Now you can create the application and database and build the first draft of the outline in Essbase. The draft defines all dimensions, members, and consolidations. Use the outline to design consolidation requirements and identify where you need formulas and calculation scripts.
Before you create a database and build its outline, create an Essbase application in which to add the database. |
The TBC planners issued the following draft for a database outline. In this plan, Year, Measures, Product, Market, Scenario, Pkg Type, and Ounces are dimension names. Observe how TBC anticipated consolidations, calculations and formulas, and reporting requirements. The planners also used product codes rather than product names to describe products.
Year. TBC needs to collect data monthly and summarize the monthly data by quarter and year. Monthly data, stored in members such as Jan, Feb, and Mar, consolidates to quarters. Quarterly data, stored in members such as Qtr1 and Qtr2, consolidates to Year.
Measures. Sales, Cost of Goods Sold, Marketing, Payroll, Miscellaneous, Opening Inventory, Additions, and Ending Inventory are standard measures. Essbase can calculate Margin, Total Expenses, Profit, Total Inventory, Profit %, Margin %, and Profit per Ounce from these measures. TBC needs to calculate Measures on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis.
Product. The Product codes are 100‑10, 100‑20, 100‑30, 200‑10, 200‑20, 200‑30, 200‑40, 300‑10, 300‑20, 300‑30, 400‑10, 400‑20, and 400‑30. Each product consolidates to its respective family (100, 200, 300, and 400). Each consolidation allows TBC to analyze by size and package, because each product is associated with members of the Ounces and Pkg Type attribute dimensions.
Market. Several states make up a region; four regions make up a market. The states are Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, California, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Each state consolidates into its region—East, West, South, or Central. Each region consolidates into Market.
Scenario. TBC derives and tracks budget versus actual data. Managers must monitor and track budgets and actuals, as well as the variance and variance percentage between them.
Pkg Type. TBC wants to see the effect that product packaging has on sales and profit. Establishing the Pkg Type attribute dimension enables users to analyze product information based on whether a product is packaged in bottles or cans.
Ounces. TBC sells products in different sizes in ounces in different markets. Establishing the Ounces attribute dimension helps users monitor which sizes sell better in which markets.
The following topics present a review of the basics of dimension and member properties and a discussion of how outline design affects performance.