Features | Benefits | FAQs

1. What is MicroStrategy Desktop?
MicroStrategy Desktop™ is a Windows client-server software application that provides integrated monitoring, reporting, and analysis capabilities.

2. What does MicroStrategy Desktop allow users to do?
Using MicroStrategy Desktop, users can easily access and share critical corporate information they need to make cost-cutting decisions and improve business processes. The information found in databases can also be used to help increase revenue and boost profits. Users can access this database and SAP data without having to learn technical database query (SQL) or multi-dimensional expression (MDX) syntax.

3. What can users do with the information they access using MicroStrategy Desktop?
Users can analyze the information using standard aggregations and more sophisticated functions such as average, summation, percentage contribution, standard deviation and net present value. Investigative reporting, using pivoting, sorting, slicing, and drilling to more detail, can be performed with simple mouse clicks. Users can also format reports to their specifications and view the data as intuitive charts and graphs to identify trends and anomalies quickly.

4. What are the benefits of using MicroStrategy Desktop?
Users can obtain critical information immediately without waiting for IT departments to create reports. The software is easy to use and provides context sensitive help, thus eliminating the need for extensive support and maintenance staff.

5. Are the reports created using MicroStrategy Desktop available to other products such as MicroStrategy Web?
Yes. Reports created using MicroStrategy Desktop are immediately available to other MicroStrategy products because of our centralized metadata architecture.

6. Can MicroStrategy Desktop access SAP data?
Yes. With the release of MicroStrategy 8, MicroStrategy Desktop incorporates a new dynamic data access engine designed to access multi-dimensional databases (MDDBs or OLAP Cube Databases) such as those from SAP Business Information Warehouse (BW) databases.

7. Can MicroStrategy Desktop access operational data systems?
Yes. MicroStrategy Desktop users can use a new Operational SQL Engine to include data from any operational system using completely free-form SQL, including stored procedures and views.

8. How fast is the performance on MicroStrategy Desktop?
MicroStrategy Desktop provides instant access and analysis of information. This high performance is enabled through Intelligence Cubes™, caches, incremental fetches and advanced analytic features.

9. How long does it take to learn MicroStrategy Desktop?
MicroStrategy Desktop preserves the look and feel of popular desktop software such as Microsoft® Windows® Explorer and Microsoft Office. As such, users are immediately comfortable with MicroStrategy Desktop. A customized interface using HTML can be created, simplifying navigation and report execution.

10. Can I make my data and graphs look professional?
Yes. Users can format their data into appealing reports using various formatting styles and graphs for maximum visual impact. Users can choose from more than 30 different charting options to present information in the best layout possible. 

11. Is it possible to display multiple reports, images and information on the same page?
Yes, users can easily combine tables, images, graphs and other information onto the same page in a document. Visually impressive and compelling documents can be printed out and shared with corporate executives. Business users can now rearrange the organization of any report with simple drag and drop actions or by clicking on the new toolbar icons to get entirely new views of the data, all from the same report and without requiring assistance from IT.

12. What printing capabilities are available in MicroStrategy Desktop?
MicroStrategy Desktop offers advanced printing capabilities. Features include repeating row/column headers, customizable headers and footers, and a comprehensive page setup menu. Users can preview reports before sending it to the printer.

13. What subtotaling features does MicroStrategy Desktop contain?
MicroStrategy Desktop has more than 10 different subtotaling functions that aid analysis of the data. Subtotals can be presented at any level in the rows, columns and pages on the report. 

Technical

14. What are the minimum requirements for MicroStrategy Desktop?
Minimum requirements are a computer with at least a 450MHZ Pentium- compatible CPU, 256MB of RAM and 500MB of hard disk.

15. Is MicroStrategy Desktop available in other languages?
MicroStrategy Desktop is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Italian, Swedish, Japanese and Portuguese.

16. How long does it take to get MicroStrategy Desktop up and running?
MicroStrategy Desktop installs in minutes and automatically presents a list of available MicroStrategy Intelligence Servers. Within an hour, the installation and setup are completed.

17. How does MicroStrategy Desktop integrate with the rest of the MicroStrategy platform?
MicroStrategy Desktop is the intuitive client-server interface used by business analysts and application developers. MicroStrategy Desktop interacts with the Intelligence Server to build metrics, create and format reports, and retrieve timely, accurate information to the desktop to enhance the decision-making process.

18. What security is provided with MicroStrategy Desktop?
MicroStrategy Desktop provides a host of security options to ensure that data is kept confidential and private. To facilitate easy deployment and minimal maintenance, MicroStrategy Desktop integrates with Windows NT and 2000 security and with Novell eDirectory. As a result, users who have logged into these systems will not need to log on again.

19. To what extend can MicroStrategy Desktop be personalized?
Each MicroStrategy Desktop user has a security profile defined by their administrator. This profile controls access to application functionality, specific reports or particular data for individual users or groups of users. The Desktop interface will adapt and display only what this user is allowed to see.

20. Is the MicroStrategy MDX engine certified by SAP?
Yes. This new Dynamic MDX Engine generates optimized MDX syntax that is fully certified with SAP BW using SAP's high performance BAPI interfaces.

21. Can users join data across SAP BW InfoCubes and Query Cubes?
Yes. Users can use MicroStrategy Desktop to create reports that access SAP data and join data across SAP BW InfoCubes and QueryCubes as well as access multiple instances of SAP BW at once.

22. Can MicroStrategy Desktop join data across heterogeneous data sources?
Yes. MicroStrategy 8 extends the MicroStrategy data modeling flexibility to include integrated views of data across heterogeneous data stores. By mapping conforming dimensions from different sources, MicroStrategy Desktop can automatically join data from multiple different sources in the same report document. Data can come from any source accessible by MicroStrategy 8, including the data warehouse, data marts, SAP BW, and any number of operational system databases

23. Does MicroStrategy provide predictive modeling capabilities commonly available in data mining tools?
Yes. MicroStrategy 8 can calculate four of the primary data mining functions including neural network algorithms, clustering algorithms, regression algorithms, and tree algorithms.

24. Can MicroStrategy incorporate best-of-breed data mining insight into mainstream business reports and analysis?
Yes. MicroStrategy 8 has extended its analytic engine with "Data Mining Services" capability that allows reports and analyses to include predictive capabilities in every MicroStrategy report or analysis. MicroStrategy 8 includes the new ability to import data mining models directly from best-of-breed data mining products from vendors like IBM, Teradata, SAS, and SPSS using the new PMML or predictive modeling mark-up language standard.

25. Can MicroStrategy Desktop export data to other software applications?
You can export information from MicroStrategy Desktop to text files, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access and HTML files. The formatting of the tables and data are preserved when you export to these file formats. 

26. What data sources does MicroStrategy Desktop support? 
You can access data in all the major databases including Oracle, IBM DB2, Informix, NCR Teradata, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, Red Brick, Sybase and Non-Stop SQL.

27. To save time, can many reports be run at the same time? 
MicroStrategy Desktop can execute multiple reports simultaneously. Report results are saved in a personal History folder when ready.

28. Can reports be executed in off-peak periods? 
Reports can be attached to time-based or event-based schedules that are defined by the administrator. These schedules automatically trigger the report execution and place a notification message in the History folder on completion.