MicroStrategy is a business intelligence (BI), enterprise reporting, and OLAP (on-line analytical processing) software vendor. MicroStrategy's software allows reporting and analysis of data stored in a relational database, multidimensional database, or flat data file. MicroStrategy describes its core reporting software as having a "ROLAP" or "Relational OLAP" architecture, meaning that a complex relational database can be expressed using a virtual multidimensional cube structure that can be more easily understood by business users who wish to navigate through the data. MicroStrategy has also supported multidimensional MOLAP processing since it released MicroStrategy 7i in 2003.
The company's most recent software suite is MicroStrategy 9, which was announced in January 2009 and made generally available in March 2009. MicroStrategy 9 is the company's most significant release in nearly a decade, with more than 8,000 enhancements and upgrades along with new products through advancements to the platform.[1] Some of the new products and capabilities in MicroStrategy 9 include MultiSource Option, which supports transparent querying of multiple databases and sources; In-memory ROLAP for improved query performance at high scale; self-service reporting and dashboard capabilities; and Distribution Services for high volume managed report distribution on a scheduled basis.
As a result of the consolidation in the BI industry, MicroStrategy remains one of the few independent BI software providers.[2] When IBM announced its plans to acquire Cognos and SAP announced plans to purchase Business Objects, MicroStrategy announced its plans to aggressively recruit employees and customers from its competitors.[3]
MicroStrategy has several thousand customers including Lowes,[4] McDonalds,[5] U.S. Army,[6] Universal Studios Hollywood,[7] KB Toys, and Priceline.com.[8] Many MicroStrategy customers have invested in the development of large scale data warehouses or data marts as part of their business intelligence initiatives.
In the BI Survey 7, an independent survey of the business intelligence market released in 2008, MicroStrategy received the top product loyalty score of all BI vendors surveyed.[9] This is the fourth consecutive year that MicroStrategy has been rated number one in customer loyalty. In 2008 and 2009, MicroStrategy was placed in the Leader quadrant of Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms report.
MicroStrategy has direct operations in 41 cities in 23 countries across the world.