Logic behind setting up Dimensions

AMBPI

Guys, is it correct when I assume that:

The CORE of any implementation of Navision is in how we set up our Dimension. Because in the end, the goal of any system is not just to capture data, but how we can slice and dice the data. And how our decision makers in the company can slice and dice data easily is in how we setup our Dimension. We can do a lot with reports, but the real power in Navision is in its "Analysis by Dimension" feature ... Am I correct?

So Basically, any detail that I want to be able to analyse when it comes to Expenses, Sales and Customers I should make into a dimension, even if some of the dimensions will become redundant with the way we setup our posting groups and/or existing fields which may already exist in the customer/item card .... is this the right way of thinking when it comes to creating dimensions?

So, even though we already setup our Customer PG as: Retail Cust, Commercial Cust .... if we want to analyse by dimension using the above we should create the dimension "Customer Type", even though the dimension values will be exactly the same as whats already in the Customer PG.

The same thing would apply to Items.... In setup of items there are already 2 fields "Item Category Code" and "Product Group Code". If we want to analyse sales by Item Category and Product Grouping, would we have to create dimensions for them? even though those 2 fields already exist in the item card... and the dimension value will probably be the same as whats in those 2 fields.

#-o Am I making sense?

Thanks guys.

johnson_alonso

Dear Friend,
This is what I've got from online help F1
:
What is a dimension and a dimension value?
A dimension is data that you can add to an entry as a kind of marker so that the program can group entries with similar characteristics and easily retrieve these groups for analysis purposes. Dimensions can be used throughout the program on entries in journals and documents, as well as budgets. The term dimension is used in Navision to describe how analysis occurs. A two-dimensional analysis, for example, would be sales per area. However, by using more than two dimensions when creating an entry, you can carry out a more complex analysis at a later time, for example, sales per sales campaign per customer group per area.

Each dimension can have an unlimited series of dimension values that are sub-units of that dimension. For example, a dimension called Department can have departments called Sales, Administration and so on as subunits. These departments are dimension values. Dimensions and dimension values are user-defined and unlimited, which means you can create dimensions tailored to your company's needs and business processes. However, some dimensions, such as account number and date, are already defined for you by the program.

Why should you use dimensions?
A company's accounts are made up of many entries from many different sources and are associated with numerous activities within the company. It is often necessary to create statements, statistics and analyses that are extracts of the complete financial statements. These extracts can be created using individual dimensions or combinations of dimensions.

If you set up a dimension called Department, and then use this dimension and a dimension value when posting an entry, you can later retrieve information on, for example, which items have been sold by which departments. If more than one dimension has been used on posted entries, the user can create a richer analysis of a company's activities. For example, a single sales entry can include multiple dimension information about which account the item sale has been posted to, where the item was sold, who sold it, and what kind of customer made the purchase.

By using dimensions, you can analyze trends and compare various characteristics across a range of entries. The analysis view functionality is particularly effective for this purpose, but you can also use filters, account schedules and reports to create informative dimensions analyses.

It is also possible for you to use dimensions to support business rules by influencing how a user can combine dimensions and how dimensions can be posted. This may be useful if certain departments are not allowed to use particular accounts or sell to particular customers. For more on this, see Dimension Combinations and Default Dimensions.

Dimension types
etc.

Also, you can use dimension for the products you produce or sell. So the department, division, item category code, etc replaced by dimension (global dimension). For example you produce silver chair, then assigned it in the global dimension 1 code. then project as a global dimension 2 code.


Rgds,
Johnson

AMBPI

Thanks for your reply Johnson.

I guess the bottomline of what im asking is, if my marketing dept wishes to be able to easily (read: use analysis by dim) run reports seeing how:

1. Each brand / product group / product sells for a certain area (branch)
2. How each salesperson performs in a certain branch

The million dollar question for me is: even though the combination of my "GenProdPG" (in item card), "item category" (in item card), "product group" (in item card), "Resp Ctr" (in cust card) and "salesperson" (per SO) is already setup to reflect the above, would I still have to have the above as dimensions, if my marketing team want to be able to use the analysis by dim feature to analyse these data?

Thanks again.

ara3n

The answer is yes. as long as you setup default dimension on item, on Salesperson, on resp ctr.

girish.joshi

There is another alternative if you are using SQL 2K5.

Using the Analysis Services engine is actually considerably easier, and delivers better reports, than analysis by dimension. And it doesn't require all of the dimension setup (which can be inconsistent).

n_c_balaji

Hi Amabi,

I have come across a scenario where even the Item card contains the field Department, Department is setup as a dimension.

A one line answer to you million dollar question is that "Dimension tracks and keeps history". So, if you are to track both Customer Sales and Customer Outstanding, then Customer requires the history whereas the Receivables require only the current value into consideration.

Hope this answers your question.

Regards,

N C Balaji

Dimension is both the pain and power of Navision. He who becomes master of Dimension rules the Navision world.