Using three-dimensional data cubes in the implementation of a business intelligence system

Business analysis is one of the key management tools that allows getting a reliable picture of the current business situation in an enterprise in all areas of its activity. To ensure this process in any company, there are various data used as its performance indicators. The data source is primarily integrated information systems (IIS) of various types (ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning, CRM – Customer Relationship Management, MES – Manufacturing Execution System, etc.) These systems either incorporate business analysis tools (BI – Business Intelligence) or use specialized solutions that allow performing complex analytical tasks according to a given formulation. This article discusses the features of both approaches, their advantages and disadvantages, provides examples of foreign and domestic products for business analysis existing on the market. The authors propose a method for constructing three-dimensional cubes using the data contained in this system on the example of the BI-module developed by the authors of the IIS SciCMS. There are descriptions of the used methods and algorithms, the initial requirements and limitations. The authors have carried out the formalization of tasks and considered the mathematical apparatus for constructing multidimensional data models based on information from a fixed set of normalized tables of a relational database. There are examples of SQL queries and output data. In some cases (working with a non-relational DBMS, the need for precalculated aggregate values, the complexity and high cost of direct SQL queries, etc.), the described method for building multidimensional cubes may not be applicable. The solution to this problem in SciCMS is its own data import and transformation module based on an open source library. The article summarizes the main advantages and disadvantages of the proposed approach, the prospects for its use in domestic enterprises.