Patent ID: 6947951

Claim:
A data storage medium encoded with a data structure for modeling a business, wherein the data structure is to be accessed by software operative on a computing platform, wherein the da structure comprises: a hierarchy having name and including two or more levels and a lineage relationship between the levels in the hierarchy, wherein the hierarchy has tree-like structure based on a one-to-many relationship; each level having one or more members and each member contains identical types of data; one or more cross-link relationships between levels of two hierarchies, wherein each cross-link relationship defines a business rule or a business constraint, wherein the software is to navigate the levels; one or more dimensions formed by two hierarchies and a cross-link relationship between the hierarchies, wherein the cross-link represents a many-to-many relationship; one or more lists wherein the members of a list have the same properties, and further wherein the members of the list may be ordered and applied as members in hierarchies; and one or more business perspectives wherein each business perspective is a collection of two or more dimensions, and further wherein the business perspective is a template of a multidimensional query.