Abstract: A method for structuring a data store by analysing source data bases using the steps of relationship discovery, schema merging, hierarchy discovery, heuristic based attribute inclusion and optionally denormalising This is applied to products such as Navision in building an OLAP cube for use in business intelligence applications. Also disclosed is a security adapter to carry security settings from a source data base to an OLAP cube which includes creating a synthetic dimension in the OLAP cube which is a common trait related to all other dimensions in the cube and one role is created for each role in the source data base and users treated as members of those roles as defined in the source data base.

Abstract: A method of building a staging database which examines the staging database metadata and constructs a schedule of operations to extract the data, transform it and load it into the staging database by using normalisation, translation blocks and filtering to create a business view of the data that can be seen using standard query languages. This is applied to products such as Navision in building an OLAP cube for use in business intelligence applications.