Parameter Files Provides Easy and Maintainable MicroStrategy Web Customizations
The layered, object-oriented architecture of MicroStrategy Web, and comprehensive documentation in the SDK makes customizations quick and easy for developers to identify and isolate the objects to be customized, minimizing impact to unaffected objects and functions. Most of the common customization scenarios are externalized into XML parameter files, allowing most customizations with minimal programming. As a result, customizations are easier to build, maintain, and upgrade, resulting in lower development and support costs and quicker deployments.

A Functionally Rich API Allows Building of Highly Customized BI Applications
The MicroStrategy platform contains the most complete and comprehensive API in the BI industry. This open API allows organizations to build highly specialized web or client-server applications that leverage the industrial-strength capabilities of the MicroStrategy BI platform. Systems Integrators, Value Added Resellers, and OEMs have relied on MicroStrategy’s open API to build these highly customized and highly functional BI applications for their customers.

Integrate with Third Party Products such as Visualization Tools
With the MicroStrategy SDK, a wide variety of third-party visualization products can be integrated with MicroStrategy BI applications to leverage the advanced data presentation techniques contained in these software packages.

MicroStrategy's layered architecture makes these representations interactive and full BI functionality is available regardless of whether MicroStrategy Web or the visualization software presents the information to the end user. Using the SDK, organizations are implementing BI applications to identify customer migration patterns, optimize the supply chain, identify and target new customers, or even search and display complex visualizations such as chemical structures.

Integrate insight from the MicroStrategy BI platform into enterprise portals
With the MicroStrategy SDK, organizations can extend the reach of BI reporting and analysis through their enterprise information portals. Since the MicroStrategy BI platform is built using commonly used industry standards, such as: J2EE, .NET, XML, JSR 168, WSRP, and SOAP, the MicroStrategy BI platform can be easily integrated into any commercial or homegrown portal.

Easy to Learn and Develop
Developers will quickly learn how to use the APIs and deploy customized applications with several advanced tools within the SDK. The comprehensive Developer Library speeds learning by illustrating the function call workflow for common operations, quick API call references and step-by-step tutorials on common customization tasks. Developers can use higher-level API objects to dramatically cut down on the amount of written code and code maintenance while still providing access to more advanced functionality. The SDK also contains open source code in the form of sample applications and utilities. Sample applications illustrate key uses of the APIs and provide tools for development, while production-ready utilities speed application time-to-market.

Use Web Services to Integrate MicroStrategy into Existing Business Applications

Use of Web Services in conjunction with the MicroStrategy BI platform enables organizations to:

• Reduce development time and future risk through the use of open standards.
• Leverage investments by integrating with existing applications.
• Increase the ROI on BI applications by deploying valuable reports and information to suppliers, partners and customers.