| "Dimensions, measures, slicers? What are you talking | | | | you to select one of six cubes from which to draw |
| about?" If you are licensed for Dynamics GP | | | | information, and then export it to Excel. Simple. From |
| Advanced Management, you have access to a | | | | there you need to draw on your Excel Pivot Table |
| powerful analytical reporting tool; Analysis Cubes. | | | | skills to create the report you want or analyze the |
| Analysis Cubes has been part of the Great Plains | | | | data you're after. |
| systems for several years. It allows you to quickly | | | | There are a few advantages to using Analysis Cubes |
| access information and analyze it in ways that you | | | | over just pulling the data into Excel using an ODBC |
| previously may have not considered. It also provides a | | | | connection. First, as the data is transferred to Analysis |
| strong link to live data through Excel, so you can | | | | Services, additional attributes are created for the data; |
| create reusable reports and refresh the data with one | | | | the most important is that various time values are |
| click. | | | | associated with each transaction, such as month, |
| Analysis Cubes is easy to install. You just need to | | | | quarter, year. Second advantage is that the connection |
| install Analysis Services on your SQL Server, if you | | | | to Excel is made for you when you "send" the data to |
| have not already done so. Then install the Analysis | | | | Excel. This makes it a lot easier for end users to get |
| Cubes software (there's a server piece, and a client | | | | the data into Excel. Additionally, if you want to use |
| piece). When you install Analysis Cubes, the installation | | | | other OLAP reporting tools, such as ProClarity, you |
| wizard will install the DTS packages automatically and | | | | already have the cubes available for analysis. |
| will offer to set up a SQL Job to regularly transfer | | | | Certainly if you are already licensed for Analysis |
| data from the Dynamics GP database, to the Analysis | | | | Cubes, it is worth your time to try it out. It's fairly simple |
| Services database, and "process" the cubes. | | | | to install and adds a whole other reporting and analysis |
| To use Analysis Cubes, you launch the Create Pivot | | | | tool you can use to manage your business. |
| Table Reports screen within Dynamics GP. This allows | | | | |