One Spend Cube Is Never Enough
It's always humorous to hear spend analysis vendors talk about
"The Spending Cube" in capital letters, as if there is only one
cube that they'll ever build.
Of course, they're right — there is only one cube that
they'll ever build. Their whole architecture is oriented
around building a single cube.
We think that's a terrible idea. There are many different
ways to look at spend, and there's lots of spend data that
can't be organized into a single cube, because it makes no
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BIQ users build dozens of different cubes,
sometimes to look at individual pieces of spend.
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sense to do so. How about a compliance cube, oriented around
invoice level data? A purchasing card cube, specific to p-card
idiosyncrasies? A T&E cube, built from travel agency data on
"best price" versus "actual price," tracking employee travel
and the reasons for the discrepancies? Then there's travel agency bookings
versus actual credit card charges, that's always an interesting analysis.
See
On Beyond A/P
for more examples.
That's why the BIQ engine supports multiple datasets simultaneously,
not just one; and why our BIQ users build dozens of different cubes,
sometimes to look at individual pieces of spend or individual datasets
that have become available.
When you bring up BIQ, you can choose to load any cube or cubes
that you've built. We're sure you'll build plenty of them —
(1) because it's easy, and (2) because it makes sense. Switching views
between cubes is easy — or bring up several Viewers to look at
different cubes simultaneously, whether those cubes are hosted on
your local machine or on a distant server or multiple servers.
One cube? You've got to be kidding!
