Move Market from A3 to D1

mark Market, press the right-hand side button on the mouse and move to D1(you can se the result from performing this step in Fig 11)

5. Move Scenario from B2 to E1

mark Scenario, press the right-hand side button on the mouse and move to E1

Fig 10. A spreadsheet Fig 11.A spreadsheet

So far, you have only worked with the dimensions. Of course, you are also able to use the so

called Attribute dimensions which are defined outside a basic dimension, but are associatedto a such. Pkg Type (Package Type) is such an attribute (see Fig 1) associated to theProduct dimension. The values of Pkg Type are Bottle and Can. Including such attributedimensions to a worksheet is done by manually typing them (or their values) in some cell onrow 1 in the worksheet. For instance

Type Pkg Type to E1, orType Can in C1 (Doing this removes the Product dimension, presently in C1, but its ok)

Now you can work with an attribute dimension in the same way you do with any other basicdimension.

Now, after you have learned how to navigate in Hyperion Essbase, you can connect to thecub you created at the end of the previous exercise (i.e., the Trad cub you created during theIS INITIAL EXERCISE) and answer the questions below. Support every answer with a tablewith data from the cube. (For you who are familiar with Excel, you are welcome to givealternative graphical representations which suitably visualise data from the cube.) Youranswers shall be documented and handed in (on paper, i.e. not electronically) latest duringthe last lecture of the course.

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QUESTIONS

1. In which region(s), the budgeted amount is lower than the actual amount?

2. Compare the profit of Colas drinks for 2000 in Central and West regions with the profit ofCream Soda drinks for the same year in the same regions!

3. Which were the two best selling products (i.e. the products giving the highest profit) andthe two worst selling products (i.e. the products with lowest profit) for the first quarter of2000? Which were the two best selling products and the two worst selling products for thewhole year 2000?

4. In which city did the best selling products for year 2000 the lowest profit, and in which citydid they the highest profit?

5. Define an own question, similar to the questions above, and answer it!