MicroStrategy 9 vs. IBM Cognos 10 - NDM · PDF file5 II. Comparison of MicroStrategy 9 and Cognos 10 on the Key BI Capabilities Business intelligence has the power to provide performance

A Comparison White Paper by MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy 9 vs. IBM Cognos 10

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Patent Information

This product is patented. One or more of the following patents may apply to the product sold herein: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,154,766, 6,173,310, 6,260,050, 6,263,051, 6,269,393, 6,279,033, 6,567,796,

6,587,547, 6,606,596, 6,658,093, 6,658,432, 6,662,195, 6,671,715, 6,691,100, 6,694,316, 6,697,808, 6,704,723, 6,741,980, 6,765,997, 6,768,788, 6,772,137, 6,788,768, 6,798,867, 6,801,910,

6,820,073, 6,829,334, 6,836,537, 6,850,603, 6,859,798, 6,873,693, 6,885,734, 6,940,953, 6,964,012, 6,977,992, 6,996,568, 6,996,569, 7,003,512, 7,010,518, 7,016,480, 7,020,251, 7,039,165,

7,082,422, 7,113,993, 7,127,403, 7,174,349, 7,181,417, 7,194,457, 7,197,461, 7,228,303, 7,260,577, 7,266,181, 7,272,212, 7,302,639, 7,324,942, 7,330,847, 7,340,040, 7,356,758, 7,356,840,

7,415,438, 7,428,302, 7,430,562, 7,440,898, 7,486,780, 7,509,671, 7,516,181, 7,559,048, 7,574,376, 7,617,201, 7,725,811, 7,801,967, 7,836,178, 7,861,161, 7,861,253, 7,881,443, 7,925,616 and

7,945,584. Other patent applications are pending.

How to Contact Us

MicroStrategy Incorporated

1850 Towers Crescent Plaza

Tysons Corner, VA 22182

Phone: 1.888.537.8135 Fax: 703.848.8610

E-mail: [email protected]

http://www.microstrategy.com

I. Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 4

II. Comparison of MicroStrategy 9 and Cognos 10 on the Key BI Capabilities ................................ 5

1. Delivering More BI with Less IT Effort - MicroStrategy Delivers the Lowest TCO .............................. 7

2. All User Needs through a Single Platform ..................................................................................... 11

3. Self-Service Through a Fast and Intuitive Web Interface ................................................................ 15

4. High Performance at Any Scale .................................................................................................... 18

5. Quick to Implement and Deploy, Easy to Maintain and Administer ............................................... 22

6. Highly Interactive and Flexible Mobile Intelligence ........................................................................ 26

7. Deep Insight through Superior Analytics ...................................................................................... 30

8. Flexible Technology for Departmental to Enterprise BI .................................................................. 32

III. MicroStrategy – A Market Proven, Industrial-Strength Technology .......................................... 35

Note: This document is a competitive analysis of MicroStrategy 9 Release 3.2 and IBM Cognos v10.1, the latest version of each application at the time of this

analysis. From this point on, MicroStrategy 9 Release 3.2 will generally be referred to as simply MicroStrategy or MicroStrategy 9. IBM Cognos 10.1 will be

interchangeably referred to as Cognos 10.1, Cognos 10, and Cognos.

MicroStrategy 9 vs. IBM Cognos 10

4

I. Executive Summary

In the business intelligence (BI) marketplace, MicroStrategy competes vigorously with vendors such as Cognos. At

first glance, it would seem that companies can use either MicroStrategy or IBM Cognos to support their reporting

and analysis needs. However, throughout the implementation and maintenance of BI applications, companies are

realizing significant differences in the BI capabilities between MicroStrategy and the less robust and less integrated

BI technologies, such as Cognos. MicroStrategy’s organically grown architecture delivers superior performance,

scalability, usability, efficiency, and reliability; all of which impact the total cost of ownership, user adoption, and

ultimately the success of the BI project.

As user and business requirements have become more complex, IT budgets nonetheless have come under increasing

pressure. Organizations need to deliver BI solutions in light of expanding user requirements, increasing amounts of

data, and differing data sources with a minimal amount of IT resources. Non-organic BI architectures, like Cognos,

require higher amounts of IT effort because of the basic nature of integrating disparate BI technologies which leads

to redundant and repetitive administration and the constant development of one-off workarounds. In contrast,

organically-developed BI architectures like MicroStrategy require the minimum amount of IT effort needed to deploy

and maintain BI applications and can empower business people to create their own reports without reliance on

IT personnel.

MicroStrategy 9 offers business users a redefined user interface for a fast and intuitive user experience where

they can access consistent information through secure Web, Microsoft Office, and mobile device interfaces.

MicroStrategy’s advanced analytical capabilities, such as predictive analytics and new in-memory analysis provide

users with fast and deep insight. With MicroStrategy’s scalable architecture and a single metadata, users can

seamlessly navigate from scorecards and dashboards to reports and analysis without being required to open and

close multiple BI tools and navigate dissimilar interfaces.

MicroStrategy 9 is advanced technology that allows companies to support all types of BI applications with a single

technology. MicroStrategy 9 builds on MicroStrategy’s unique strengths at the high-end of BI to extend the boundaries

of performance, scalability, and efficiency of enterprise BI. At the same time, MicroStrategy 9 brings quick-to-deploy BI

technology easily within reach of smaller departmental BI initiatives through features such as multisource data access,

in-memory ROLAP, and Visual Insight. Just as importantly, MicroStrategy 9 provides a smooth migration path for

islands of departmental BI to merge into a cohesive and consistent enterprise-wide framework. With MicroStrategy

9, even as departmental BI applications are consolidated into the enterprise-wide framework, the departments can

continue to retain significant autonomy and nimbleness that they enjoyed previously.

For nearly 20 years, MicroStrategy customers have gained an edge over their competitors with fast, agile analysis

using MicroStrategy’s sophisticated technology. Companies and industry analysts widely recognize MicroStrategy for

its administration-friendly architecture, robust security, self-service zero-footprint Web interface, innovative mobile

application platform, and proven user and data scalability.

This document discusses in detail the key differences between MicroStrategy 9 and Cognos 10.

5

II. Comparison of MicroStrategy 9 and Cognos 10 on the Key BI Capabilities

Business intelligence has the power to provide performance feedback and visibility to all people in an organization,

thus enabling businesses to make better decisions every day. However, not all BI technologies deliver on this

promise, falling short on a number of key capabilities demanded of enterprise BI applications. A complete and

efficient BI platform must provide organizations with the following key capabilities:

Key BI Capabilities

1. Delivering More BI with Less IT Effort ...................................................................................................... pg.7

MicroStrategy technology requires far fewer IT personnel for a given amount of BI users because its reusable

metadata is easier to maintain requiring less redundancy, because end users have more self-service capabilities

that offload work from the IT staff, and because it provides a comprehensive suite of administrative tools

requiring fewer IT administrators. Cognos report developers are forced to create redundant report metadata.

Metadata they create cannot be reused across all reports, causing unnecessary maintenance. Cognos end users

have limited self-service capabilities and are heavily dependent on IT, requiring more IT administrators and report

developers. Cognos administrators have fewer tools that allow them to centrally monitor and manage the BI

applications, thus requiring more administrators per number of end users.

2. All User Needs through a Single Platform ................................................................................................pg.11

MicroStrategy users can access any style of BI via a unified and home grown BI platform. MicroStrategy users get

a single “version of the truth” through interactive Web, Microsoft Office, and mobile device interfaces. Although

slightly more streamlined in v10.1, Cognos users still must choose from stand alone “Studios” and platforms to

access each style of BI, with disparate user interfaces and metadata that can lead to “multiple versions of the truth.”

3. Self-Service Through a Fast and Intuitive Web Interface ........................................................................pg.15

To enhance usability, the MicroStrategy Web interface adopts many familiar paradigms including, ribbon toolbars,

accordion controls, control-click multi-select capability, and context-sensitive right-click actions. MicroStrategy’s

next-generation of advanced self-service functionality is designed to provide more control to business users. The

MicroStrategy advanced self-service interface provides incredible speed-of-interactivity, stunning visualizations,

drag-and-drop manipulations, and instant results – thus allowing business users to rapidly go from data to

decisions. Cognos v10.1 continues to force users to get acquainted with different end user interfaces or

“Studios”, which lack consistency in functional paradigms. These inconsistencies in the user interface increase

training requirements and decrease user adoption for BI applications that require a combination of reporting and

analysis. Cognos does not provide the full extent of self-service that MicroStrategy does and Cognos users more

often require IT assistance for report development.

4. High Performance at Any Scale ................................................................................................................ pg.18

MicroStrategy’s high performance at any scale is possible given its In-memory ROLAP architecture, which leverages

the database for much of its processing. Data joins and analytic calculations are processed in the database

whenever possible. MicroStrategy’s unique multi-pass approach provides the flexibility to answer any analytical

question in the most optimal manner. The Cognos ROLAP engine does not provide the ability to run multi-pass SQL

and therefore forces many calculations to be performed in the middle-tier server not leveraging the database to the

fullest extent possible, thus resulting in unnecessary network and hardware resource utilization.

6

5. Quick to Implement and Deploy, Easy to Maintain and Administer ......................................................pg.22

MicroStrategy provides organizations a platform that is quick to implement and deploy as well as easy to

maintain and administer. MicroStrategy’s single code base offers the unique advantage of reusable business logic

across the entire platform. MicroStrategy’s single BI server provides efficient, centralized administration for IT

and fewer moving parts which translate into less downtime. Cognos provides disparate sets of source code that

have been amalgamated through internal web services. A number of Cognos’ acquisitions such as Celequest

and Applix, represent stand-alone platforms without plans for tighter integration with Cognos BI, other than as

external data sources.

6. Highly Interactive and Flexible Mobile Intelligence ............................................................................... pg.26

MicroStrategy Mobile extends BI capabilities on mobile devices well beyond traditional grid and graph reports

and provides exceptional flexibility for creating purpose-built, workflow-driven mobile applications. MicroStrategy

Mobile apps are built using a metadata driven, point-and-click development paradigm, fully utilizing the

MicroStrategy BI platform infrastructure, security, and reusable metadata components. As a result, mobile

applications are faster and easier to create, easier to maintain, and provide the administration efficiencies needed

to deploy to hundreds of thousands of users while providing the industry's lowest total cost of ownership.

Cognos does not have a well defined Mobile BI strategy and does not provide native applications for the iPhone

or iPad. Cognos Mobile is not a full mobile development platform, but merely another distribution channel

for existing BI reports. Creating and deploying rich Mobile BI applications using Cognos requires extensive

development efforts.

7. Deep Insight through Superior Analytics ................................................................................................. pg.30

The MicroStrategy BI platform provides an extensive set of data manipulation and analytic options to allow

the user to delve deeply into a report to identify and discover important trends and patterns in the data.

MicroStrategy users can drill anywhere in the entire data warehouse with no programming for boundary-free

investigative analysis. MicroStrategy report designers and analysts can view and embed predictive analytics

in reports and then distribute them to all relevant decision makers and stakeholders. Cognos does not have

automatic drill anywhere capabilities across reports. All drill paths across cubes and reports must be manually

defined by IT or report developers. And although IBM purchased SPSS a few years ago, they have only integrated

a limited amount of its functionality into Cognos. Cognos 10 is still unable to perform most kinds of advanced

analytics including data mining.

8. Flexible Technology for Departmental to Enterprise BI ..........................................................................pg.32

MicroStrategy’s metadata reusability and life cycle management tools, such as MicroStrategy Object Manager

enable departments to incrementally migrate their business logic into a consolidated enterprise BI environment.

Cognos does not have a tool equivalent to Object Manager to aid in consolidating and reconciling disparate

departmental BI applications into an enterprise-wide BI.

The following section of the white paper provides a side-by-side detailed evaluation of MicroStrategy 9 and IBM

Cognos 10 along the key BI capabilities discussed above.

7

1 IDC. “Demonstrating Business Value: Selling to Your C-Level Executives.” Three Year Server TCO. Based on more than 300

interviews conducted across numerous platforms, presented in composite form.

1. DelIverIng More BI wIth less It effort - MICrostrategy DelIvers the lowest tCo

With IT budgets under increasing scrutiny and business requirements becoming more complex, today’s

organizations need to critically examine BI costs. The costs of BI extend beyond the initial acquisition. An IDC study,

Demonstrating Business Value: Selling to Your C-Level Executives, concludes, “Because the single largest factor

affecting TCO is staffing cost, IT initiatives that can reduce IT labor costs are likely to find greater acceptance among

financial decision makers, and initiatives that enable IT consolidation or automation can significantly reduce TCO

across the IT infrastructure.” Figure 1 shows that over three years, IT staffing constitutes between 60 and 71% of BI

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).1

three-year total Cost of ownership is Dominated by It Personnel Costs

Three-Year Total Cost of Ownership Breakdown

Staffing (60%)

Downtime – UserProductivity

(15%)

IT Staff Training(8%)

Server Hardware(7%)

Software (7%)

Outsourced Costs(3%)

Source: IDC 2007.

Figure 1: Staffing Costs Consume a Majority of Three-Year Software Lifecycle Costs

Three-year total cost of ownership for BI systems is dominated by costs related to IT personnel: IT personnel costs

account for 71% of total costs = Staffing (60%) + Outsourcing Costs (3%) + Staff Training (8%).

Customers and leading industry analysts alike recognize MicroStrategy’s ability to deliver BI to more users and a

great amount of data with fewer IT staff than other BI vendors. Many MicroStrategy customers have expanded their

BI deployments while saving millions of dollars a year in staffing costs by switching from non-MicroStrategy BI tools

to MicroStrategy’s efficient and scalable self-service BI platform. To save costs and ensure successful BI solutions,

decision makers must evaluate the key BI capabilities that reduce IT efforts and make the BI platform easier to

implement, deploy, maintain, and administer.

8

0.4 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.40.8 1.0 1.2 2.20.6

arplan

Bissantz

Board

Cubeware

IBM Cognos Analysis

IBM Cognos Reporting

IBM Cognos TM1

Information Builders

Infor PM

Jedox PALO

Microsoft SSAS

Microsoft SSRS

MicroStrategy

MIK

Oracle BIEE

Oracle Hyperion

Pentaho

QlikTech

SAP BO Webl

SAP BO Deskl

SAP BW/ BEx Suite

SAS

TARGIT

1.02

1.18

1.72

N/A

N/A

1.96

2.40

N/A

2.16

N/A

1.51

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

1.96

N/A

N/A

MicroStrategy Ranked #1 for Administration Efficiency

0.55

0.39

0.71

0.59

Source: The BI Survey 9 (2010) – This chart provides a KPI score for the deployed seats per administrator head. The KPI is calculated so that higher administration costs lead to a lower KPI and vice versa.

Figure 2: MicroStrategy Technology is Recognized for its Ability to Support Many More Users for Each IT Administrator

MicroStrategy technology requires far fewer IT personnel for a given amount of BI users because its metadata

is inherently easier to maintain requiring less redundancy, because end users have more self-service capabilities

that offload work from IT staff, and because MicroStrategy provides a comprehensive set of administrative tools

requiring fewer IT administrators.

“ We evaluated several leading BI products and, using a total cost of ownership model, determined

that MicroStrategy had the best combination of ease-of-use, time-to-market, successful retail

implementations, and robust analytical capabilities.” – IT Senior Coordinator of Purchasing,

Private Label and Reporting, Whole Foods Market

The following table lists out key capabilities in which the MicroStrategy 9 platform helps organizations reduce costs

when designing, deploying, administering and maintaining BI applications.

9

KEY COST REDUCING CAPABILITY

MICROSTRATEGY 9 IBM Congos 10

Min

imiz

ing

Des

ign

eff

ort

Dynamic report Personalization

yes MicroStrategy has a very robust prompting engine. End users can dynamically author reports at run time by selecting attributes, metrics, metric levels, templates, filters, and even hierarchies. This greatly reduces report design dependency on IT and the number of reports for IT to maintain.

lIMIteD

No object or column prompts such as selection of attributes, metrics, and filters on-the-fly. This causes an unnecessary number of reports to be created and maintained for end users.

automatic Multi-source Drill anywhere

yes Business users can automatically drill anywhere to any data source without IT hard coding.

lIMIteD

No automatic drill anywhere and drilling across hierarchies requires IT hard coding per report.

formatting over the web yes Easy What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) formatting allows business users to format reports at runtime without IT support.

lIMIteD

Cognos consumers get static reports only. Users cannot change formats, pivot, sort by, or edit reports on-the-fly.

one repository of reusable Business logic

yes Report developers can reuse all existing business logic across the entire platform rather than spending time recreating business logic.

lIMIteD

Cognos’ legacy of stand-alone products are still not fully integrated on a single repository of reusable business objects (e.g. Metric Studio, Cognos Real Time, and TM1 run on separate repositories or external data sources).

visual analysis for rapid Decision Making

yes MicroStrategy Visual Insight allows business users to intuitively visualize, filter, and drill into their data. The drag-and-drop interface allows business users to make data driven decisions quickly and without any IT involvement.

no Cognos does not provide visual analysis capabilities.

Min

imiz

ing

Dep

loym

ent

effo

rt

one report Design automatically Deploys to any Interface

yes The same report design is automatically optimized for interacting through all interfaces including Web browsers, mobile devices, and Microsoft Office; and formats including PDF, Flash, and HTML.

lIMIteD

Cognos does not have one format for a single report definition. Its Active Reports tool has a different interface and requires separate report definitions from Report Studio or Business Insight.

Browser agnostic Zero-footprint web

yes Eliminates client installation costs and ensures application is automatically updated.

Provides secure access for any browser without IT effort or reliance on ActiveX downloads or IE Active X dependence.

yes Cognos now runs on all web browsers.

easy to Customize and Upgrade

yes Upgradable plug-ins easily customize to corporate look and feel without coding effort.

Customizations are managed in a central location and can be upgraded with minimal IT effort.

no Cognos does not have an Eclipse IDE plug-in to speed up customization and migration tasks.

10



Min

imiz

ing

Dep

loym

ent

effo

rtautomated Deployment yes

Automated life cycle management tool synchronizes objects across development, test, and production environments thus greatly reducing manual work associated with BI deployments.

lIMIteD

Cognos does not offer a comprehensive tool like MicroStrategy Object Manager for automated life cycle management and consolidation and reconciliation of disparate departmental BI applications.

Data Import from the web Interface

yes MicroStrategy Data Import functionality is for business users and provides the ability to easily import data from local files or relational databases and quickly convert them into dashboards or visualizations without any IT involvement. There are no file size constraints.

lIMIteD

IBM Cognos can import local files but only up to 2.5 MB, with a maximum of 20000 rows.

Min

imiz

ing

ad

min

istr

atio

n e

ffo

rt

single server yes A centralized server dramatically reduces administrative effort and complexity.

lIMIteD

Cognos uses a number of disparate servers (Cognos BI, Virtual View Manager, TM1, and Celequest).

single Point of administration

yes Administrators need to create users and security settings once and these settings apply to the entire MicroStrategy platform without requiring duplicate IT efforts.

no Cognos’ multiple platforms and servers expose multiple administration points, increasing effort and complexity of enterprise deployments.

out-of-the-Box system-wide Monitoring

yes Prebuilt system performance dashboards allow the administrator to immediately analyze system usage data down to the details and to easily optimize resources.

Automatically logs object change history without requiring IT staff efforts, easing auditing process.

lIMIteD

Cognos provides very limited dashboards, reports, and KPIs to monitor the BI application from end to end, which is critical for enterprise BI deployments and therefore decreases the efficiency of the BI system.

automated scripting Control

yes Reduces repetitive and time consuming administrative tasks through automated command line scripts.

lIMIteD

Cognos does not provide a comprehensive command line administrative tool for high-volume tasks, making administration across several departmental BI applications more time consuming.

Min

imiz

ing

Mai

nte

nan

ce e

ffo

rt

automated report and Data Integrity Checking

yes MicroStrategy administrators can uncover inconsistencies or errors before business users see them while reducing 98% of manual regression testing efforts.

yes Cognos provides a data integrity tool as well. However, the flexibility of the tool does not allow the automation of highly parameterized reports that examine different scenarios based on the prompt answers.

highly reusable Business Metadata

yes IT staff have to maintain only one set of business metadata objects in one place, and this one definition is reused across the entire platform to reduce IT maintenance efforts.

lIMIteD

Cognos report designers using Report Studio cannot create report objects (e.g. metrics, filters, prompts, and custom groups) and then reuse these objects across different reports. This forces them to redesign the same business logic in each report, increasing maintenance and change management time.

11



Min

imiz

ing

Mai

nte

nan

ce e

ffo

rtscalable In-Memory rolaP architecture

yes MicroStrategy customers can instantly leverage multiple types of data assets with a powerful in memory technology.

lIMIteD

Cognos does not use multi-pass SQL and in-memory temporary tables thus missing opportunities to improve performance.

automatic Change Management

yes MicroStrategy’s unified platform and object-oriented development method ensure that a change is propagated to all related objects, ensuring one “version of the truth” with minimal IT maintenance effort.

lIMIteD

Cognos administrators can easily damage metadata integrity by erasing a filter or other metadata objects used inside a report as there is no automatic integrity check before removing an object. This leads to unnecessary maintenance and unavailability of reports. Because metadata created by report designers is not reusable across reports, change management time is greatly increased, also leading to "multiple versions of the truth."

2. all User neeDs throUgh a sIngle PlatforM

The ideal architecture for business intelligence is the one that provides organizations with a single and cohesive

model of the business that can be automatically displayed through any user interface. MicroStrategy users have

the option to access a single “version of the truth” through interactive Web, Microsoft Office, and mobile device

interfaces. MicroStrategy 9 includes a newly re-engineered Web user interface that is designed to be faster, more

powerful, and more personalized than ever before. The MicroStrategy 9 Web architecture boasts a wide range of

performance-enhancing changes that make the user interface interactive and instantly responsive to user requests.

five styles of Business Intelligence through a single Platform

Figure 3: Users Can Seamlessly Traverse All Styles of BI from a Unified Platform and a Single Interface

“ MicroStrategy’s long history and devotion to producing world-class business intelligence technology provided

Scorecards &

Dashboards

Enterprise

Repor4ng

OLAP Analysis &

Visual Explora4on

Data Mining &

Predic4ve Analysis

Mobile Apps &

Aler4ng

•  Ad Hoc Analysis

•  Predic4ve Analysis

•  Data Mining

•  Visual Explora4on

•  Slice & Dice Inves4ga4ve Analysis

•  Root Cause Determina4on

•  Page‐perfect Opera4onal Repor4ng

•  Pixel‐perfect Business Repor4ng

•  Print‐perfect Statements & Invoices

•  Opera4onal Dashboards

•  Dynamic Scorecards

•  Metrics Management

•  Mobile Applica4ons

•  Massive Informa4on Distribu4on

•  iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, email

•  Excep4on‐based Alerts

12

us with extreme confidence that we are making the right decision for our casino partners. MicroStrategy’s

interactive dashboards with advanced data visualizations will allow our clients to view complex data in

an easily understood and graphically appealing manner to improve decision-making. In addition, we look

forward to implementing MicroStrategy’s Mobile BI on the BlackBerry, iPhone, and iPad, which will give

our customers far greater flexibility in business intelligence than is currently available today. ” – President,

Aristocrat Technologies.

KEY BI REQUIREMENTS MICROSTRATEGY 9 IBM Cognos 10

Dynamic enterprise Dashboards

•��Dashboards�integrated�with�industrial-strength BI platform

•��Fast�WYSIWYG�Pixel�Perfect™ design

•�Single�design�environment

•��Automatically�drill�anywhere�in�any�data source from the dashboard

•��Native�parallel�Flash�and�DHTML�visualizations

•�Multiple�layers�of�analysis

•�Multi-layout�dashboards

•�Automatic�multi-panel�filtering�

•��Dashboard�templates�reduce�design�time

•��Dashboard�output�caching�in�HTML, PDF, Excel, and Flash for instantaneous response

•��Actionable�dashboards�

yes Dashboards are created using reports and objects from MicroStrategy’s single metadata. Intelligence Server provides its sophisticated processing, security, caching, and analytical capabilities.

Users design dashboards from MicroStrategy’s single Web interface using an already familiar design paradigm. Dashboards are created in a Pixel Perfect, zero-footprint Web interface, WYSIWYG and freeform layout.

MicroStrategy dashboards provide high interactivity via selector controls that allow users to dynamically apply filters to all dashboard components and to synchronize data across multiple analytical layers of information. Users can automatically drill throughout the full depth and breadth of the data warehouse to obtain more detailed information or view related information.

MicroStrategy dashboards provide multi-panel and multi-tab layers for various views of data. Multiple dashboards can also be assembled into a single dashboard book.

MicroStrategy 9 dashboard templates provide reusable starting points with sophisticated formatting that can make any business user a dashboard designer.

Pre-calculated dashboards are cached for instant viewing in HTML, PDF, Excel, and Flash.

MicroStrategy provides the ability to implement, and embed transactional capabilities into the dashboards. Using MicroStrategy Dashboards, business users can not only monitor key business metrics, but also initiate appropriate actions from within the dashboard.

lIMIteD

Cognos 10.1 released a new dashboarding tool called Business Insight. This new tool still provides much less dashboarding functionality than MicroStrategy. Depth of analysis and interactivity are limited and there is no support for Flash.

Dashboard components offer limited options to change their content automatically via selectors, controls, OLAP enabled grids, and graphs. They also provide limited support for multiple layers of analysis, automatic multi-panel filtering, and advanced visualizations.

Cognos BI dashboards do not support pixel perfect positioning. Users cannot edit dashboards while viewing the information in a WYSISWYG way.

No drilling in Cognos is automatic. Hierarchy drilling must be enabled for each Cognos report. Any cross hierarchy drilling must be hard coded by IT.

13


rapid Comprehension of Data through advanced visualizations

•��Out-of-the-box�library�of�advanced�visualizations

•��Automatic�drilling�from�visualizations

•��Easy�to�create�and�deploy�customized widgets

•��Flexible�properties�support�different�types of data comparisons

•��Extensible�library�of�visualizations�and widgets created by 3rd parties

•��Customizable�advanced�visualizations and widgets

yes MicroStrategy 9 provides an out-of-the-box library of advanced visualizations and widgets that enhance the understanding of complex data and highlight patterns and trends.

MicroStrategy provides a library of advanced visualizations, including Bullet Graphs, Micro Charts, Interactive Heat Maps, Interactive Bubble Charts, Grid of Graphs, Bubbles Grid, RSS, Fish Eye, Media, Cloud, Time Slider, and Stack Area Charts. All visualizations have drilling capabilities and enable users to select data elements that filter out other areas of the dashboard. Each MicroStrategy widget has flexible capabilities and properties that enable users to immediately identify or further investigate trends or anomalies in the data. For example, the Heat Map widget incorporates OLAP technology that enables users to filter data based on numeric values.

MicroStrategy customers can extend the advanced visualizations library by importing 3rd party visualizations. Advanced dashboard designers can edit or create their own visualizations or widgets. The widgets are built using the power of Adobe® Flash® and are part of MicroStrategy’s single platform.

no Cognos' much more limited visualization capabilities hamper its ability to provide the impactful presentation of important trends and the identification of outliers in large volumes of data.

Cognos does not support Adobe® Flash®, which means it lacks the rich, impactful and interactive visualization library of the web’s leading animation and visual technology.

robust enterprise reporting

•�Pixel�Perfect�absolute�positioning

•�OLAP-enabled�grids�and�graphs

•��Horizontal�and�vertical�display�of�data

•�Desktop�publishing�formatting

•��Advanced�Export�to�Excel,�Word,�PowerPoint, or PDF

•�High�quality�printing

•�Templates�for�rapid�design

yes MicroStrategy offers comprehensive report styles for banded reports. These documents are highly interactive, providing in-place OLAP analysis through pivoting, drilling, and Excel-like formatting toolbars.

Highly formatted documents are built using common desktop publishing paradigms such as rulers and Pixel Perfect positioning, all in a zero-footprint Web Interface.

MicroStrategy’s export to PDF capabilities support advanced PDF features such as table of contents and watermarks. Export to Excel supports export of multiple document layouts to multiple Excel worksheets.

Print-perfect reports can be printed exactly as-seen to any network printer. MicroStrategy documents can be printed horizontally or vertically. Users can dynamically change the page layout, apply fit-to-page functionality, and customize headers and footers for any report.

MicroStrategy provides out-of-the-box templates and the ability to create custom templates in order to decrease design time. These templates can be saved and shared across multiple projects.

lIMIteD

Cognos offers significantly less reporting functionality and flexibility.

Cognos Report Studio does not offer report designers a way to edit and format the report layout while viewing it with a real-time WYSIWYG view of their changes. This increases the design time due to unnecessary iterations and design frustration.

Cognos users cannot continue analyzing a report in Analysis Studio once it has been formatted in Cognos Report Studio. They are limited to exporting the information to Microsoft Excel for further analysis, promoting silos of information throughout the enterprise and “multiple versions of the truth.”

Cognos Report Studio is not optimized for operational, hierarchical, or banded reporting.

14


Information Delivery and Proactive notification

•��Ability�to�self-subscribe�and�subscribe others to report deliveries

•�Alerting�and�thresholds

•��Wide�range�of�output�types:�Web,�e-mail, print, fax, wireless, and file server

•�Report�bursting

•��Portal�integration,�with�support�for�portal servers including: Microsoft SharePoint, SAP NetWeaver Portal, Oracle WebLogic, and WebSphere

yes Users can subscribe themselves and other us-ers to personalized reports and alerts. Report deliveries can be triggered by dynamic events, exception thresholds, or time schedules. Per-sonalized content can be delivered via portal, print, email, wireless, or file servers.

MicroStrategy’s platform leverages highly scalable technology that slices a single report and dynamically bursts personalized information to the right users. Reusing a single report across hundreds of users saves processing resources.

Portal integration is available out- of-the-box, with support for portal servers such as Microsoft SharePoint, SAP NetWeaver Portal, Oracle WebLogic, and WebSphere. Portlet-to-portlet communication is also available out-of-the-box, making it easier to inject BI into a portal.

yes Cognos Event Studio is a standalone interface for Alerts and Event management that forces users to define alerts in a separate environment, therefore limiting its adoption. Although IBM claims Cognos Event Studio has been better integrated into the platform in Cognos 10.1, the interface remains separate, ensuring further discontinuity.

Cognos has very limited dynamic distribution list capabilities. Therefore, Administrators have to define fixed distribution lists and cannot use conditions to dynamically conform the recipient list.

flexible and Powerful olaP Interactivity

•��Drill�anywhere�fosters�investigative�analysis

•��Derived�elements�and�derived�metrics for on-the-fly calculations and groupings

•��View�filters�for�quick�data�filtering

•��On�the�fly�creation�of�derived�elements, custom groups, subtotals, etc.

•��Built-in�financial�and�statistical�functions

yes The MicroStrategy BI platform provides an extensive set of data manipulation options to allow the user to delve deeply into a report to identify and discover important trends and patterns in the data. Users can drill anywhere in the entire data warehouse for boundary-free investigative analysis.

New derived metrics, derived attribute element groups, filters, and subtotals can be created on- the-fly using existing metrics and attributes in the report. This functionality makes it possible for users to perform new calculations, custom groupings, and filtering directly on the report at the speed of thought.

MicroStrategy’s analytical engine provides hundreds of built-in financial, statistical, and mathematical functions.

lIMIteD

Cognos does not have automatic drill any-where capabilities across reports. All drill paths across cubes and across reports have to be manually defined by IT or report developers.

Unlike MicroStrategy, Cognos requires two different products to perform similar ad hoc and OLAP tasks: Query Studio and Analysis Studio. Cognos’ acquisition of TM1, an OLAP database, also overlaps with its long time Power Play offering, which has ex-perienced drastic declines in market share adoption vs. other OLAP vendors.

Cognos’ SQL engine lacks automatic aggregate awareness, hurting data scal-ability. Cognos recommends using MOLAP sources instead. There are no formatting options in Analysis Studio and users must move their reports to a different product called Report Studio to do formatting. There is no parameterized (prompted) reporting within Analysis Studio.

seamless Microsoft office Integration

•��All�Office�products�supported�(Excel,�PowerPoint, Word, Outlook)

•��Leverage�all�BI�reports�and�reporting�objects

•�Full�new�report�creation

•��Ability�to�save�logic�created�in�Excel�back to enterprise metadata

•��Persistent�and�interchangeable�formatting across Office and Web

•��Server�based�configuration�for�client settings, user, host, and IP address settings

yes MicroStrategy delivers the complete report-ing and analysis environment to Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook users. MicroStrategy Office applications are linked to MicroStrategy security and administration, ensuring 100% data consistency across the enterprise. Users are able to access existing reports or create new ones from within Microsoft Office applications. Changes made through Microsoft Office are immediately re-flected across MicroStrategy Office and Web interfaces and can be saved to the enterprise business logic metadata layer. Microsoft Of-fice formatting changes are preserved after automatic data updates.

The Web administrator can set client side settings and security. Users can change their passwords through the familiar Microsoft Office interface.

yes Cognos’ Microsoft Office plug-ins offer limited prompting functionality. For example, Cognos’ Microsoft Office plug-in does not support the ability to prompt on the set of metrics and attributes to incorporate in the report, also referred to as column prompts.

Cognos’ Office plug-in does not offer dynamic dashboard technology (Flash) that could provide embedded visualizations and a more interactive experience.

15

3. self-servICe throUgh a fast anD IntUItIve User exPerIenCe

MicroStrategy 9 provides capabilities for business personnel to create their own ad hoc report designs easily from

their Web browser. Using drag-and-drop actions through the MicroStrategy 9 Web interface, any business person

can assemble virtually any report by adding attributes and metrics to a simple report template without the need

to know any technical details about the data or the underlying databases. With MicroStrategy 9, business users

also have the ability to interactively build analysis with dozens of visualization options. To enhance usability, the

MicroStrategy 9 Web user interface adopts many familiar Microsoft paradigms, including ribbon toolbars, accordion

controls, control-click multi-select capability, and context-sensitive right-click actions.

Microstrategy Provides end Users with a fast and Intuitive User experience

Add/Remove

•  A*ributes

•  Metrics

Many

Views

Easily Filter

data Visually Analyze Data or

use OLAP enabled Grids

Drop Zones for

mulCdimensional

analysis

Figure 4: Design and Format a MicroStrategy Report Using a Fast and Intuitive User Interface

MicroStrategy’s next-generation of advanced self-service functionality is designed to provide more control to business

users. Business users can easily import their personal or corporate data directly from the MicroStrategy Web interface

and quickly convert the raw data into insightful visual analyses, reports, or dashboards. The MicroStrategy Visual

Insight interface provides incredible speed-of-interactivity, stunning visualizations, drag-and-drop manipulations, and

instant results – thus allowing business users to rapidly go from data to decisions.

16

“ We were impressed with MicroStrategy’s self-service architecture, ease-of-use, highly visual dashboards,

and mobile reporting that allows us to put the analytics and reporting in the hands of the business user.

MicroStrategy’s history in the business intelligence sphere also gave us confidence that we had chosen the

right technology partner.” – IT Specialist at Silverstar Casinos


User-friendly Interface

•��Drag-and-drop�actions

•�One-click�access�

•�Familiar�Microsoft�paradigms

•�Tree�view�navigation

•�Ribbon�toolbars�and�menus

•�Accordion�controls

•�Personalized�interface

•�User�collaboration�capabilities

•�Context-sensitive�online�help

•��Sophisticated�formatting�for�final�report presentation

yes The MicroStrategy Web interface leverages many familiar, user-friendly paradigms, including folder-tree navigation, ribbon toolbars, accordion controls, control-click multi-select capabilities, and context-sensitive right-click actions.

MicroStrategy 9 enables collaboration via comments that can be added to reports to provide instructions to other users and to share information. Every report can maintain and display a set of notes with details on who left the note and when.

MicroStrategy provides users comprehensive, context-sensitive help throughout the interface.

MicroStrategy Web allows users to format reports and save custom format styles. These include row-level headers, row-level values, column-level headers, column-level values, metric headers, metric values, subtotal headers, subtotal values, custom groups, consolidation, and reports.

lIMIteD

Although Cognos claims to have created a more unified interface for v10.1, they still have 7 studios and modes users must get acquainted with, which lack consistency in functional paradigms. "Studio jumping" will continue with Cognos 10.1. These inconsistencies in the user interface increase training requirements and decrease user adoption for BI applications that require a combination of reporting and analysis.

Cognos does not offer casual users or consumers with intuitive Excel-like interaction with reports over the Web, such as enabling users to resize and lock column and row headers, and perform simple custom formatting on the data.

Cognos reports, once generated, are much more static for the common user.

self-service web Interface

•��Fully�interactive�interface�with�controls for data formatting, manipulation, and analysis

•��Real-time�changes�without�a�publishing process

•��Creation�of�report�objects,�such�as�prompts and filters, over the Web

•��What�You�See�Is�What�You�Get�(WYSIWYG) design and editing of any report type over the Web

•��Zero-footprint�Web�interface�from�any browser

yes MicroStrategy puts wide-ranging control in the hands of business users, minimizing the need for IT personnel to perform the same functions. Business users are able to rapidly create, manipulate, format, and analyze any report themselves, all through a single Web interface. Report objects such as prompts, filters, derived metrics, thresholds, and totals can also be created over the Web. Individual columns and rows on a grid can be selected quickly and users can easily format, drill, pivot, and perform other tasks on-the-fly.

Changes are available right away without any need to publish or export information to other environments.

Business users create highly formatted reports using any metadata object using a zero-footprint, WYSIWYG design paradigm that drastically shortens report development time.

MicroStrategy Web is zero-footprint, and does not rely on Java or ActiveX. As a result, report designers and business users can use any browser to design and interact with reports.

lIMIteD

Cognos end users, with consumer and recipient roles, get a static view of reports. Interaction with the report is limited to a few actions (e.g., end users cannot sort by a column, change the format of the report, or pivot the columns and rows).

Cognos Report Studio provides limited pixel-level positioning of report objects over the report layout. Pixel-level positioning is necessary for designer productivity and to obtain boardroom quality reports.

Cognos Report Studio does not provide report designers with the ability to edit reports during run-time and immediately see formatting changes reflected in the report with live data. This limitation requires more round trips between design and run-time mode and therefore increases the time it takes to create a report.

17


advanced self-service functionality

•�Data�Import

•�Visual�Insight

yes The Data Import and Visual Insight functionality is designed to give more control to business users. Business users can convert raw data into decisions in minutes and without assistance from the IT department.

Using Data Import functionality, business users can easily import personal or corpo-rate data from local files, Excel files, or rela-tional databases through the MicroStrategy Web interface. The imported data can be easily converted into interactive reports or dashboards without any IT assistance.

MicroStrategy Visual Insight allows business users to visually identify patterns, trends, and anomalies in data. Business users can intuitively query, visualize, filter, and drill into their data. A drag-and-drop, WYSI-WYG interface enables business users to visualize the changes as they are made. MicroStrategy Visual Insight provides incredible speed-of-interactivity, detailed visualizations, and instant query results – thus allowing business users to rapidly go from data to decisions.

lIMIteD

Cognos does support local file imports, but there are significant constraints on the file size. The maximum file size is 2.5 MB, or 20,000 rows.

Cognos does not provide visual analysis capabilities.

Instant response to User actions

•��Extreme�AJAX�Web�interface

•��High�degree�of�client-side�processing while maintaining a zero-footprint Web client

yes The MicroStrategy Web architecture adheres to an Extreme AJAX model, shifting processing from the Web server to the Web browser for any browser type. By spreading the processing workload, the user is given a much more responsive and interactive Web experience while still preserving a true zero-footprint Web interface.

lIMIteD

Cognos report consumers get static reports only. End users cannot change the format of the report, pivot columns and rows, sort by a column, or edit reports on-the-fly.

Dynamic report Personalization

•��Comprehensive�parameter�and�question prompting (column, filter, search based, value, hierarchical)

•��Personal�answers�saved�for�reuse�across different reports

•��Security�profiles�personalize�report�content for individual users

yes In MicroStrategy, a single report can span hundreds of possible data combinations tailored to different user needs.

MicroStrategy prompts provide report input parameters that control most aspects of a report, and give the user significant ad hoc reporting capabilities. Prompts enable the personalization of reports from a single report definition, reducing the number of objects stored in the metadata repository.

Advanced report parameters, like object (column) and hierarchy prompts, allow users to select the business attributes and KPIs to include in the report at run-time.

MicroStrategy Web displays prompt values and report contents that are permitted by the user's security profile. For example, when running a prompted report, dashboard, or document, the user can only select prompt answers that he has permission to see. In a similar way, when running a report, only the metrics and attributes that the user has permission to see will be displayed to the user.

lIMIteD

Cognos offers limited options for parameterized reports. Object or column prompts such as selection of attributes, metrics, and filters on-the-fly are not supported. This causes an unnecessary number of reports to be created and maintained.

Report personalization is accomplished in Cognos by bringing all possible data to the report and hiding columns with extensive formatting logic on each report.

18

4. hIgh PerforManCe at any sCale

MicroStrategy technology has long been the performance leader at high user counts and data scale. MicroStrategy

9 continues and extends that leadership with adaptive caching technology called In-memory ROLAP and SQL

generation optimizations that can deliver the highest query performance, even when accessing hundreds of

terabytes of data. In-memory ROLAP takes advantage of the huge addressable memory space now available on

64- bit computers to provide high performance middle-tier databases that can respond directly to data requests

from reports, dashboards, and OLAP analyses.

“ We look forward to using MicroStrategy 9 In-memory ROLAP technology to help us improve our user

experience with faster response times and to take unnecessary pressure off our Teradata system.”

– Manager of BI Architecture, eBay

In-memory BI fills a void in the Performance Curve of a BI system

BEFORE IN-MEMORY BI AFTER IN-MEMORY BI

Output Caching

In-memory On-Disk

Caching Query

Database Query Slower

Response Time

Data SetCachingReport

CachingOutput Caching

Database Query

Data SetCaching

In-memoryQuery

Report Caching

In-memory On-Disk

Caching Query

FasterResponse Time

Figure 5: MicroStrategy In-Memory BI Provides the Combination of Fast Response Time from Multidimensional Caching and the Flexibility of Ad Hoc Query BI

ROLAP is unique among BI architectures in that it can model whole relational databases as if they were a single

multi-dimensional cube. In this case, the cube is virtual since relational databases often contain terabytes of data

that could not fit within any physical cube technology. MicroStrategy’s virtual cube provides MicroStrategy users

with the ability to perform OLAP interactions with the data and drill freely throughout the vast virtual cube without

the severe size limitations of MOLAP architectures.

“ MicroStrategy’s new In-memory ROLAP option is game changing. Unlike other in-memory approaches on

the market today, it is fully integrated with an enterprise BI environment and provides high performance

transparently to business users. The way in which large amounts of data are stored and accessed in-memory

is so seamless that I was skeptical until I saw the actual SQL generated and witnessed the performance. ”

– Cindi Howson, Founder of BIScorecard

19

Microstrategy 9 Multi-source rolaP allows Data environments to be optimized for Performance and Cost

MicroStrategy Virtual Cube

MarketingData Mart

MicroStrategy Virtual Cube

MfgData Mart

EnterpriseData Whse

SalesData Mart

FinancialData Mart

Lookups, Aggregates,Summary Data

Enterprise Data Warehouse

Supporting Hub and Spoke Data Architectures Balance the Workload Across Databases

SQLServer

Teradata

MySQL

Netezza

SybaseIQ

SQLServerDB2

Figure 6: MicroStrategy Multi-source ROLAP Helps Decrease Time to Value by incorporating Hub and Spoke Architectures and Decrease Cost by Switching Database Processing from the Enterprise Data Warehouse to Alternative Lower Cost Databases.

Successful BI systems often experience dramatic growth in user populations. It is increasingly common for a single

MicroStrategy BI installation to support thousands and even tens of thousands of business users. The technical

challenge in these circumstances is to be able to efficiently accommodate thousands of concurrent user sessions

while providing high performance and easy administration. MicroStrategy 9 supports 64-bit Java Virtual Machines

(JVMs) in both J2EE Web servers as well as ASP.net Web Servers. The dramatically expanded memory available in 64-

bit JVMs supports many more concurrent user sessions, and allows users to display and interact with larger reports

and dashboards.

“ The most critical factor for our organization is the speed with which we can react to the needs of the

business. MicroStrategy enables our executives and other business users to run reports and analyses

within seconds, which in turn, allows our employees to make timely decisions that dramatically impact

the business. Also, our high performance BI environment encourages the use of BI across the company,

providing greater visibility into the business for more employees.” – Chief Information Officer, FAMIQ

20


Quick response time

•�In-memory�ROLAP

•�Dynamic�sourcing

•�Dynamic�multi-level�caching

yes MicroStrategy’s In-memory ROLAP capabilities leverage 64-bit operating systems to improve the overall performance of the BI system. In-memory ROLAP cubes improve the performance of the most time-consuming and frequently-used queries, while still allowing users to seamlessly navigate the entire data warehouse.

When building a report, the report developer never has to explicitly reference an In-memory ROLAP cube. Dynamic sourcing capabilities automatically direct queries to In-memory ROLAP cubes whenever possible. Administrators can be assured that the In-memory ROLAP cubes they create will automatically and immediately improve overall query performance.

MicroStrategy provides automatic caching at multiple levels, including element list, metadata object, report dataset, XML definition, document output, and database connection caching. Caching makes the entire BI system efficient by reducing redundant computations and network traffic.

lIMIteD

Cognos does not provide an in-memory ROLAP engine that could leverage 64-bit operating systems natively.

Even though IBM Cognos’ externally acquired TM1® server, provides in-memory capabilities, it is a standalone multidimensional database and cannot be leveraged in conjunction with their Cognos ROLAP engine to provide dynamic sourcing capabilities. This disparate architecture results in unwanted tradeoffs and increased maintenance.

Although Cognos claims to make greater use of native 64-bit processing in v10.1, this is limited as they do not offer end-to-end native 64-bit processing. Thus, Cognos is unable to take full advantage of the high in-memory optimizations and ultimately faster response times for end users that are provided by 64-bit memory spaces.

Cognos provides very limited support for inter-user report caching, inter-report dataset caching, and element list caching.

Reports are often re-run unnecessarily when users perform drill-through actions. This increases CPU utilization, network traffic, and database processing, thus weakening the performance of the BI application and elevating the cost of ownership.

21


high Performance rolaP engine

•�Push-down�joins

•�Push-down�analytics

•�Multi-pass�SQL

•��Support�for�all�implementations�of�multi-pass SQL, including the use of temp tables, derived tables, and common table expressions

•�Minimize�network�traffic

•�Automatic�aggregate�awareness

•��Database-specific�SQL�generation�and optimization through VLDB drivers

•�SQL�query�optimization�algorithms

yes MicroStrategy’s ROLAP architecture uses the database for much of its processing. Data joins and analytic calculations are processed in the database whenever possible. MicroStrategy’s multi-pass approach provides the flexibility to answer analytical questions in an optimal manner. Any technical advances in the database are seamlessly accessible to the MicroStrategy platform. By leveraging the database to its fullest extent possible, large volumes of transaction level data are processed efficiently and network traffic is minimized.

Automatic and intelligent support for common data warehouse optimization techniques like aggregate tables and table partitioning ensures that the MicroStrategy SQL engine maximizes database usage for every analysis.

VLDB properties allow for further fine-tuning of the SQL engine on both a global and report-by-report basis. Through VLDB drivers, MicroStrategy can optimize table join sequences, databases’ parallel execution capabilities, query optimization hints, and other database-specific tuning parameters.

Global SQL query optimization algorithms optimize complex queries to reduce the number of SQL passes, providing further performance improvement to queries.

lIMIteD

Cognos' ROLAP engine does not provide the ability to run multi-pass SQL and therefore forces many calculations to be performed in the middle tier server and is unable to leverage the database to its fullest extent possible, resulting in unnecessary network and hardware resource utilization.

Cognos' ROLAP engine does not support automatic aggregate awareness and is unable to map a single attribute to many fact tables and select the most efficient table to obtain the data during run-time.

Cognos does not support temporary tables and is therefore unable to perform push-down joins in the most optimal database, which often requires moving some data from one database to another in order to efficiently perform the join.

Market Proven enterprise scalability and Performance

•�Native�64-bit�BI�processing

•��64-bit�Java�Virtual�Machines�(JVMs)�support

•��Server�Clustering�for�failover�recovery and load balancing

•��Customer�references�for�large�user and data scale production deployments

yes The MicroStrategy platform is designed for enterprise scalability. Native 64-bit processing allows MicroStrategy to support large numbers of users and data volumes while improving performance. MicroStrategy supports native 64-bit processing for all major operating systems, and across the entire BI platform.

MicroStrategy also fully supports 64-bit Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) in both J2EE Web servers as well as ASP.net Web Servers. The expanded memory available in 64-bit JVMs allows for optimal Web performance across the enterprise. One server can maintain more concurrent user sessions and run much larger reports, reducing overall hardware costs.

A cluster-capable server provides load balancing and automatic failover capabilities, so system resources are allocated efficiently and system uptime is maximized. MicroStrategy clustered servers support asymmetric configurations, so each cluster node can support different applications. All cluster nodes share caches and in-memory cubes and all changes made to the metadata objects and security settings take effect immediately.

MicroStrategy has many customer references for deployments to thousands of users who are reporting and analyzing tens of terabytes of data.

no The Cognos BI offering today represents an assemblage from multiple origins with different architectures and code bases that have been joined together through a services-oriented backbone. This services-oriented backbone necessitates the use of multiple inefficient layers of Web services for internal processing tasks that ultimately impact the performance and scalability of BI applications, thus forcing their customers to use far more software and hardware resources than MicroStrategy.

Cognos’ incomplete SQL engine lacks automatic aggregate awareness, which reduces data scalability. Cognos cannot fully leverage 64-bit hardware investments so more money must be spent on hardware boxes to support the equivalent number of users and data volumes as MicroStrategy.

Inferior performance and scalability are the main reasons why MicroStrategy has replaced Cognos in many accounts.

22

5. QUICK to IMPleMent anD DePloy, easy to MaIntaIn anD aDMInIster

MicroStrategy 9 can deliver BI solutions quickly with little or no IT support. MicroStrategy’s unified BI architecture

offers many IT timesaving features including object reuse and optimized administration. MicroStrategy 9 allows

organizations to create a single shared business logic layer, the metadata, which presents a single cohesive model

of the business. Object reuse across the entire platform facilitates faster application development. Object reuse

across the entire platform also minimizes IT maintenance effort, since IT only needs to maintain one object instead

of several (or several hundred) object copies. Object reuse ensures a single “version of the truth” that persists across

all reports, dashboards, and analyses, regardless of who creates them.

Microstrategy allows report Designers to Create reusable Metadata Components

Range of MetadataElements Used in Reports

REPORT DESIGN

Layout

Format

Calculations

REPORT COMPONENTS

Parameterization

Templates

Filters

Autostyles

BUSINESS ABSTRACTION

Metrics

Hierarchies

Custom Groupings

Transformations

DATA ABSTRACTION

Attributes

Facts

Tables

Aliases

MicroStrategy Other BI Technologies

Report-Specific

Components

Report-Specific

Components

ReusableMetadata

Components

ReusableMetadata

Components

Figure 7: The More Comprehensive the Reusable Metadata, the More an Enterprise can Ensure Fast and Managed Development

MicroStrategy designed its architecture to minimize administration overhead through capabilities such as a single

administration point, reusable and automated cell level data security, and automatic internationalization features.

A central point of control across the entire platform reduces overhead. MicroStrategy’s universally-applied reusable

security system protects the privacy of the data and dynamically filters out data from any report based on the

security profile of each business user. MicroStrategy 9 offers the ability to automatically present every report,

dashboard, or OLAP analysis in the local language of each business user viewing the information without requiring

any additional design work by report authors. MicroStrategy capabilities, such as centralization and automation,

allow administrators to deliver secure BI to any user base, whether to a department or to thousands of users, with

minimal IT effort.

“ The new BI system has reduced the time we spend on monthly reporting by more than 50%. There is now

more time to spend on operations and innovation.” – IT Specialist, Silverstar Casino

23


Unified BI architecture

•��Single�interface�provides�seamless�integration of analytics and reporting for root cause analysis

•�Single�metadata�reduces�IT�effort

•�Single�Server�

•�Single�code�base�across�platforms

•�Single,�zero-footprint�Web�interface�

yes MicroStrategy’s single code base offers reusable business logic across the entire platform. For example, MicroStrategy’s dashboards can be made from existing reports and objects, speeding development and ensuring consistency of report logic across reports and dashboards.

MicroStrategy’s single BI server provides efficient, centralized administration for the IT administrator. A single server with fewer moving parts and processes translates into less downtime.

lIMIteD

Cognos has been attempting to integrate all legacy stand-alone products onto the same metadata. Products like Metrics Studio still maintain a separate metrics repository and Cognos PowerPlay cubes still require their own definition of metrics through Transformer. Cognos’ relatively recent acquisitions, Celequest and Applix, represent stand-alone platforms without plans for tighter integration with Cognos BI other than as external data sources.

Cognos BI has a combination of 7 different authoring environments called "studios" and "modes". These "studios" and "modes" contain overlapping functionality requiring users to learn different paradigms. This lowers user adoption rates and increases IT support costs. It also creates "Studio jumping", which decreases efficiency and makes work in the application much less streamlined.

reusable and rich Metadata layer

•��Robust�abstraction�layer�where�all�physical constructs can be modeled logically and hidden from the business user

•�Highly�reusable�metadata�

•�Automatic�change�management

•�Object-oriented�metadata

yes MicroStrategy’s object-oriented metadata defines an enterprise’s business layer in a single repository. Metadata objects can be nested as building blocks to create more complex objects. If a metadata object changes, every other metadata object dependent on it automatically changes. This ensures consistency across business definitions and minimizes the number of objects to create and maintain.

MicroStrategy assembles all metadata objects necessary for a report and dynamically builds the report SQL at run-time. Complex queries, such as set qualifications, dimensional calculations, and custom groupings, are created easily without requiring manual SQL coding.

lIMIteD

In Cognos, report designers using Report Studio cannot create report objects (e.g., metrics, filters, prompts, custom groups) and then reuse these objects across different reports.

Cognos’ metadata maps one-to-one to the physical database on what is called a Cognos Query Item. Report developers select Query Items to include in a report. If an attribute like ‘Region’ happens to be in two database tables, report developers are forced to choose between two ‘Region’ Query Items, potentially resulting in “multiple versions of the truth."

24


enterprise-Caliber administration

•��Single�management�console

•�Self-tuning�scalable�server�for�maximum performance

•�Impact�analysis

•�Usage�monitoring�/�auditing

•�Controlled�environment�for�usage�analysis

•�Object�management�/�migration

•�Change�journaling

•�Automated�regression�testing

•��Optimization�of�In-Memory�ROLAP�environment

yes MicroStrategy’s centralized administration provides a single console for real-time user and system management. Administrators can view and perform tasks on many system-wide activities, including executing jobs, user management, and scheduled services.

MicroStrategy Enterprise Manager provides out-of-the box platform monitoring with hundreds of KPIs and corresponding dashboards to perform impact analysis, auditing and tuning of the BI application.

MicroStrategy Object Manager facilitates metadata life cycle management, metadata dependencies, and project management.

MicroStrategy’s change journaling system captures and logs all changes to the metadata. Change tracking is critical for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Persistent commenting allows distributed development teams to communicate with one another about their changes.

MicroStrategy Integrity Manager automates the report comparison process and verifies the consistency of reports. This tool can detect, compare, and present inconsistencies in reports and data caused by changes in the BI ecosystem. Discrepancies in data values, SQL, and graph display are highlighted.

Cube Advisor recommends and automatically creates an optimal set of In-Memory Cubes to reduce database processing and improve response times.

lIMIteD

Cognos offers limited auditing capabilities and tools to aid in usage and metadata management.

Cognos provides very limited out-of-the-box dashboards, reports and KPIs to perform impact analysis, auditing, and tuning of the BI application.

Cognos does not provide an advisor tool that would recommend in-memory ROLAP cubes to reduce database processing and response time for BI applications.

25


Industrial-strength Multi-level security

•��One,�reusable�setup�for�platform-wide�cell level data security

•��Same�report�yields�different�views�of the information based on user profiles

•��User�profile�determines�appropriate�level of functionality

•��Truly�zero-footprint�Web�interface.�No�use or download of ActiveX and other plug-ins

•��Automatic�secure�extranet�ready�with�128-bit encryption

•��Integrate�with�any�security�infrastructure with single sign-on

yes MicroStrategy provides centralized security administration across the entire platform. Reusable user profiles and privileges automatically ensure users only access the appropriate information and functionality down to the data cell level.

MicroStrategy automatically provides 128-bit end-to-end encryption with a zero-footprint Web client, making it a secure platform behind the firewall.

MicroStrategy automatically integrates with existing security authentication infrastructure such as LDAP, NT, Windows Active Directory, Tivoli, CA SiteMinder, and database security.

lIMIteD

Cognos offers administrators very limited granularity for setting group and user privileges. This limits the control administrators have and forces them to place users under full “Studio” access profiles.

Cognos does not have 128-bit end-to-end encryption out-of-the-box. This is particularly important for any extranet deployment. In order to get stronger encryption, an expensive additional third- party component must be integrated into the Cognos application.

Cognos forces administrators to configure security settings on each individual “Studio,” therefore increasing opportunities for manual errors and causing unnecessary maintenance overhead.

Cognos' security is manually configured in several distinct technologies (e.g., Transformer, Metric Studio Administration, Framework Manager and Cognos Administration). This requirement to manage security in multiple places increases the chances of human error and maintenance efforts.

easy to Maintain global Deployments

•��Native�support�for�multilingual�deployments

•��Configurable�translations�for�multiple�content categories, including the interface, error messages, date/number formatting, metadata objects, and report data

•��Integrated�interfaces�and�wizards�to�input translations or import translation strings

•��Support�for�partially�translated�metadata

•��Flexible�support�for�multiple�data�warehouse translation methods

•��Internationalization-aware�data�pre-calculations

yes MicroStrategy offers the ability to dynamically present every report, dashboard, or OLAP analysis in the local language of each business user viewing the information.

Translation wizards and interfaces make it easy for end users to input or import translation strings into the metadata. Translations can be performed incrementally; fallback language settings allow for partially translated metadata.

Multiple methods of data warehouse translations are supported, including translations at the column-level, row-level, table-level, and database-level. A single In-memory ROLAP Cube supports multiple languages so that resources are used efficiently.

lIMIteD

Cognos provides the ability to dynamically present reports in the local language with data and user interface translations. However, Cognos cannot scale across global BI application deployments as their report caching layer, which only exists for document output, cannot be reused across different languages and users.

26


easy to Customize and Migrate seamlessly

•��Single�development�environment�for�entire platform

•��Easy�to�create�and�upgrade�customizations via Web Customization editor

•��Eclipse�Integrated�Development�Environment(IDE) integration

•�Flex�Builder�support

•�Extensive�API�documentation

yes The MicroStrategy SDK is a comprehensive development environment primarily used for integrating MicroStrategy functionality into other existing systems, especially enterprise portals, and customizing and extending the functionality of MicroStrategy Web.

The MicroStrategy Web Customization Editor integrates into the Eclipse IDE. Developers can easily perform MicroStrategy Web customization and migration tasks by eliminating the need to manually modify configuration files.

MicroStrategy provides Flex Builder 3.0 support for creating powerful Internet applications embedded with robust business intelligence.

The�MicroStrategy�Developer�Zone�offers�developers access to documentation via advanced search functionality such as sorting results by relevance or by date, wild card and exact phrase searching, word highlighting, spelling suggestions, and exclusion searches.

MicroStrategy provides developers with an online collaborative community, documentation, and customization code samples.

lIMIteD

Cognos provides an SDK for its BI Server but only provides limited options for customizing the Web layer for deployments that require major redesign of the user interface.

Cognos does not provide a flexible Eclipse IDE plug-in to facilitate developers with customization and migration tasks.

Cognos does not offer comprehensive support for Flex Builder.

6. hIghly InteraCtIve anD flexIBle MoBIle IntelIgenCe

The use of the Internet on smartphones and other mobile devices has changed the way people communicate and

consume information, creating an exponential rise in the acceptance, adoption, and usage of data. With the ability

to access information at any time, in any location, on a hand-held device, consumers can now make more decisions

quickly and easily.

MicroStrategy offers a very robust and innovative mobile App development platform that can be used either

for creating purpose-built, workflow-driven mobile applications, or for directly displaying existing Reports and

Dashboards on mobile devices without the need of re-authoring.

MicroStrategy Mobile Apps:

� •��Are�faster�and�simpler�to�develop�(no�coding)�–�Created�by�metadata�driven,�point-and-click�paradigms�

and fully utilizing MicroStrategy’s BI infrastructure, security, and reusable metadata components.

� •��Are�easier�to�maintain�–�Changes�to�the�centralized�BI�platform�metadata�are�instantaneously�

propagated to all user interfaces, including mobile devices. Changes are made once and only in one

place in the metadata, ensuring a “single version of the truth” and hassle-free maintenance.

27

� •��Are�enterprise�grade�–�Delivers�the�full�benefits�of�MicroStrategy’s�BI�infrastructure:�administration,�

security, scalability, and performance.

� •��Provide�intuitive�and�powerful�visualizations�–�Fully�leverages�MicroStrategy’s�vast�library�of�advanced�

visualizations.

� •��Provide�exceptional�flexibility�–�The�MicroStrategy�app�platform�provides�exceptional�flexibility�to�create�

a wide range of mobile apps that go above and beyond the boundaries of traditional BI, without

writing a single line of code.

Most other BI companies are still trying to establish their mobile strategies and are primarily focused on providing

traditional BI through mobile devices. These companies do not offer an Apps development platform that is specifically

designed for building rich mobile applications, while fully leveraging the underlying BI platform infrastructure.

Information at your fingertips – Using Microstrategy’s workflow-Driven Mobile BI

app-Centric

Purpose-built, workflow-driven Apps that quickly and easily guide users through their data to discovery, analysis, or decision. Apps fully leverage mobile device capabilities, including the multi-touch interface, sensors (GPS, camera, etc.), communications (voice, email, text), and more.

enterprise grade

Designed to deliver the higher levels of performance and scalability demanded by mobile Apps. MicroStrategy delivers in-memory, multi-level caching, ROLAP analytics, robust security, easy extensibility, and comprehensive administration features designed for enterprise deployments.

fast to app

Fast, code-free app development via MicroStrategy’s metadata-driven, point-and-click paradigm. Build rich, interactive BI apps in just days. Speed deployment by building once and deploying across platform to iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, browsers, Microsoft Office, or portals.

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Figure 8: MicroStrategy Mobile Intelligence Provide Exceptional Flexibility to Create a Wide Range of Mobile Apps.

“ We were ‘wowed’ by MicroStrategy’s technology and the ability to build our application in one week

leveraging our existing infrastructure. Our clients are very excited about our new iPhone app and the

capabilities it provides to help them enhance efficiency and improve business performance. We see

tremendous potential for iPhone and iPad apps, which will enable our clients to access important

information whenever they need it.” – CTO at Alloso Technologies

28


enterprise grade Mobile application

•�Single�“version�of�the�truth”

•�Minimum�development�efforts

•�Minimum�maintenance�efforts

•�Superior�performance�and�scalability

•�Minimum�administration�efforts

yes MicroStrategy Mobile accesses the same reports and dashboards used by all other MicroStrategy user interfaces, ensuring a “single version of the truth.” Because reports and dashboards in the BI application do not have to be re-authored for mobile device, minimal additional IT investment is required for mobile deployment.

New reports for mobile devices are created by a metadata driven, point-and-click paradigm fully utilizing MicroStrategy’s BI infrastructure, security, and reusable metadata components. As a result, reports for mobile devices can be created rapidly and easily, in a code-free environment.

MicroStrategy’s object-oriented development paradigm results in reduced maintenance. Changes to metadata are instantaneously propagated to all user interfaces. Changes are made once and only in one location, ensuring hassle-free maintenance.

MicroStrategy Mobile leverages the MicroStrategy platform’s superior performance and scalability functionality and provides rapid answers to tens of thousands of users through their mobile devices. Performance is further enhanced by efficiently caching reports and dashboards locally on the mobile devices.

MicroStrategy's acclaimed administration tools provide the administration efficiencies needed to deploy mobile applications to hundreds of thousands of users, while providing the industry's lowest total cost of ownership.

lIMIteD

As Cognos Mobile uses existing reports, new development will be minimal, however, as long as unique reports are created for Mobile with objects, filters or prompts specific to those reports additional development efforts may be required and result in multiple versions of the truth.

Maintenance is less than optimal as Cognos lacks the tools to automate most of the maintenance. The use of fewer reusable objects will also entail further maintenance efforts.

As the overall Cognos platform has performance and scalability issues so will it’s Mobile BI since it uses the same architecture and server technology. Correspondingly, since Cognos lacks a full set of advanced administrative tools to automate a large portion of administrative tasks, the administration is primarily manual, requiring significant effort.

29


security of Mobile BI

•��Multi-level�BI�platform�security�extended to mobile devices

•�Data�protection�on�the�mobile�device

•�Data�transmission�security

•��Integration�with�enterprise-wide�security infrastructure (single sign-on)

yes MicroStrategy Mobile utilizes the same sophisticated user authorization management framework available in theMicroStrategy BI platform. Authorization refers to the three-dimensional process by which the application determines:

• Application functionality privileges•�Object�access�permissions•�Data�access�security

MicroStrategy provides a Web-based mobile configuration interface that enables administrative control of password policies for the MicroStrategy BI platform. It also allows administrators to set a variety of local data caching options. Administrators can specify maximum cache size on the device, automatically wipe all locally cached data every time the app is closed, and set options for automatically rebuilding new caches for user subscriptions once the application is re-loaded. This ensures security of data that is stored locally on the device.

MicroStrategy’s BI platform provides an option to encrypt communications between its server components, such as between the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server and MicroStrategy Mobile Server, using an AES 128-bit algorithm.

lIMIteD

Since Cognos Mobile inherits the security capabilities of the Cognos BI platform, it comes with the same limits or constraints of the overall platform. This means to 128 bit encryption, no capability to set privileges (only less granular permissions), and security administration is less efficient and more redundant as it must be maintained per studio. Cognos Mobile has the same limited caching and caching control as in their main platform.

highly Interactive and Intuitive User experience

•�Native�mobile�applications

•�Device-specific�actions

o Multi-touch

o App integration

o Sensor based query

o Mobile Info capture

•��BI-specific�features�perfectly�designed�to work with device specific capabilities

o Drill anywhere

o Swipe to page-by

o Integrated mapping

o Rich visualizations

o Alerts through push notifications

o Prompting

o Subscriptions

•�Offline�analysis

yes MicroStrategy provides native apps for mobile devices. The native apps are designed to fully leverage mobile device capabilities including the multi-touch interface, sensors (GPS, camera, etc.), communications (voice, email, text), and more.

MicroStrategy Mobile apps provide a vast range of BI-specific functionality designed to leverage and work seamlessly with device capabilities. BI functionality includes integrated Google maps, out-of-the-box drill-anywhere, a vast library of advanced visualizations, and device-specific actions to perform tasks such as swiping (horizontally or vertically).

Users can page-by, set alerts for report refresh or data changes through push notifications, use intelligent prompting, metric swapping, and much more.

With MicroStrategy Mobile, reports are cached directly on the mobile devices for fast, offline viewing. Reports are fully interactive; data can be sliced and sorted; and columns can be locked, resized, and reordered for effective comparisons of metrics.

Users can subscribe to reports directly from their mobile devices and do not have to wait for IT to create subscriptions for them.

lIMIteD

Cognos Mobile does not utilize true native applications. For iOS devices, they use a hybrid model of a browser embedded in a native application. This approach does not deliver the full device functionality of a truly native application. It does not take advantage of the unique and optimized functionality of each device it is used with - such as full multi-touch capabilities, application integration, full mobile capture and sensor based queries.

Cognos Mobile does not have BI specific functionality. It cannot automatically drill anywhere, it does not have fully integrated mapping, lacks rich visualizations, and has limited prompting capabilities. Reports on Cognos Mobile lack the same functionality that Cognos reports lack overall such as sorting, pivoting, and column re-ordering and resizing.

30


app Development Platform

•��Flexibility�to�create�any�information�workflow

•��Ability�to�deliver�multiple�forms�of�information through the mobile app

•��Actionable�mobile�apps

yes The MicroStrategy app platform provides exceptional flexibility to create Mobile apps that can be used to create a very wide range of mobile applications that go above and beyond the boundaries of traditional BI without writing a single line of code.

MicroStrategy extends the boundaries of the mobile BI App by delivering multiple forms of information to users within the same app. Unstructured information like images, text, desktop publishing design, web content (web pages, videos), and more can also be included. In addition, MicroStrategy Mobile also provides an in-app PDF reader, email, browser, HTML containers, and optimized ePub handling.

MicroStrategy provides the ability to implement, and embed transactional capabilities into the information driven mobile apps. Using MicroStrategy Mobile, business users can not only monitor key business metrics, but also initiate appro-priate actions from within the mobile apps.

no Cognos Mobile is solely another channel for viewing Cognos reports. It is not a mobile application development platform and does not provide any capabilities to create mobile applications.

Cognos Mobile delivers BI reports and although it can deliver some other external content as contained in original BI reports, it is very limited in the forms of information it can deliver. It is not optimized to bring in content outside of traditional BI boundaries.

Cognos Mobile does not have any transaction capabilities.

7. DeeP InsIght throUgh sUPerIor analytICs

MicroStrategy 9 allows users to freely investigate data and “surf” through the data warehouse without having to

design a new report for each new combination of data that a user wants to see. Users can create analytic metrics

leveraging a wide range of data mining algorithms, statistical, predictive, and OLAP functions, as well as capabilities

for metric grouping on-the-fly. Users can import complex statistical models from specialized third party data mining

applications. MicroStrategy’s unified platform ensures that all these analytic capabilities are available on any type of

report in the entire BI environment.

“ World-class analytics are important and MicroStrategy is a cost efficient way to address our expanding BI

requirement.” – Chief Executive Officer, eHarmony

Microstrategy Delivers Comprehensive analytics that are easy to Consume

Figure 9: Advanced Analytics can be Easily Incorporated into and Consumed through Reports, Dashboards and Scorecards.

iPad 1:55 PM 100%

Web Browser

Apple iPad

Web Browser

Apple iPad

Segmentation Analysis

Trend Analysis

StatisticalAnalysis

web Browser

apple iPad

31

MicroStrategy’s ability to generate multi-pass SQL is a key element in providing analytically sophisticated business

intelligence applications. Multi-pass SQL is required to answer analytical questions that require several steps and

cannot be answered with a single SQL query block. MicroStrategy generates SQL that performs these multi-pass

queries as efficiently as possible for each particular database.

Iterative analysis is the dynamic mechanism that represents the continuous interaction and advanced analytical

techniques between the BI server and the database. MicroStrategy uses this approach when complex questions cannot

be answered using only the database. Not only does MicroStrategy automatically invoke iterative analysis when

required, it also dynamically decides the most optimal location to perform the calculations, based on its own strengths

and the database strengths, while minimizing data transfer.

“ MicroStrategy’s powerful analytics help us analyze sales performance across locations and model lines for

enhanced sales targeting and inventory management” – Manager, IT Systems, Porsche Cars North

America, Inc.


efficiently answer Complex Questions

•��Multi-pass�SQL

•��Collaborative�processing�between�analytical engine and RDBMS-based processing

•��Reusable�analysis�objects�(e.g.,�custom groups, consolidations, transformations, conditional metrics, sets)

•��Support�for�complex�definitions�of�analysis objects (e.g., conditional metrics with set conditions, custom groups defined with a mix of metric qualifications and attributes at different levels, set analysis with multi-attribute comparisons)

•��All�analytical�capabilities�available�across all styles of BI

yes MicroStrategy’s ability to generate multi-pass SQL allows MicroStrategy to answer analytical questions that require several steps and cannot be answered with a single SQL query block.

MicroStrategy automatically uses collaborative processing between the BI server and the database when complex questions cannot be answered using only the database. MicroStrategy also dynamically decides the most optimal location to perform the calculations, based on its own strengths and the database strengths, while minimizing data transfer.

The MicroStrategy metadata supports a rich set of reusable analysis objects. In addition to attributes, metrics, and filters, complex objects such as custom groups and transformations can be created and reused in any report. The reusability of these analysis objects allows business users to answer sophisticated questions without requiring IT coding and promotes more efficient application development.

MicroStrategy’s analysis objects can be defined with a high degree of complexity. For example, a custom group can be based on a mix of metric qualifications and multiple attributes at different levels.

MicroStrategy’s analytical capabilities are provided by the BI platform instead of standalone capabilities in the front-end interface. As a result, all analytical capabilities are available across all styles of BI, and users can have any question answered in any type of report.

lIMIteD

Cognos does not generate multi-pass SQL query blocks. Therefore, it cannot answer complex questions in an efficient way by leveraging the database and analytical engine in the middle tier when appropriate and in an iterative way. For example, during competitive sale cycles, Cognos has been unable to generate reports that contain many distinct layers of custom groups or grouping bands dictated by comprehensive formulas.

Cognos’ metadata does not support the rich set of reusable analysis objects that MicroStrategy supports. This makes it more difficult for report designers and business analysts to create and maintain reports with sophisticated analytics without requiring major IT coding in Cognos Framework Manager.

Cognos provides inconsistent analytical capabilities throughout their different “Studios.”

Cognos Analysis Studio makes it difficult for report designers to embed interactive analysis into other Studios, such as inside dashboards and scorecards.

32


sophisticated Predictive analytics

•��Single�unified�platform�provides�data mining scoring capabilities

•��Open�platform�and�cross-vendor�interoperability via PMML

•��Seamless�integration�of�predictive�analytics with casual reporting

•��Support�for�popular�predictive�analytic algorithms (e.g., Linear Regression, Logistic Regression, Tree-Regression, Clustering, Decision Tree, Association Rules, Time Series)

•��Support�for�complex�algorithms�(e.g., Neural Network, Rule Set, Support Vector Machine, Ensembles of Models)

•��Member�of�the�Data�Mining�Group,�a data mining standards-setting organization

yes The MicroStrategy BI platform delivers data mining and predictive analytics to all users through a fully unified and integrated enterprise-caliber BI system. MicroStrategy Data Mining Services enables organizations to maximize their investment in data mining products by importing their Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML) and seamlessly encapsulating the model as a predictive metric for use with any report or document.

Report designers and analysts can view and build predictive reports using MicroStrategy and then distribute these reports to all relevant decision makers and stakeholders. Business analysts can perform further analysis – slicing-and-dicing data, creating ad hoc reports, drilling, pivoting, and sorting – on predictive reports. All users continue to inherit all the object reuse, security, administrative, and manageability benefits of the MicroStrategy BI platform.

MicroStrategy data mining scoring capabilities support cross-vendor interoperability. MicroStrategy supports PMML from SPSS, KXEN, SAS, Salford Systems, Oracle, ANGOSS, FairIsaac, StatSoft and R.

MicroStrategy is an active member of the Data Mining Group, providing guidance and leadership to set the PMML standards for the data mining industry.

lIMIteD

Although version 10.1 has integrated basic statistical functionality from SPSS, Cognos still offers very limited predictive analytic capabilities (only up to regressions) though no data mining.

Cognos BI is unable to import PMML models from other data mining vendors for the purpose of creating predictive analytics to combine them with other metrics and reuse them across reports.

8. flexIBle teChnology for DePartMental to enterPrIse BI

Increasingly, departments want their own islands of departmental BI because they need the flexibility and speed

offered by smaller systems that are unencumbered by inter-departmental coordination, budgeting allocations,

and project prioritization. On the other hand, CFOs and CIOs want enterprise BI systems because they offer a

single “version of the truth” and the lowest cost of ownership. With MicroStrategy 9, companies can have both.

MicroStrategy’s flexible BI platform provides multi-source data access, rapid application development, and seamless

migration from departmental to enterprise BI.

33

Microstrategy 9 supports a gradual and Incremental Migration from Islands of BI into a Consolidated

enterprise BI system

Enterprise DW

HR Dept Sales Dept

HR Sales

Enterprise

Finance Dept

Fin

HR Dept Sales Dept

Enterprise HR Sales

Finance Dept HR Dept Sales Dept

Enterprise DWEnterprise DW

HR Dept Sales DeptFinance Dept

Fin

Finance DeptFinance Dept

Fin

Finance Dept

Enterprise

Stage 1Disparate Islands of BI

All Running on MicroStrategy BI

Stage 2Merging Islands of BI

Using MicroStrategy Multi-source

Stage 3Consolidating Data

Re-pointing Metadata to the EDW

HR Sales

Figure 10: MicroStrategy Technology Provides a Seamless Migration Path from Departmental BI to Enterprise BI

“ Organizations need to gradually and incrementally consolidate their departmental and workgroup islands of

BI into a cohesive enterprise framework that ensures a single “version of the truth” and low cost of operation.

MicroStrategy is directly addressing this challenge with MicroStrategy 9, which contains an In-memory BI and

Multi-source BI capability that will make MicroStrategy’s enterprise-caliber technology equally suitable for

workgroup BI and departmental BI. MicroStrategy’s new platform includes capabilities that allow consolidation

and transformation of departmental and workgroup islands of BI without having to redo reports or dashboards

as consolidation takes place.” – Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice President Research,

Ventana Research


seamless Migration from Departmental to enterprise BI

•��Metadata�compatibility�enables�consolidation of islands of information

•��Metadata�abstraction�layer�enables�seamless re-pointing of the data source without affecting the business model

•��Advanced�migration�and�environment management tools

yes MicroStrategy’s metadata compatibility enables departments to incrementally migrate their business logic into a consolidated BI environment.

MicroStrategy’s metadata abstraction layer allows companies to “re-point” the metadata to automatically access new data locations without disrupting reports or requiring redesign.

MicroStrategy Object Manager can automatically consolidate disparate departmental BI applications while reconciling all overlaps or conflicts that may arise.

no Cognos’ metadata is defined through projects which are deployed as packages. Changes in the project cause packages to re-deploy, potentially affecting reports and rendering them inoperable.

Changes in metadata objects do not automatically check for dependencies and delegate to the modeler or administrator the task of running a dependency report.

This lack of automated dependency checking causes the integrity of the metadata to break, rendering reports unusable and causing unnecessary disruptions to users of BI application users.

Cognos does not have a tool equivalent to MicroStrategy Object Manager to manage metadata deployments and to consolidate and reconcile disparate departmental BI applications.

34


high Performing Multi-source Data access

•��Unified�multi-dimensional�business�model across multiple data sources

•��Optimized�retrieval�of�multi-source�data

•�Smart�Push-Down�architecture

•��Automatic�multi-source�drill�anywhere

•��Support�for�distributed�workload�database architectures

•��Direct�access�to�multi-dimensional�data sources including SAP® BW InfoCubes and QueryCubes, Hyperion Essbase, and Microsoft Analysis Services.

•�Direct�reporting�from�salesforce.com

yes MicroStrategy’s unified multi-dimensional business model allows companies to create a single logical view spanning multiple data sources, making it easy to add new data sources. Users are able to seamlessly drill across multiple data sources.

MicroStrategy optimizes the retrieval of data from heterogeneous data sources. MicroStrategy dynamically selects the most efficient data source to query. The MicroStrategy SQL engine automatically creates queries optimized for each data source for fast performance without IT tuning efforts.

MicroStrategy’s Smart Push-Down architecture performs joins at the database layer thereby minimizing network traffic and leveraging the power of modern database engines. MicroStrategy further minimizes network traffic by moving the least amount of data to the most optimal database.

lIMIteD

Cognos provided heterogeneous access to relational and MOLAP sources. However, after failing at several production implementations due to performance and scalability issues, Cognos recently acquired the code from Composite Software and now calls it Cognos Virtual View Manager. Now Cognos forces administrators to maintain a separate repository in an IBM Informix database as Cognos Virtual View Manager is not integrated with the Cognos BI server.

rapid Departmental BI application Development

•��No�need�for�a�data�warehouse�or�ETL tool

•��Graphical�and�intuitive�design�interface to minimize IT effort

•��Automatic�detection�wizard�for�creation of business logic and table mappings

•��Pre-created�templates�for�quick project and dashboard development

•��Command�line�administrative�tool�for high volume tasks

•�Comprehensive�data�model�support�

yes MicroStrategy 9 provides easy access to multiple data sources without requiring a data warehouse. MicroStrategy can instantiate In-memory ROLAP cubes by pulling information from multiple sources, obviating the need of an ETL tool or a data warehouse.

MicroStrategy’s graphical design interface makes it fast and easy to add new data sources and define business logic. A set of pre-created templates speed dashboard development.

MicroStrategy automatically detects data types from data sources and creates the entire business logic layer, speeding development.

MicroStrategy provides a scripting interface that allows project developers to schedule massive and repetitive tasks in a matter of seconds.

lIMIteD

Cognos does not provide a comprehensive command line administrative tool for high volume tasks, making administration across several departmental BI applications more time consuming.

Cognos does not provide an in-memory ROLAP cube capability that would eliminate the need for an ETL tool by accessing multiple sources of data and creating in-memory cubes for departmental application access.

35


Centralized and De-Centralized administration

•��Web-based�administration�for�business managers

•��Allows�distribution�of�administrative�tasks, including object promotion, data integrity checking, and user management

•��Update�Packages�allow�distributed�development

yes MicroStrategy 9 allows user and application administration responsibilities to be distributed to business people within individual departments using a Web interface. This offloads administrative tasks from centralized IT personnel and gives departments the ability to have their own databases, their own BI applications, and their own metadata within the same infrastructure as the enterprise BI environment.

MicroStrategy 9 Update Packages can automatically consolidate disparate development teams’ updates and changes.

lIMIteD

Cognos offers limited options for automatically consolidating updates to packages from disparate development teams. In addition, administrators can easily break metadata integrity by erasing a filter or other metadata objects used inside reports, as there is no automatic integrity check that is performed before removing an object.

III. MicroStrategy – A Market Proven, Industrial-Strength Technology

MicroStrategy 9 is an advanced technology that allows companies to support all types of BI applications with one

technology. MicroStrategy 9 builds on MicroStrategy’s heritage of high-end BI and further extends the boundaries of

performance, scalability, and efficiency of enterprise BI. At the same time, MicroStrategy 9 brings that same enterprise

caliber BI technology easily within reach of smaller departmental BI initiatives. Just as importantly, MicroStrategy 9

provides a smooth migration path for islands of departmental BI to merge into a cohesive and consistent enterprise

wide framework. With MicroStrategy 9, even as departmental BI applications are consolidated into the enterprise-wide

framework, the departments can continue to retain significant autonomy and nimbleness that they enjoyed previously.

“ Today, organizations need a business intelligence solution that can support user self-sufficiency and can

respond more quickly and effectively to local business needs. MicroStrategy 9 provides end users with

more control over the analysis and reports they create and helps them to be more self-sufficient, require

far less IT support, and quickly adapt to changing business requirements.” – Wayne Eckerson, Director

of TDWI Research at The Data Warehousing Institute

Unlike BI suites offered by other vendors, MicroStrategy offers the only organically grown BI architecture. All of

the MicroStrategy 9 components were expressly built to work within a unified architecture and not as separate

standalone products or acquired technologies that were subsequently joined together. This caliber of BI technology

is now being sought after by companies, not solely for their most demanding BI applications, but for the purpose of

hosting all of their BI applications. Today, companies can standardize all BI into a single, highly-functional, efficient

architecture and reap significant economies of scale and enterprise-wide consistency.

MicroStrategy�Incorporated��•��1850�Towers�Crescent�Plaza��•��Tysons�Corner,�VA�22182��•��1.888.537.8135��•��www.microstrategy.com�COLL-0874 0611

Documents

MicroStrategy 9 vs. IBM Cognos 10 - NDM · PDF file5 II. Comparison of MicroStrategy 9 and Cognos 10 on the Key BI Capabilities Business intelligence has the power to provide performance