Patent ID: 7734617

Claim:
A computer-readable storage medium embodied with software for optimization using multi-dimensional data, the software when executed using a computer system is configured to: receive a problem instance to be solved using an optimization engine, the problem instance specified in a multi-dimensional format associated with a multi-dimensional data model that includes a plurality of data dimensions each including a hierarchy of members, the problem instance comprising an objective function, an optimization operator, a problem domain, an evaluation level, and one or more constraints, the objective function comprises a data measure or a combination of data measures to be optimized and an aggregation domain for each data measure, the problem domain includes all data in the multi-dimensional data model that is located hierarchically below one or more specified intersections in the multi-dimensional data model, the evaluation level specified by identifying a particular level in the hierarchy of each data dimension, the optimization engine unable to solve the problem instance in the multi-dimensional format; transform the problem instance into a format appropriate for the optimization engine; communicate the transformed problem instance to the optimization engine to be solved; and receive a solution associated with the problem instance from the optimization engine.