Patent ID: 8239417

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of creating a report for a user at a client computer on the basis of a plurality of remote datasets stored at one or more databases, comprising: receiving a report definition at each of a plurality of tree servers implemented on different respective computers coupled in a network in parallel between the client computer and the one or more databases storing the datasets; creating one or more respective slices of the report at each respective tree server, wherein the slices are represented at each respective tree server as subtrees including leaf nodes, including: requesting, at each respective tree server in parallel between the client computer and the one or more databases storing the datasets, one or more respective datasets from a database coupled to the respective tree server, receiving at each respective tree server the requested one or more respective datasets, constructing at each respective tree server one or more slices of the report, based on the report definition, and populating the leaf nodes of the one or more slices at each respective tree server using the respective datasets received at the respective tree server; sending the one or more constructed slices with populated leaf nodes from each respective tree server to an intelligence server; merging, at the intelligence server, using at least one processor, the one or more constructed slices with populated leaf nodes to construct a tree data structure; and converting the constructed tree data structure into a report for sending to a client for display.