BI360 White Paper - Solver, Inc.

1 Version 3 BI360 White Paper Reporting | Planning | Dashboards | Data Warehouse Solver, Inc. 10780 Santa Monica Blvd. Suite 370 Los Angeles, CA 90025 Published: July 4th, 2011 Copyright 2011, Solver, Inc. Page | 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .. 3 Architecture Overview ..3 BI360 Reporting Module .. 4 User Interface Overview ..5 Report Designer Components ..5 BI360 Excel Ribbon .. 5 Excel Task Pane .. 5 Ad-Hoc Reporting ( Composer ) ..8 Report Publisher ..9 Practical Usage Examples .. 10 Typical Implementation Process .. 11 BI360 Planning .. 13 User Interface Overview .. 13 Planning Components .. 13 Excel Ribbon.

2 14 Excel Task Pane .. 14 Data Entry Window .. 15 Practical Usage Examples .. 16 Typical Implementation Process .. 17 BI360 Dashboards .. 19 User Interface Overview .. 19 BI360 - Data Warehouse .. 21 Data Warehouse Interface (Admin Console) Overview .. 21 Data Warehouse Components .. 21 Modules .. 21 Dimensions .. 22 Dimension Management .. 22 Currency .. 22 Data Viewer .. 23 Business Rules .. 24 Practical Usage Examples .. 25 Typical Implementation Process .. 25 Module Dimension Mapping .. 26 System Requirements .. 27 Copyright 2011, Solver, Inc. Page | 3 Introduction BI360 is the first full Business Intelligence (BI) Suite that was completely designed with the business user in mind, from software installation to report and budget model design, to data warehouse configuration.

3 It is made up of four modules that can be used together or in a mix and match fashion. Microsoft Excel-based reporting, Microsoft Excel-based Planning, Web (Microsoft Silverlight)-based Dashboards and Microsoft SQL Server-based preconfigured Data Warehouse. Built for quick, low risk implementations, BI360 can be implemented and managed by business users to completely satisfy the business performance management needs of divisions as well as corporate headquarters. The features that differentiate BI360 the most from other BI applications are: 1) Fully integrated Business Intelligence Suite across reporting, budgeting/forecasting/modeling, dashboards and a data warehouse (use modules mix & match or as entire suite) 2) Third generation Excel add-ins for simple or advanced reporting and budgeting processes.

4 3) Business smart , pre-configured and extensible financial and operational data warehouse with hundreds of pre-built connectors to popular transactional databases. Architecture Overview Below you can see a simplified architecture of all main BI360 modules. BI360 Reporting can both report live (real time) on an ERP system, other operational systems like Microsoft CRM, as well as on the BI360 Data Warehouse. The BI360 Planning module reads data to and from the data warehouse, while BI360 Dashboards can read real-time from a data source or from data gathered in the BI360 Data Warehouse. Copyright 2011, Solver, Inc. Page | 4 BI360 Reporting Module BI360 Reporting is a modern and easy to use, Excel-based report writer that can connect directly to your ERP and CRM system, as well as to the BI360 Data Warehouse.

5 It is used for both financial reporting and various types of operational reporting as well. Microsoft Excel-based Live Financial Reporting (GL) Live Operational Reporting o (AP, AR, Sales, Projects, Assets, Payroll, HR, ) Drill to transaction detail Drag and drop report design On-Demand reporting for end-users Detailed, dimensional security that integrates with Active Directory Multi-company/multi-currency consolidations Out-of-the-box integrations o Microsoft Dynamics (AX, GP, NAV, SL, CRM) o Sage (MAS 500, X3) o BI360 Data Warehouse o Other major ERPs Configurable integration tool connects BI360 Reporting live to custom tables or other sources With all or a majority of their reports built with BI360 Reporting, organizations typically find that they now get 80% of the BI and reporting done with 20% of the tools and effort it previously required.

6 Some of the key reasons for implementing Reporting are: 1. Excel interface that most business users are comfortable with. 2. Easy to build reports with drag and drop wizards and pre-built formulas. 3. Reporting on GL as well as Sub-Ledgers (AR, AP, Sales, ) and other live data sources. 4. Reporting on data warehouse (if BI360 s data warehouse is implemented). 5. Single report writer for many purposes. 6. Consolidations across companies (requires BI360 data warehouse if many different ERP systems are in use or if auto-eliminations are desirable). 7. Currency conversion (requires BI360 data warehouse for advanced currency conversion). 8. Special needs such as allocations and reconciliations.

7 9. Eliminate any manual Excel exports/reports as well as proprietary report writers. 10. Ad-hoc reporting ( BI360 Reporting Composer module) without the need for formulas, OLAP cubes, and pivot tables. 11. Automatic report scheduling and distribution (requires Report Publisher module) that can completely automate the running and distribution of hundreds of reports in various output formats every day/week/month. 12. Benchmarking against any public company on the US stock exchanges with the click of a button. As seen in the architecture diagram earlier in this document, BI360 Reporting is one of four BI360 modules. The other three modules are covered later in this White Paper .

8 Copyright 2011, Solver, Inc. Page | 5 In the architecture diagram earlier in this document, you see how BI360 Reporting interacts with the other BI360 modules. In essence, it serves as a report writer and ad-hoc query tool both for live reporting on ERP and CRM systems, as well as for the BI360 Data Warehouse ( in which case data can come from any source system). Here are some scenarios for when to use BI360 Reporting with the BI360 Data Warehouse: Reporting across multiple source systems (like multiple ERP systems). Advanced currency conversion. Automated intercompany eliminations and consolidations. Performance (want faster reporting without slowing down the source system).

9 Budget reports (either for BI360 Planning or budgets stored in the ERP). Designing budget templates and other business input forms (with BI360 Planning). User Interface Overview BI360 Reporting is a modern Excel add-in that has been designed with the latest Microsoft technologies and that follows Microsoft s best practices for interface design and usability. The Interface was designed to maintain a similar look and feel to the Microsoft Office products, including the use of a Ribbon and Outlook menu bar as the main navigation components. Report Designer Components BI360 Reporting is an Excel add-in on the Excel ribbon. BI360 Reporting consists of two menus: The Excel Ribbon and the Excel Task Pane.

10 The ribbon is typically used by administrators for setup and maintenance of reports, while the task pane is used to design and run reports. BI360 Excel Ribbon The Excel ribbon has buttons that provides access to the following functions: Start the design of new reports (either from scratch or based on an existing Excel report) Manage your login (server connection) Manage configuration of the current report (as it relates to the data source) Manage report properties and setting options Open/close Task Pane and Design windows Manage report parameters (prompts) Excel Task Pane BI360 Reporting s task pane features the popular Microsoft Outlook-style menu bar.