Patent ID: 7970795

Claim:
A computer implemented method for generating a multi-dimensional data structure in order to access data stored at a plurality of data sources, said plurality of data sources being disparate, having disparate source data structures, and having a different number of dimensions than said multi-dimensional data structure, said method comprising: defining at least one dimension and a dimension value associated with the at least one dimension for said multi-dimensional data structure; defining an attribute and an attribute value associated with the attribute for said multi-dimensional data structure, wherein the attribute is assigned to a single dimension; creating a plurality of combinations of dimension values, wherein a combination defines a data item, wherein the plurality of combinations comprise a first set of data items and a second set of data items, wherein said multi-dimensional data structure is defined by the dimensions associated with the first set of data items, and wherein the second set of data items comprises data items associated with the dimensions associated with the plurality of data sources; mapping data items in the first set of data items in said multi-dimensional data structure to corresponding data items in the second set of data items; determining a data gap wherein the mapping step results in a difference between the dimension characteristics of the first set of data items and the second set of data items; bridging the gap by at least one of the following: obtaining, from one of the plurality of data sources, a further data item for mapping to one of the data items in the first set, wherein the further data item is not originally obtainable in the second set of data items and is generated from one or more of the plurality of data sources; modifying the multi-dimensional data structure to be further defined by the second set of data items; or converting a source data structure in at least one of the plurality of data sources into a source data structure defined by at least one data item in the first set of data items; documenting how the gap was bridged; and creating a mapping file for historic data conversion, wherein the mapping file is configured to store relationships between data items in historical data sources for use in generating new data items from historical data sources.