October 21, 2010 at 9:29 am
We are at the beginning of this huge project that runs multiple year. It's a healthcare research project. The data will be gathered into SQL Server DB and we need to choose a right reporting tool for dashboard and query manipulation. I used to use BI and Microstrategy in my previous company but that was for commercial company and sales data. This is government research project. Does anyone have any experience in this area? Or have any recommendations on the products?
October 21, 2010 at 10:33 am
Well, you could start by looking at the 'free' tools that come with the SQL Server licenses you have, namely Reporting Services and Analysis Services. If you also have Sharepoint, this can work in reasonably well to be used as a delivery mechanism. The more recent versions (of all of the above) provide you with significantly better functionality and options. Assuming they may use Office also, again, the latest (ie 2010) will buy you a lot of functionality too (if you do have this, read up on PowerPivot for Excel and/or SharePoint).
If you *don't* have the latest versions, or are using say OpenOffice or Google docs, there is still a fair amount you can achieve but the integration may be more work.
If there's already a BI standard tool (e.g. BO or Cognos or ...) most every one of these connects to Analysis Services these days, so you could (nay, should?) use SSAS as the OLAP back end, but that it probably my bias coming through.
Hope this gets u started.
Steve.
October 21, 2010 at 10:34 am
Oh, quick clarification on the 'free' comment - these services *are* free, ie you get SSRS and SSAS and SSIS with a SQL Server license, *but*, if you end up with a sizable installation and need to use individual servers per app, or really anything other than an 'all on one server', make sure you understand the licensing implications of this.
Steve.
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