Introduction to Key Concepts of SAS Intelligent Planning
A plan is a multidimensional spreadsheet that displays Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for levels and members of selected dimensions.
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The following is an example of a simple plan that has three different KPI’s displayed in the far-left column. The KPIs are part of the Account or Measure dimension. A dimension is a way to organize your data, so it is easier to work with. A dimension is like a label or grouping that helps you break down your data into meaningful parts. There are four dimensions displayed in the following plan, Measure, Analysis, Product, and Calendar.
Each Dimension is made up of members. In the following example, for the Measure and Analysis dimensions you can see which members have been included in the plan. For Measure the Sls Tot R, NET_SALES_RETAIL_FCST, and SLS Tot C members have been selected for the dimension. For Analysis the TY, LY, and MFP-TD members are selected.
For the Product and Calendar dimensions you may notice that there are arrows next to the members. This is because these members are part of a hierarchy. A hierarchy is an arrangement of related members into levels that are based on parent-child relationships. The Calendar dimension starts with the Top-Level members of year, and goes all the way down to Month. The lowest member of a dimension is called a leaf member. The following shows all the members of the Calendar dimension in their hierarchy.
Values can be entered at crossings of members. When values are entered for hierarchical dimensions, there is special behavior on how the values are passed down or up to their parent or child members. Future posts will dive into more details about this. Additionally, they will dive into more topics such as how to modify the layout of plans, how to seed plans and other topics. For more information see the soon to be released Essentials of SAS Intelligent Planning course which will be part of the SAS Internet of Things Learning Subscription.
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