MAPICS Analytics

[PCampa@xxxxxxxxxxx]

We have had MAPICS Analytics in place for over a year.

There are a few areas that must be evaluated prior to rolling out this tool.

1. You must consider your MAPICS modifications to the actual fields
Analytics uses to sort/categorize the data.
Here is an example:
Bookings:  Analytics uses the original promise date as the key to determine
what period to place the bookings.
Be sure to identify how your users (Finance/Sales/etc) are preparing the
executive reports.
It is not uncommon for highly  engineered to order product companies to use
the latest promise date as the date to book an order. This is determined by
finance (GAP principles) in projecting revenue.   If such is your case you
will need an additional module to modify your Analyticals Data Warehouse.

2. Determine the level of drill down capabilities that the user will need.
The amount of data (history) will have a direct
impact on your processing time and the size of the cubes generated.  The
servers may become the bottleneck for cube processing. If you have
Java/Visual basic/ASNA Visual RPG programmers they can implement OCX that
will generate cubes
using data from THE AS400.

3. If you classify/sort data by MAPICS user/custom fields the Analytics
(Core components) will not provide drill down capabilities without their
extender module.

4. Some users do find the cube approach difficult to navigate.  You must get
a buy-off from the users regarding the interface. One suggestion is to keep
your views simples and  design them specific for functional groups.

5. The 'Digital Dashboard' is a recent addition that has an engine that is
MS-Excel based.  There are other less costly options.  These tools are a
practical alternative (less costly in the NT world).  That will not require
incurring additional license cost.


6. Keep in mind that each additional functional are module has additional
license costs.  (Finance/Sales/Logistics, etc)

I wish you success with this project.

Regards,

Philip Campa
IT Manager