FORM - 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(Sec Section 10 and Rule 13)
THREE WAYS TALLIED USER EDITABLE AND METADATA DRIVEN REPORTING SYSTEM
TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED,
an Indian Company
of Nirmal Building; 9th Floor,
Nariman Point. Mumbai - 400 021,
Maharashtra, India.
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which
it is to be performed

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of Enterprise Data Processing (EDP). Particularly, the present invention relates to the field of data warehousing.
Still particularly, the present invention relates to a reporting system for an enterprise data warehouse.
DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED IN THE SPECIFICATION
The term 'credentials' in this specification relates to details of users including their employee ID / username / group ID, password, hierarchy in the organization and the like.
The term 'data warehouse' in this specification relates to a central repository for storing an enterprises global data in a uniform format for further processing, statistical analysis and reporting.
The term 'objects dictionary' in this specification relates to a rule book, based on which the operations of the complete system are managed and controlled.
The term 'operational data' in this specification relates to the daily transactional / workflow related data for instance invoices, order forms which are generated by an organization.
The term 'report' in this specification relates to a graphical interface which presents consolidated and comprehensive information to users in the form of Balanced Score Cards, Dashboards, tabular and graphical reports.
The term 'transformed data' in this specification relates to data which is extracted from source systems, cleaned, validated and mapped according to the design of the datawarehouse.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART
Traditionally, reporting of information was done manually in all business enterprises. With the advent of computers in 1960s more data was available in digital format in the form of electronic files. So, users were able to generate and print reports for analysis. COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) was very popular and widely used for Electronic Data Processing (EDP). In those times, programmers had to write long programs including the data descriptions, data handling and data sort routines for generation of reports.
Once databases became popular in 1990s, business data was Available in electronic tables. It became easier to capture data in tabular form, to index data and to query the data for information. Most data maintenance, referential integrity and indexing were handled by the database systems themselves. This made databases more popular, as programming requirement became less and data maintenance intensive. This enormously increased data collection, but the development in the processes of reporting and analysis did not pick up pace. Hence, there arose a big gap between the available data and the generated reports. To address this problem, reporting tools started appearing in mid-1990s.
There are hundreds of reporting tools available today. Today are available on various platforms, have different capabilities and can be used to generate reports quickly. These tools have matured to support graphical interfaces in Windows operating system which require less coding expertise. Gradually, these tools have started depicting numerical figures in graphs and charts. Using these tools it has become possible for managers to visually interpret the data.
During 2000-2004, more advanced tools became commercially available which also included tools for performing statistical analysis of business data. Cognos, Business Objects, SAS (Statistical Analysis System) and such other Business Intelligence tools allowed creation of sophisticated reports which included tables, charts and statistics for analysis. The latest version of these reporting tools allow a Balanced Score Card to be made which can drill down to dashboards and then to more detailed tabular reports.

In the prior art there have been various attempts to provide reporting tools like United States Patent 6668253 discloses an enterprise management system that provides a web based information solution that serves for business monitoring, reporting and analysis. Consolidated report which can be drilled down to retrieve detailed data and enable monitoring of KPIs for a business can be generated using this system. Also, the disclosure provides action buttons on the reports to give calculation capabilities for trend analysis, conducting comparisons, summation and aggregation of information, identifying potential and profitable relationships. However, the United States Patent 6668253 does not give a 360 degree view of the data in the generated dashboards. Also, the data is not tallied to ensure its accuracy.
Further, WO Patent Application 2000/042553 discloses a system and method for processing business information from multiple enterprises. The system includes a user interface which controls the processing and display of information on a user's desktop. The user interface provides different views of the data by providing options including an alert report indicator, a flash report selector, an organization selector, a location selector. a product selector, a score card selector, a supply chain selector and a demand chain selector. However, self validating capabilities based on KPI, amount quantity and records tallying are not present. Hence, accuracy of data cannot be assured. Also, the information presented to the users does not give a consolidated and comprehensive view of data resulting in investment of a lot of time and effort by the users to analyze the data and then accordingly take necessary corrective action based on the report.
Thus, the techniques used in the prior art to develop reports and tools are still require labor intensive development and do not give a consolidated view of data. And data modeling, validation, layout of dashboards, and information publication techniques are still wanting. Hence, using the existing systems, the top and middle management teams across organizations in an enterprise, are still not able to review an individual unit's performance. Therefore, there is felt a need for a reporting system by the use of which: • the performance of all the individual units of organizations can be reviewed effectively;

• users can edit, save and share report-views and get benefits of collaborative data analysis;
• a comprehensive and consolidated view of information can be provided in a balanced score card;
• the data available from multiple sources can be displayed in a single dashboard;
• role based access can be provided to the users;
• the time and effort for performance report collation can be reduced considerably;
• reports can lead to speedy corrective actions being taken; and
• a high level of user satisfaction can be obtained.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a reporting system by the use of which the performance of all the individual units of an organization can be reviewed effectively.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a reporting system by the use of which users can edit, save and share report-views and get benefits of collaborative data analysis in the organization.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a reporting system by the use of which the data available from multiple sources can be displayed in a single dashboard.
It is still another object of the present invention is to provide a reporting system which provides role based access to users.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a reporting system which presents a comprehensive and consolidated 360 degree view of information.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a reporting system by the use of which speedy corrective actions can be taken based on conclusions arrived at from the dashboards.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a reporting system by the use of which the time and effort for performance report collation can be reduced considerably.

One more object of the present invention is to provide a reporting system by the use of which a high level of user satisfaction can be obtained.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention envisages a metadata driven reporting system for generation of comprehensive and consolidated reports presenting 360 degree view of data from an enterprise made of a plurality of disparate units, the system comprising:
• a data warehouse having:
i. a metadata repository comprising an objects dictionary to store information including at least one information selected from a group of information consisting of data entry information, self-validation information, access level information, KPI (Key Performance Indicators) calculation information in accordance with KPI information extracted from pre-defined enterprise-specific KPI templates, report view generation information and report layout information to develop, manage, monitor and control operations of the system; and ii. a database for storing an enterprise's transformed data;
• an interface adapted to communicate with the plurality of disparate units of an enterprise;
• an Extract Transform and Load (ETL) server co-operating with the interface and the data warehouse adapted to extract operational data from the disparate units of the enterprise via the interface and further adapted to transform, clean, validate and load the transformed data to the database server based on the data entry information using the self-validation information stored in the objects dictionary; and
• a reporting unit co-operating with the data warehouse comprising:
i. an interactive user interface partitioned in a predetermined format into a content area and a command area, wherein the content area displays reports and the command area includes a plurality of action buttons to receive commands from users to generate

different views of the data displayed in the reports for further inference and to manage and update the reports; ii. authentication means adapted to receive and authenticate the credentials of a user based on the access level information in the objects dictionary; and iii. a reporting engine co-operating with the user interface having:
■ fetching means adapted to receive the credentials of the authenticated user and based on the credentials and the access level information and KPI calculation information in the objects dictionary still further adapted to fetch data from the database server;
■ validation means adapted to validate the fetched data based on self-validation information stored in the object's dictionary;
■ display means adapted to receive and display the validated data in a predetermined format based on the report layout information in the object's dictionary on the content area of the user interface;
■ sensing means adapted to sense the selection of action buttons and/or requests on the user interface and still further adapted to provide the sensed request; and
■ processing means adapted to receive and process the sensed request and still further adapted to send the processed data view based on access level information stored in the objects dictionary to the display means for display on content area of the user interface.
Preferably, the objects dictionary includes tabular database means adapted to store information in the form of database tables, wherein each of the tables are inter-linked to each other using foreign keys.

Typically, the objects dictionary is adapted to store self-validation information includes checking means for checking the validation of data being loaded in the data warehouse and data displayed on the reports. The checking means may be based on a triangulation technique for checking the validity of data. The triangulation technique based checking means validating / tallying means adapted to validate / tally data based on at least three pre-defined parameters.
Alternatively, the checking means may be based on a thumb rule tallying technique for checking the validity of data.
In accordance with the present invention, the objects dictionary includes formatting means to format stored report-layout information in accordance with pre-defined formats for displaying reports including partitioning a report view into a seven panel drill down/roll up display to categorize reported data into 'which', 'where', 'what is5, 'when', 'who', 'why' and 'how" sections to give 360 degree view of a KPI.
Further, the system includes KPI defining means for defining new KPIs and report views in the system's objects dictionary.
The metadata repository comprising KPI templates may include KPI template defining means for each of the disparate units of an enterprise.
Preferably, the metadata repository comprising KPI templates includes KPI template defining means for generation of templates based on Key Risk Areas (KRA), Key Risk Indicators (KRI) and Key Quality Indicators (KQI) for each defined KPI.
Typically, the action buttons include buttons adapted to provide functionalities for displaying different views of data selected from the group of buttons consisting of navigation buttons, pre-defined action buttons, calculation buttons, graph display buttons, formatting buttons, editor buttons, importing buttons and exporting buttons.
Further, the system includes report display means adapted to display the generated report by the reporting unit as a seven panel dashboard.

Still further, the system includes report display means adapted to display the generated report by the reporting unit as a Balanced Score Card for displaying at least target figures, actual figures, variance and trend KPI data for at least one source unit.
Furthermore, the system includes report display means adapted to display the generated report by the reporting unit and further includes drill down means adapted to allow a user to drill down said generated reports up to the grain level based on the access level information, for the user, stored in the objects dictionary.
Additionally, the system includes updation means adapted to generate customized user editable report views and still further adapted to add the user editable report view to the objects dictionary.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method for generation of metadata driven comprehensive and consolidated reports presenting 360 degree view of data from an enterprise made of a plurality of disparate units, said method comprising the following steps:
• creating an objects dictionary consisting of source data information, self-validation information, access level information, KPI (Key Performance Indicators) calculation information in accordance with KPI information extracted from pre-defined enterprise-specific KPI templates, report view generation information and report layout information;
• interfacing with disparate units of an enterprise;
• extracting operational data from the disparate units of the enterprise;
• transforming, cleaning, validating operational data and loading the transformed data to a datawarehouse server based on the data entry information and the self-validation information stored in the objects dictionary;
• providing a user interface for display of reports;
• partitioning the user interface into content area for displaying the reports and command area to include a plurality action buttons to receive

commands from users to generate different views of the data displayed in the reports;
• receiving user requests for generation of reports;
• authenticating the user based on the access level information stored in the objects dictionary;
• generating the KPI data from the data stored in the datawarehouse server based on the access level information, and the KPI calculation information stored in the objects dictionary;
• validating the KPI data based on the self-validating information stored in the objects dictionary;
• preparing reports for displaying the validated KPI data based on the reports view and report layout information stored in the objects dictionary;
• displaying the report on the content area of the user interface;
• sensing the selection of action buttons and/or requests on the user interface; and
• processing the selection and/or request and sending the processed data view based on access level information stored in the objects dictionary to the content area of the user interface for display.
Typically, the step of generating the KPI data from the data stored in the datawarehouse server includes the step of calculating the Key Risk Areas (KRA), Key Risk Indicators (KRI) and Key Quality Indicators (KQI) for each of the KPI based on the KPI calculation information and KPI templates stored in the objects dictionary for displaying the report.
Preferably, the step of validating the data based on the self-validating information stored in the objects dictionary includes the steps of validating the data using a triangulation technique based on at least three pre-defined parameters.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
The reporting system will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 illustrates a schematic of the three way tallied and metadata driven reporting system in accordance with the present invention;
FIGURE 2 is a snapshot of the user interface for presenting reports to the users in accordance with the present invention;
FIGURE 3 shows the seven display panels of a dashboard in accordance with the present invention;
FIGURE 4 illustrates the proposed 360 degree view of data provided by the present invention (as an example) for a telecommunication organization;
FIGURE 5 is a snapshot of the proposed seven panel dashboard generated in accordance with the present invention (sample for a telecommunication organization);
FIGURE 6 is a snapshot of the proposed Balanced Score Card generated in accordance with the present invention; and
FIGURE 7 is a flowchart showing the steps involved in generation of three way tallied and metadata driven comprehensive and consolidated reports in accordance with the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The drawings and the description thereto are merely illustrative of a three ways tallied user editable and metadata driven reporting system and only exemplify the system of the invention and in no way limit the scope thereof.
To overcome the time and effort involved in consolidating performance parameter based reports and to provide the management of organizations with a 360 degree view of the data stored in a warehouse / repository, the present invention envisages a three ways tallied and metadata driven reporting system.
In accordance with the present invention, the three ways tallied user editable and metadata driven reporting system includes dashboards and report generators which

generate reports based on key performance indicators (KPIs) for the review of the top management of organizations, individual unit heads, and functional heads.
Typically, in a data warehousing project, a reporting tool like Cognos is used as the front end reporting tool for generation of non-editable reports. Other reporting tools are also available which can be used instead of or with Cognos, namely Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE), Business Objects, SAS and the like. However, organizations incur huge licensing fees for use of these reporting tools with their existing data processing systems. Thus, the present invention provides a metadata driven Java based engine which can be used instead of the abovementioned tools and thus save the tool licensing fee costs.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the metadata driven engine gives rapid development capabilities and huge benefits in the form of user editable Balanced Score Card reports (BSC)/ Dashboards / Report-views. Using this engine, reports can be edited and saved as a report-view in accordance with this invention. This leads to collaborative data analysis in the organization.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the methods for understanding and documenting business measures in a global enterprise, for helping to make decisions on formulae for calculating key performance indicators (KPI), for making artistic impressions of dashboards and reports to track these KPIs are included in this invention and a part of the metadata. Also, the present invention discloses techniques for collecting required data for the abovementioned methods from different disparate systems, for collating data into one enterprise data warehouse and for tallying amounts, quantities and other measures before displaying the figures in a report.
The proposed reporting tool can be based on data in Oracle, MySQL or any other industry standard relational database management system (RDBMS). Also, the proposed reporting tool can be hosted on servers running UNIX or Linux operating system and can be ported to mainframes and super computers where very huge amount of data far beyond

the capacity of Oracle and other database management systems needs to be analyzed and reported.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, the reporting tool's user interface provides each user with his/her Balanced Score Card (BSC) on logging in to the system. The digitized BSC facilitates the top and middle management teams across an organization to review each of the individual units' performance. The BSC provides a comprehensive and consolidated 360 degree view of information pertaining to the measures collected and collated from the data available from multiple sources in a single screen. With this, the management can concentrate on analyzing the results and improvements instead of spending time on collecting or verifying accuracy of data.
The reports displayed in the digitized BSC can be viewed from a global level and can be drilled down till a desired level such as a project or transaction level. With role-based access, each person is able to see the data that is relevant to his/her role only. For instance, the revenue figures at an account level will be used for the revenue measure at the P&L (profit and loss) level to which the account belongs to. Subsequently the revenue figures from the P&L level will be roiled up into the same measure at the independent unit level.
In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, the reporting system is flexible, and thus can be tailored to provide solutions for different sectors including retail, telecommunications, insurance, banking, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, utilities, oil and gas.
The system, in accordance with the present invention manages Key Performance Indicators (KPI) templates specific to each industry. Integrated reports from finance, MR (Human Resources), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), sales and projections give the combined view of the business to the management. The process steps are followed chronologically when defining new KPIs and reports in the system's objects dictionary present in the metadata.

In accordance with the present invention, the BSC shows key performance indicators (KPI) grouped in four parts as related to finance, internal processes, learning and external entities. The target and actual figures are displayed for each KPI. The variance in figures and percentage are also displayed. Moreover, the trend across time, that is, over a period will also be captured and displayed.
The KPIs can also be seen by the user in different groupings as per business requirements. Such a grouped score card is called a business score card. This gives a global view to the top management, a regional view to the middle management and a detailed view of business to the executives. Hence, the business score card in accordance with the present invention serves as a powerful tool for all levels of management to get one line summary of business results based on the role and level of the user.
Referring to the accompanying drawing, FIGURE 1 illustrates a block diagram of the three way tallied and metadata driven reporting system.
In accordance with the present invention, the system comprises a data warehouse 100 for storing transformed data fetched from disparate units of the enterprise, an interface 108 for fetching the data from various disparate units 106, an Extract Transform and Load (ETL) server 110 for extracting the data via the interface 108, cleaning, validating, transforming and loading the data to the data warehouse 100 and a reporting unit 112 for generation of consolidated and comprehensive reports based on the data stored in the warehouse 100.
The data warehouse 100 includes a metadata repository 102 having an objects dictionary to develop, manage, monitor and control operations of the system and a database 104 for storing the data transformed by the ETL server 110.
The objects dictionary is a collection of descriptions of the items in a data model for the benefit of programmers and others who need to refer to them. In accordance with the present invention, the objects dictionary stores information including at least one information selected from the group of information consisting of source data information, self-validation information, access level information, KPI (Key Performance Indicators)

templates for capturing KPI measure and business rules in accordance with KPI information extracted from pre-defined enterprise-specific KPI templates, report view generation information and report layout information.
The objects dictionary is used to automate many jobs including self validation, self correction, data entry screen, views and quick reports. It contains the description of all the physical tables, columns, indices and special attributes of each column of the database.
In accordance with the present invention, the objects dictionary is adapted to store self-validation information includes checking means (not shown in the figure) for checking the validation of data being loaded in the data warehouse and data displayed on the reports.
The objects dictionary includes formatting means to format stored report-layout information in accordance with pre-defined formats for displaying reports including partitioning a report view into a seven panel drill down/roll up display to categorize reported data into 'which', 'where', 'what is', 'when', 'who', 'why' and 'how' sections to give 360 degree view of a KPI. Further, the KPI (Key Performance Indicators) calculation information stored in the objects dictionary includes KPI templates for each one of the units of an enterprise and templates for generation of Key Risk Areas (KRA), Key Risk Indicators (KRI) and Key Quality Indicators (KQI) for every KPI.
The system also includes a KPI defining means (not shown in the figures) for defining new KPIs and report views in the metadata (objects dictionary).
Since the balanced score cards, dashboards and drill down reports are also objects they are fully specified and defined in the objects dictionary. Any change required is only a small correction in the objects dictionary which is also a database table. Based on current definitions, all dashboards and reports are displayed to users by the Java based reporting engine 118 of the reporting unit 112. Hence, the objects dictionary is the heart of the proposed system while the Java engine 118 is its brain.

The various process steps followed by the present invention to create the objects dictionary are as given below:
• entering the vision and mission of the organization into the objects dictionary to realize its vision;
• identifying the goals and milestones of the mission, usually with corresponding year numbers and setting annual targets to reach this goal;
• formulating a strategy to reach the goal(s);
• entering into the dictionary the measures (KPI) templates which need to be tracked to ensure reaching the goals. There may be one or more Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to show movement for each business measure and the business rules also may be different for each KPI. The KPI templates further include KPI template defining means for generation of templates based on Key Risk Areas (KRA), Key Risk Indicators (KRI) and Key Quality Indicators (KQI) for each defined KPI;
• identifying the source systems 106 from which the data is going to be collected and providing the IP address and password and the like for the connecting to these source systems 106 in the objects dictionary;
• defining tables and columns to contain the source data copy in 108;
• defining the mappings to show the transformations and the loading into the fact tables;
• entering Primary and Unique keys to ensure data recording is perfect;
• entering foreign key constraints in the dictionary to ensure 100% referential integrity;
• defining triggers to achieve instant ETL (extract, transform and load) for some small dimension tables. Data update is fastest at database level and this will also ensure 100% incremental update;
• defining indexes for high speed access;
• entering data for small quantity of manual measures and updating the dictionary;
• keeping system details along with database details in the dictionary;
• keeping user list, security levels, roles and access in the dictionary.
• defining reports, dashboards and balanced score cards as seen in Table I;

No.
Specification
1 Report Name
2 Report Group
3 Report Heading
4 Report Sub-heading
5 KPI name and formula
6 Report Period
7 Report Filters
8 Seven Panels
9 Panel headings
10 Table
11 Table heading
12 Table Columns (visibile/hidden)
13 Table Column heads
14 Table Colum units
15 Table Column background color
16 Table Column foreground color
17 Table column calculated
18 Table column grouping
19 Table column sorting
20 Table SQL
21 Table rows
22 Table row drill down
23 Table row conditional formatting
24 Table row grouping

25 Table row sorting
26 Table Column footers
27 Graph type
28 Graph labels
29 Graph settings
30 Graph drill down
31 Map labels-
32 Map settings
33 Map drill down
34 Additional Analytics Links
35 Dials
36 Dial needle(s)
37 Dial drill down
38 Footer Note 1
39 Footer Note 2
40 Borders for tables & panels
Table I defining the structure of the reports, dashboards and balanced score cards.
• creating views for the BSC, dashboards and reports. Since views are at database level. Reports are always generated from partially de-normalized (Fact2) and dimension tables of the warehouse. Report-views and dashboards are generated from summary tables; and
• creating ETL for each of the email or SMS alerts. This is to ensure 100% logic in the ETL mappings further creating "events" SQL facility in the metadata repository 102 to trigger off the email or alert when it occurs. "Event" creation also allows scheduling routine activities.
The Objects dictionary in accordance with this invention is a set of 15 database tables. The objects dictionary includes tabular database means (not shown in the figures) to store the information in the form of database tables that hold the information needed for

automated operation of the system. They are all linked together with foreign keys and triggers. For instance, updating a database table "customer" with "party" in the conceptual model will trigger change of corresponding values in all the tables. This keeps the objects dictionary synchronized and makes changing of the metadata a simple process. The data modeling for the data warehouse 104 is done using the metadata. And, design reports can be generated from the metadata 102 eliminating the need for documenting / storing the latest version of the design documents for the system.
The following are the tables present and a part of the metadata repository 102 as seen in Table II:

No. Table name Metadata Role
I Tmx_CM_obj_dict Conceptual model
2 Tmx_BM_obj_dict Business model
3 Tmx_LDM_obj_dict Logical data model
4 Tmx PDM_obj_dict Physical data model
5 Tmx ndx_obj_dict Indexes
6 Tmx_scrn_obj_dict Screens
7 Tmx_rpt_obj_dict Editable Reports
8 Tmx_bsc_obj_dict Balanced Score Card
9 Tmx_dash_obj_dict 360° seven panel dashboards
10 Tmx_summ_obj_dict Summary reports
11 Tmx_details_obj_dict Detailed reports
12 Tmx_proof_obj_dict Proof reports
13 Tmx sec_obj_dict Security layers - report/user groups, user roles/levels, data level access
14 Tmx_ETL_obj_dict ETL
15 Tmx_db_obj_dict Databases maintenance

As, the connection details to the source systems / units 106 is specified in the objects dictionary, the interface 108 based on this input pulls the data from the source units of the enterprise and provides it to the ETL server 110.
The ETL server 110 extracts the data from the source units 106, cleans the data to remove data anomalies and then validates and tallies the data using a triangulation technique. The triangulation technique involves tallying the amounts, the quantities and the KPI of the cleaned data to ensure that the figures mentioned in the records are 100% tallied. The tallied data is loaded onto the datawarehouse 104 for further generation of reports.
Since the Physical Objects Dictionary is used for ETL validation by the ETL server 110, all the data is self-validated and tallied. The objects dictionary 102 which stores the self-validation information includes a checking means (not shown in the figures) for checking the validation of data being loaded in the data warehouse 104 and data displayed on the reports. The checking means may be based on a triangulation technique or alternatively may be based on a thumb rule tallying technique.
Similarly, since the objects dictionary 102 is used to generate reports and dashboards. changing layout or even creating a new report is relatively very simple under this invention as only the report layout information needs to be updated. Hence, the present invention is end to end driven by metadata.
The reporting unit 112 co-operates with the data warehouse 100 for fetching the reporting data from the datawarehouse 104 and the layout/views of the reports from the metadata repository 102.
Referring to FIGURE 2, the reporting unit 112 comprises an interactive user interface 114 which is partitioned in a predetermined format into a content area 200 and a command area 202, wherein the content area 200 displays reports and the command area 202 includes a plurality of action buttons to receive commands from users to generate different views of the data displayed in the reports for further inference and to manage and update the reports.

The functionalities of each of the action buttons are explained below. These actions buttons are grouped into navigation buttons, pre-defined action buttons, calculation buttons, graph display buttons, formatting buttons, editor buttons, importing buttons and exporting buttons.
■ 'Topl0' and 'Bot 5%; buttons allow the user to hide less significant rows. Those rows which are hidden are summed up as "others" and shown. Hence the total does not change.
■ Pareto '80/20' allow user to see top 20% of significant rows.
■ 'ABC analysis shows 80%: 15%: 5% based display of data.
■ 'Rank' gives ranking of 1 to n to the rows based on any measure column selected.
■ 'FSN' shows fast: slow: non-moving opportunities, out standings or inventory.
■ 'Ageing' shows selected measure in slabs. For example it can be outstanding days in slabs of 0-30, 30-60 and 60-90 days. User can then change the slabs themselves as required for variation in the analysis.
■ 'X-tab' converts list of two dimension columns and any one measure selected into a cross tab report-view.
■ 'Pivot' interchanges rows and columns.
■ 'Graph' shows selected columns and rows as stacked bar, line chart or pie.
■ '.xls' downloads the report into a local worksheet.
■ 'Print' prints the report in standard A4 size paper with page totals. This can be saved as an image also.
■ 'Pdf saves report as a pdf file to the local computer.
■ 'Min' and 'Max' highlight the rows with minimum and maximum of the selected column value.
■ 'Avg', 'Total' and 'Count' show the total, average and count respectively of the report data.
■ '%' and 'Variance' inserts additional columns in report to show the percentage and variance values respectively between two selected columns.
■ 'Stats' allows simple mean, median and mode to time series analysis.
■ '?If inserts new column containing alternate scenarios (For example, what is the revenue if the exchange rate did not change?').

■ 'Alert' alerts the user when the selected value reaches nn% of its target by an email or SMS (short messaging service) message. The SMS messages are sent to the registered mobile number of the user.
■ 'Attach' attaches '.ppt' and '.doc' files to the report.
■ 'Email' emails the generated report from the user to the addresses provided in the 'to', lcc'' and 'bcc' fields. 'Email' opens the local email client as pec the setup with the report as attachment.
■ 'SMS' sends SMS messages having the values in the highlighted cells to a mobile number or a group. Length of the selection is subject to 169 minus the length of the sender's signature.
■ 'SQL' allows the various SQL (structured query language) commands including 'select', 'where', 'group by', 'having' and 'order' by clause to be executed. This is useful when row count is high in a report.
■ 'Fl' is context sensitive help. This opens standard help book.
■ The home symbol takes the user to the main menu screen.
■ The boxed back arrow symbol is used for logging out of the system.
■ The up arrow drills up one level. This is not necessarily equal to the browser back button.
■ The down arrow drills down one level without applying new filters. To drill down with filter, the blue underlined cells, column heads or measures have to be clicked.
■ The note pad symbol shows the explanatory notes of the report in a box. The KPI formula, measures definition, inclusions, exclusions and other current business rules related to this report are displayed in the report notes.
■ The red book symbol opens the system's user manual. Typically, the user manual will be a non-editable pdf document.
■ 'Zoom' allows the report to fit in the screen or magnify a marked area of a graph. This is useful for the users with vision problems.
■ 'Diet' can be used only by the users with administrative rights. This allows changing the report definitions, to create new views and to set new security levels for reports / report-views.

■ 'Sort' allows sorting on selected columns.
■ 'HideCol' hides selected column(s).
■ 'InsCol' allows insertion of a new column for typing user's remarks against specific rows.
■ If the user clicks the save button, then the remarks will be visible to other users. If the save button is not clicked, then this new column will not be stored.
■ 'Group' allows grouping by a selected column and shows an instant summary report-view.
■ 'Find' is useful for reports with high row count to search for an item.
■ 'Repl' allows the 'find and replace' of strings to do a what-if analysis. The option for saving as a new report-view is also possible after replacement. This is useful for simulation reports.
■ 'Ctrl' + 'FT to 'F10' give 10 instant quick views. For example, by customer, opportunity by sales person, CRM stage, win probability %, location, value and the like.
■ The key press event of 'Ctrl' + 'Fl1' makes the report to toggle between the 'read only' mode and 'for update' mode (subject to the security of the system and the users level).
■ The key press event of 'Ctrl' + 'F12' toggles the screen layout between 'FORM' and'GRID'.
■ 'Filt' allows the user to exclude values or strings (for example, 'Lon%', '%GE%, '%F_A', >500) on selected column.
■ 'Add', 'Edit' and 'Del' allow the user to update the report-view. These can also be used for limited data entry into a staged area table,
■ 'Undo' discards the last one change (if any).
■ 'Save' will save the added record or edited record with the new security level setting equal to the user's security level. Last updated date and time are also recorded.
■ 'Save Vu' will allow user to name the report-view to be saved. This is equivalent to 'save as' a new report-view. The saved report-view might be granted view, edit and delete permissions based on the user's level and group.

■ 'Con Format' allows the conditional formatting similar to the MS Excel 2007. Users can do this directly on the report displayed on any column(s).
Referring to FIGURE 1, before accessing the reports on the user interface 114, the user's credentials are authenticated using the authentication means 116 as well as the users access level details are checked and fetched from the objects dictionary. The fetched access level details of the authenticated users are provided to the reporting engine 118.
The reporting engine 118 includes a fetching means 120 which receives the credentials of the authenticated user and based on the credentials and the access level information for , that user and KPI calculation information in the objects dictionary fetches data from the datawarehouse 104. This fetched data is validated by the validation means 122 adapted to validate the fetched data based on self-validation information stored in the objects dictionary. The information is validated using the triangulation technique. Three parameters namely the number of invoices, the outstanding amount and the KPI are considered in accordance with the present invention.
These parameters are tallied as a user drills down from a parent to a child to a grandchild report. The outstanding amounts and the number of invoices come from different summary tables for the parent and child reports. The KPI is calculated as per its formula and is displayed. If all these three still tally, then the reports are 100% tallied. This triangulation technique is referred as Three Ways tallying.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, another tallying method named as thumb rule tallying can also be adopted. The thumb rule tallying method assumes that the delta variation of the measures across the time will not be much. The dashboards of the system in accordance with the present invention have multiple panels presenting same KPI data from different perspectives. All the panels will be tallied against each other. If too much variation is shown in a particular month, reason code for the same will be shown in another panel of the dashboard.

Since, the system in accordance with the present invention tallies data in three ways, instances of reports being inconsistent will not be possible. Therefore management can arrive at conclusions with confidence and take business decisions.
This validated data is displayed using the reporting engines display means 124 in a predetermined format based on the report layout information in the object's dictionary on the content area of the user interface 114.
The reporting engine 118 has a sensing means 126 that senses the selection of action buttons and/or requests on the user interface 114 provides the sensed request to a processing means 128 for further processing of the sensed request. The processing means sends the processed data view based on access level information stored in the objects dictionary to the display means 124 for display on the content area of the user interface 114.
For instance, if the user presses the Top 10 action button on the user interface 114, then the sensed request is processed by the processing means 128 by updating the report view on the content area with the requested subset data, thus showing only the Top 10 contributors. Similarly, if the request to drill down a particular report entry is received. the processing means 128 checks the user privileges with the objects dictionary and based on the same displays the detailed data.
Additionally, the proposed system includes a report display means (not shown in the figures) to display the generated reports by the reporting unit as a Balanced Score Card, a seven panel dashboard or a Summary report. Further, the report display means include drill down means adapted to allow a user to drill down the generated reports up to the grain level based on the access level information, for the user, stored in the objects dictionary.
In accordance with the present invention, the report layout information in the objects dictionary includes layout for display of data on the user interface. One of the formats include a seven panel based dashboard report. FIGURE 3 illustrates the seven panels

used by the present invention to categorize the KPI based data and FIGURE 4 shows the corresponding seven panel dashboard report in accordance with the present invention. Hyperlinks provided in the dashboard allow users to drill through to a more specific dashboard or report.
Usually, the lowest level report shows measures at a voucher level. The split details (broken down details) of the measures in the dashboard is shown in the drill through reports. The measures in the drill through summary line will tally with the measures in the dashboard to prove that the measures in the dashboard are correct. For example, when the accounting location 'Chennai' in a revenue analysis dashboard is clicked by a user, the user will be allowed to drill downwards to the project level report of revenue for the projects in the Chennai region. In this report, the revenue for the current month for the projects in the Chennai region will be displayed. The user can also click on the project numbers and drill down to reach a detailed report showing invoice level amounts. This example illustrates how a user can check all the measures shown in the reports, as against the prior art systems where this process typically involves a process of ticket raising, ticket escalation and a few phone calls. Hence this "self tallying" feature of the system in accordance with the present invention gives high level of user confidence in the figures reported and satisfaction.
For unfilled measures, the system assigns a value "unspecified" or "others" by itself. For example, in a voucher form there may be 20 fields to be entered compulsorily and 5 fields may be optional. It is possible that two of these fields are used for analysis purpose. If these fields are not provided with values, the voucher gets saved with blank or null columns. When this type of data is encountered, the system automatically assign values of "others" or "unspecified" to these fields.
The user can also view a % sign on the top right of the screen of the dashboard and the reports. This % is the data classification purity measurement for the report being shown. This parameter is the percentage of fields which are already specified and no more in the "unspecified" classification. Hence if the report shows this % parameter as 90%, it means that 10% of the total measure is in "unspecified" or "others" category.

Thus, in accordance with the present invention, all the measures are cross tallied from three perspectives. Hence, compensatory errors can also be detected immediately. This ensures 100% accuracy of measures in the database and the reports. This triangulation pin points each KPI % to the exact measure value.
The Balanced Score Card of the system in accordance with the present invention shows KPI% for each business parameter. Each KPI signifies a very short summary, typically in one line for each parameter of the business. A user can drill down on each line to the lower level reports to see more details. As the user drills down, the measures will continue to tally between the parent and the child report. They are all in synchronization with each other. Thus the management can arrive at conclusions from a summary report and can take business decisions. They need not waste time checking the accuracy of the KPI values.
Each of the seven panels of the dashboard are titled to fully explain their content. The tables in 'which' and 'who' panels have group headings, headings and column headings. The column heading shows units of figures being shown in the column including US$, %, Avg, Count, Kg and the like. The 'what' panel shows the KPI value. The 'which' panel explains the spread of this value across product groups or projects or items. The 'when' panel shows when the KPI was doing better in the last few periods. The 'where' panel shows variation across regions or locations. The 'who' panel shows the top contributors to the KPI value. These five panels show the manager a 360° view of the KPI. The 'why' panel will show top reasons why the KPI value is low. The 'how' panel will point to a few top business decisions to be taken to improve this KPI. Thus, each dashboard in this invention helps management to take decisions and derive real business benefits from the dashboards.
The KPI % column is usually sorted in descending order. This column heading is given in an orange background color.
FIGURE S illustrates the 360 degree view of the system in accordance with the present invention for a telecommunication data warehouse. For each KPI, all related data is

shown in one screen to the user. This gives a broad aspect of why a particular KPI is low and how best it can be improved. This is especially useful in CRM and HR related KPIs in all industries. In financial KPIs, this will show why expenses are high for a cost center and how best it can be controlled by better planning. This is used very effectively in stock and commodities exchanges for analysis related to clients' future contracts and other OLTP related reports. For a Call Center the dashboard may show the pattern of calls by reason code, agents, waiting time, holding time, resolved, abandoned and by frequent callers.
FIGURE 6 illustrates a user editable Balanced Score Card generated in accordance with the present invention. The BSC shows key performance indicators (KPI) grouped in four parts namely related to finance, internal processes, learning and external entities to review each of the individual units' performance. The BSC displays target and actual figures, the variance in figures and percentage and the trend across time, that is, over a period for each KPI for the individual unit.
In accordance with the present invention reports can be edited and saved as a new report view using an updation means (not shown in the figures). The updation means implements the user editable report-view using temporary tables for each active session (each login of the user to the user interface). For each session a copy of the summary data is made when the user clicks an edit button on the user interface 114. This is displayed to user based on the temporary dictionary. Then, the user can edit this temporary session copy. All user edits are recorded in this temporary dictionary. After editing if s/he does not save the data then this temporary session copy table is dropped. If s/he saves the template, the updation means appends the temporary dictionary table to the main object dictionary and makes the new report view available to users.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method for generation of metadata driven comprehensive and consolidated reports presenting 360 degree view of data from an enterprise made of a plurality of disparate units, the method comprising the following steps as seen in FIGURE 7:

• creating an objects dictionary consisting of data entry information, self-validation information, access level information, KPI (Key Performance Indicators) calculation information in accordance with KPI information extracted from pre-defined enterprise-specific KPI templates, report view generation information and report layout information, 1000 and 1000a;
• interfacing with disparate units of an enterprise. 1002;
• extracting operational data from the disparate units of the enterprise, 1004;
• transforming, cleaning, validating and loading the transformed data to a datawarehouse based on the source data information and the self-validation information stored in the objects dictionary, 1006;
• providing a user interface for display of reports, 1008;
• partitioning the user interface into content area for displaying the reports and command area to include a plurality action buttons to receive commands from users to generate different views of the data displayed in the reports, 1010;
• receiving user requests for generation of reports, 1012;
• authenticating the user based on the access level information stored in the objects dictionary, 1014;
• generating the KPI data from the data stored in the datawarehouse server based on the access level information, KPI calculation information stored in the objects dictionary, 1016;
• validating the KPI data based on the self-validating information stored in the objects dictionary, 1018;
• preparing reports for displaying the validated KPI data based on the reports view and report layout information stored in the objects dictionary, 1020;
• displaying the report on the content area of the user interface, 1022;
• sensing the selection of action buttons and/or requests on the user interface, 1024; and

• processing the selection and/or request and sending the processed data view based on access level information stored in the objects dictionary to the content area of the user interface for display, 1026.
TECHNICAL ADVANTAGES
The technical advancements of the present invention include in providing a reporting system which displays a comprehensive and consolidated 360 degrees view of data based on the data retrieved from a data warehouse, this enables the management of an enterprise to get a complete view of the data from each of its individual departments on a single screen for inference and for taking speedy corrective actions.
Also, in accordance with this invention, before the data is displayed on the reports it is tallied using a triangulation technique. Hence, the perfection of data being displayed on the reports is very high and provides users the confidence on the figures reported.
As, the present invention is metadata driven, all the data processing as well as the report layouts are centrally controlled by the metadata. Hence, the leadership teams across the organizations can use the same set of data for performance reviews; this makes the reviews more consistent with the same set of measures (KPIs) across independent business units. Being metadata driven, if any change needs to be incorporated in any of the reports or the underlying data, then a change only to the objects dictionary is required. A change to any information in the objects dictionary is easily reflected across the entire system as the information in the objects dictionary is interlinked.
The system comprises a metadata driven Java based reporting engine for report generation which can be used instead of the commercially available reporting tools and thus saves huge tool licensing fee costs for enterprises.
The reports generated by the present invention have the drill down and roll up facility to give users a grain level or summarized view of data. Also, the details of the data displayed on the reports are controlled based on the hierarchy of the user and his/her

security privileges which are set in the objects dictionary. Hence, security of data is also managed through the metadata.
The present invention enables more effective reviews with the availability of additional analytics and trends. Key Risk Areas (KRA), Key Risk Indicators (KRI) and Key Quality Indicators (KQI) are shown as links in each dashboard generated by this invention for each KPI. As, assumptions, inclusions, exclusions and exceptions for each KPI usually become KRA and KRI, it becomes necessary to track the assumptions and exceptions also. They can easily skew the KPI result if not checked regularly. For e.g. a product being discontinued or if a big customer breaks off, revenue KPI will be directly affected.
The KPIs can also be seen by the user in different groupings as per business requirements. Such a grouped score card is called business score card. This gives a global view to the top management, a regional view to the middle management and a detailed view of business to the executives. Hence, the business score card in accordance with the present invention serves as a powerful tool for all levels of management to get one line summary of business results based on the role and level of the user.
Additionally, the dashboards generated by the present invention are partitioned into a seven panel display to categorize the data into 'which', 'where', 'what is', 'when', 'who', 'why' and 'how' sections to give 360 degree view of data. Why each KPI is low and how to improve it is shown at various levels and roles in the dashboards. Hence this will very soon give return on investment (ROI) in this invention to the organization.
Thus, the present invention leads to considerable reduction in time and effort to collate performance reports for the concerned enterprise. The architecture of the present invention is flexible and can easily be scaled to a desired level.
While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the components and component parts of the preferred embodiments, it will be appreciated that many embodiments can be made and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiments without departing from the principles of the invention. These and other changes in the preferred embodiment as well as other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those

skilled in the art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the invention and not as a limitation.

We Claim:
1. A metadata driven reporting system for generation of comprehensive and consolidated reports presenting 360 degree view of data from an enterprise made of a plurality of disparate units, said system comprising:
• a data warehouse having:
i. a metadata repository comprising an objects dictionary to store information including at least one information selected from a group of information consisting of source data information, self-validation information, access level information, KPI (Key Performance Indicators) calculation information in accordance with KPI information extracted from pre-defined enterprise-specific KPI templates, report view generation information and report layout information to develop, manage, monitor and control operations of said system; and ii. a database server for storing an enterprise's transformed data;
• an interface adapted to communicate with said plurality of disparate units of an enterprise;
• an Extract Transform and Load (ETL) server co-operating with said interface and said data warehouse adapted to extract operational data from said disparate units of the enterprise via said interface and further adapted to transform, clean, validate and load the transformed data to said database server based on said source data information and said self-validation information stored in said objects dictionary; and
• a reporting unit co-operating with said data warehouse comprising:
i. an interactive user interface partitioned in a predetermined format into a content area and a command area, wherein said content area displays reports and said command area includes a plurality of action buttons to receive commands from users to generate different views of the data displayed in the reports for further inference and to manage and update the reports;

ii. authentication means adapted to receive and authenticate the credentials of a user based on the access level information in said objects dictionary; and iii. a reporting engine co-operating with said user interface having:
■ fetching means adapted to receive the credentials of the authenticated user and based on the credentials and the access level information and KPI calculation information in said objects dictionary still further adapted to fetch data from said database server;
■ validation means adapted to validate the fetched data based on self-validation information stored in said object's dictionary;
■ display means adapted to receive and display the validated data in a predetermined format based on the report layout information in said object's dictionary on the content area of said user interface;
■ sensing means adapted to sense the selection of action buttons and/or requests on said user interface and still further adapted to provide the sensed request; and
■ processing means adapted to receive and process said sensed request and still further adapted to send the processed data view based on access level information stored in said objects dictionary to said display means for display on content area of said user interface.

2. The system as cJaimed in claim \, wherein objects dictionary includes tabular database means adapted to store information in the form of database tables, wherein each of the tables are inter-linked to each other using foreign keys.
3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said objects dictionary is adapted to store self-validation information and includes checking means for checking the

validation of data being loaded in said data warehouse and data displayed on the reports.
4. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said checking means is a triangulation technique based checking means.
5. The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said triangulation technique based checking means includes validating / tallying means adapted to validate / tally data based on at least three pre-defined parameters.
6. The system as claimed in claim 3 is a thumb rule tallying technique based checking means.
7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said objects dictionary includes formatting means to format stored report-layout information in accordance with pre-defined formats for displaying reports including partitioning a report view into a seven panel drill down/roll up display to categorize reported data into 'which', 'where', 'what is', 'when', 'who', 'why' and 'how' sections to give 360 degree view of a KPI.
8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said system includes KPI defining means for defining new KPIs and report views in the system's objects dictionary.
9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said metadata repository comprising KPI templates includes KPI template defining means for each of said disparate units of an enterprise.
10. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said metadata repository comprising KPI templates includes KPI template defining means for generation of templates based on Key Risk Areas (KRA), Key Risk Indicators (KRI) and Key Quality Indicators (KQI) for each defined KPI.

11. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said action buttons include buttons adapted to provide functionalities for displaying different views of data selected from the group of buttons consisting of navigation buttons, pre-defined action buttons, calculation buttons, graph display buttons, formatting buttons, editor buttons, importing buttons and exporting buttons.
12. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said system includes report display means adapted to display said generated report by said reporting unit as a seven panel dashboard.
13. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said system includes report display means adapted to display said generated report by said reporting unit as a Balanced Score Card for displaying at least target figures, actual figures, variance and trend KPI data for at least one source unit.
14. The system as claimed in claim 1. wherein said system includes report display means adapted to display said generated report by said reporting unit and further includes drill down means adapted to allow a user to drill down said generated reports up to the grain level based on the access level information, for said user, stored in said objects dictionary.
15. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said system includes updation means adapted to generate customized user editable report views and still further adapted to add the user editable report views to said objects dictionary.
16. A method for generation of metadata driven comprehensive and consolidated reports presenting 360 degree view of data from an enterprise made of a plurality of disparate units, said method comprising the following steps:
• creating an objects dictionary consisting of data entry information, self-validation information, access level information, KPI (Key Performance Indicators) calculation information in accordance with KPI information extracted from pre-defined enterprise-specific KPI templates, report view generation information and report layout information;

• interfacing with disparate units of an enterprise;
• extracting operational data from said disparate units of the enterprise;
• transforming, cleaning, validating operational data and loading the transformed data to a database server based on said data entry information and said self-validation information stored in said objects dictionary;
• providing a user interface for display of reports;
• partitioning said user interface into content area for displaying the reports and command area to include a plurality action buttons to receive commands from users to generate different views of the data displayed in the reports;
• receiving user requests for generation of reports;
• authenticating the user based on the access level information stored in said objects dictionary;
• generating the KPI data from the data stored in said database server based on the access level information, KPI calculation information stored in said objects dictionary;
• validating the data based on the self-validating information stored in said objects dictionary;
• preparing reports for displaying the validated KPI data based on the reports view and report layout information stored in said objects dictionary;
• displaying said report on said content area of said user interface;
• sensing the selection of action buttons and/or requests on said user interface; and
• processing said selection and/or request and sending the processed data view based on access level information stored in said objects dictionary to the content area of said user interface for display.
17. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the step of generating the KPI data from the data stored in said database server includes the step of calculating the Key Risk Areas (KRA), Key Risk Indicators (KRI) and Key Quality Indicators

(KQI) for each of the KPI based on the KPI calculation information and KPI templates stored in said objects dictionary for displaying on the report.
18. The method as claimed in claim 16. wherein the step of validating the data based on the self-validating information stored in said objects dictionary includes the steps of validating the data using a triangulation technique based on at least three pre-defined parameters.