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MicroStrategy Technology for OEM & SaaS Partners: FAQ

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Frequently Asked Questions About MicroStrategy's OEM/SaaS Program

  1. What kinds of companies qualify as OEM Partners?
  2. Can MicroStrategy query against transactional databases?
  3. Can MicroStrategy query against multiple sources of data?
  4. What are the options available for customization, integration and embedding?
  5. Can I deploy MicroStrategy as an on-premise solution?
  6. Can I deploy MicroStrategy using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model?
  7. Does MicroStrategy support internationalization?
  8. What does it typically take to train my developers to build an OEM solution?
  9. Can MicroStrategy provide help in developing our OEM Solution?
  10. How does MicroStrategy compare to its competitors as it relates to OEM Partners?
  11. Can I download and evaluate MicroStrategy?
  12. What resources are available for demonstrations/sales efforts to our prospects?
  13. How can OEM customers best keep up with what’s in upcoming releases?

1. What kinds of companies qualify as OEM Partners?

Any company that embeds MicroStrategy’s products within a product offering that is delivered to multiple customers, whether installed on-premise or hosted, is defined as an potential OEM Partner.

2. Can MicroStrategy query against transactional databases?

MicroStrategy can query against any data structure including transactional or analytical. The MicroStrategy Schema Abstraction Layer is designed to map to any underlying data structure and provide a multi-dimensional view of it to the end-user.

3. Can MicroStrategy query against multiple sources of data?

MicroStrategy’s MultiSource Option can be used to query against multiple databases, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, text files and other ODBC-compliant data sources. This option enables a single report to query from multiple data sources, join the data together leveraging the power of a database and present the combined result to the end-user.

4. What are the options available for customization, integration and embedding?

The MicroStrategy SDK is made available to our OEM Partners to enable them to integrate MicroStrategy into your product offering. This SDK includes a Web API for interface customization allowing you to rebrand the MicroStrategy interface to look as though it is your own. Additionally, MicroStrategy provides numerous programmatic mechanisms to integrate security and other administrative tasks with existing product offerings you may already have.

5. Can I deploy MicroStrategy as an on-premise solution?

MicroStrategy is able to be delivered as an on-premise solution through numerous installation and configuration capabilities. First, MicroStrategy offers a silent installation for the entire platform. Second, all configuration capabilities are delivered via a programmatic scripting language called MicroStrategy Command Manager. Finally, MicroStrategy delivers object management capabilities enabling you to deploy initial metadata as well as metadata upgrades when they become available, merging updates with existing customer deployments.

6. Can I deploy MicroStrategy using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model?

MicroStrategy’s legacy as an enterprise BI platform makes is a very strong technology for a hosted SaaS environment. With a unified metadata, centralized administration capabilities, scalable platform, robust security, customizability and personalization abilities, the MicroStrategy platform delivers all the requirements for multi-tenancy with minimal administrative support. Additionally, MicroStrategy provides term licensing and revenue sharing to comply with common SaaS pricing models.

7. Does MicroStrategy support internationalization?

MicroStrategy provides full support and flexibility for internationalized and personalized BI deployments, presenting every report, dashboard or OLAP analysis in the local language or dialect of each business user viewing the information. By leveraging a centralized BI metadata, SaaS providers can take a single application and deploy it in many languages, or provide different names in the same language for the same metadata object (e.g. metric).

8. What does it typically take to train my developers to build an OEM solution?

MicroStrategy offers all of its instructor-led and online classes through a Perennial Education Pass which offers one cost per developer per year for unlimited training. Developers typically attend MicroStrategy classes for Report Development, Data Architecting, Administration and the MicroStrategy SDK. Education can take as little as 2 days or as much as 3 weeks for certification. MicroStrategy can also teach customized classes at your site which is typically cost-effective if you have 5 or more developers.

9. Can MicroStrategy provide help in developing our OEM Solution?

MicroStrategy provides discounted professional services both onsite as well as off-shore to aid our partners in developing their OEM Solution. We also have a large partner network around the world that can also aid in the development and maintenance of your solution.

10. How does MicroStrategy compare to its competitors as it relates to OEM Partners?

MicroStrategy’s technology is often recognized as stronger than others in the BI space in areas of security, centralized metadata across all styles of business intelligence, integration across all product offerings and data scalability from the smallest to the largest of installations. All of these differentiators lead to repeated third-party studies that show MicroStrategy can be deployed with far less administration than competing solutions.

11. Can I download and evaluate MicroStrategy?

This site is intended to help you review our technology, watch videos of our technology and understand the commercial terms available as an OEM partner. You can also download the entire MicroStrategy platform for 30 days and engage with our Engineers to help you build a prototype proving the capabilities of our technology in your environment.

12. What resources are available for demonstrations/sales efforts to our prospects?

The MicroStrategy OEM program includes all licenses required to demonstration, sell and support your solution. Additionally, we provide you licenses to provide evaluations to your prospects during ongoing sales cycles. MicroStrategy also offers free sales training to your sales teams, sales engineers and distribution partners to help them understand how to position MicroStrategy. Finally, MicroStrategy is prepared to help you demonstration your solution at trade shows or other conferences that are relevant.

13. How can OEM customers best keep up with what’s in upcoming releases?

MicroStrategy provides a quarterly OEM newsletter as well as a Partner Portal to our partners with updated sales and marketing documents to keep them updated on what’s new with MicroStrategy and our technology.