Sue

I think you have a range of possibilities as regards speeding things  
up. Geoff has already covered a couple. But I think all are going to  
revolve around getting more of your data stored – either as stored  
calculations or as non-calculated data.

You haven't mentioned anything about how your base data gets changed,  
except to say that it grows daily. Is someone inputing records? Are  
they imported from somewhere? It seems to me that you could script  
either process such that your summed results are cascaded up the  
hierarchy using Set Field steps. This is going to make the input  
process marginally slower for each record – in essence you have to pay  
the price somewhere! But at least your clicking down through the data  
would be quicker.

You also haven't mentioned how up-to-date your data needs to be. If  
records are being added continually during the day, but you don't  
really need those to reflect in your summarized data until the next  
day, you could run a daily (nightly?) script that loops through and  
sets all your summary fields.

Or if you do your data crunching in 'sessions' where you do multiple  
drill-downs, you might just run an update script in advance of a  
session. You know – set the script in motion, go have your coffee  
break, then come back and run your analysis.

Anyway, as I say, you really need to get those numbers stored somehow!  
You could quite easily put in place the scripts and fields needed for  
a parallel 'stored' version of your process while continuing to use  
the current method. So I think you have a fair opportunity to test  
this on a small part of your data to see what the gain will be. You'll  
probably like it, especially as you bear in mind that the current  
method really is going to get slower and slower until you archive some  
old data.

Just a few thoughts...

Steve

On May 5, 2010, at 8:55 PM, Sue wrote:

> Thanks, Geoff.
>
> I was afraid that was the answer re: stored calculations.  Your  
> suggestion to tackle the problem just at the second level sounds  
> like it would be well worth some consideration.
>
> I am definitely not excited about the option of exporting and  
> importing data between the levels, nor do I like the look up or auto- 
> calc option. Too easy to end up looking at incorrect info based on  
> old data.
>
> I appreciate your suggestions.  Thanks again.
>
> Sue