The three items at the bottom of the
page are Series, Bottom Axis, and Background. Dimensions or measures placed in
the Series panel will be shown on the side, or Y-axis, of the report. Dimensions or
C h a p t e r 6 : A n a l y s i s w i t h P e r f o r m a n c e P o i n t S e r v e r a n d P r o C l a r i t y 141
measures placed in the Bottom Axis panel will appear on the X-axis of the report.
Time is often shown across the X-axis because people are used to seeing data over
time, and viewing the trend over time is relatively easy this way; viewing time down
the Y-axis is often an unnatural way for people to view data.
Note that either dimensions or measures can be placed in either the Series
or Bottom Axis. Often a single measure is placed in the Series panel and some
time hierarchy is placed in the Bottom Axis panel, although this makes it more
challenging for end users to drill down, as will be discussed on a moment. The
dimensions and measures for the data source are available in the Available Items
pane on the right-hand side of the designer, as can be seen in Figure 6-3.
There is also a third category of items listed in the Available Items pane, known
as Named Sets. Named Sets are a collection of one or more items defined by an
MDX statement. As an example, imagine that a company wants to define its top
ten customers as a group by which to do analysis. What makes a customer a top
Figure 6-3 A simple Analytic Chart showing the Big Blue Bar and items in both the
Series and Bottom Axis boxes
142 B u s i n e s s I n t e l l i g e n c e w i t h M i c r o s o f t O f f i c e P e r f o r m a n c e P o i n t S e r v e r 2 0 0 7
ten customer? This is a business decision??”the definition may be as simple as the
customers with the greatest purchases this year to date.
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