Patent ID: 7877355

Claim:
A method for exporting data from a software system comprising: defining a link from a source model of a first software application to a target model of a second software application, wherein the link specifies a source area of a multidimensional database comprising one or more multidimensional data cubes defined by the source model, the source area being associated with the first software application, and a target area of a multidimensional database comprising one or more multidimensional data cubes defined by the target model, the target area being associated with the second software application, and wherein the link defines a mapping between source items in the one or more multidimensional data cubes of the source model and target items in the one or more multidimensional data cubes of the target model; automatically formulating, by one or more computing devices, a plurality of work elements that, when executed, move multidimensional data from the source area to the target area in accordance with the link, wherein automatically formulating the plurality of work elements comprises: identifying groups of the target items that the mapping maps to groups of the source items; determining overlaps of items between the groups of the source items specified by the mapping, wherein the overlaps correspond to source items that are common to two or more of the groups of the source items; and formulating the plurality of work elements such that each of the work elements specifics one of the groups of the target items and a corresponding one of the groups of the source items based on the mapping, and such that each of the items in at least one of the overlaps of items is present in only one of the work elements; and executing the work elements.