Tools for users to browse Cubes?
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I'm curious to know what user front-end tools you all use to browse your OLAP Cubes?
When Cubes first came out for SQL Server they appeared very interesting but there didn't seem to be any tools that allow people to view them. In the end my employers standardised on Cognos Powerplay and Impromptu.
4 years on I'm working for a different company and should be grateful for any recommendations.
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We use ProClarity.
Some users that are not doing in-depth analysis are just as happy to use MS Excel.
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We evaluated most major tools against analysis services and chose Proclarity, super product and very powerful. Users seem to take to it very quickly.
[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/ -
Believe it or not, we use Excel. Later versions of Excel have built-in OLAP connectivity, which works remarkably well. It automatically builds pivot tables with drag n' drop dimensions and measures as well as hierarchical dimension drill-downs.
It's a very cheap solution since everyone already owns it, and it doesn't require an app server to deploy. Not only is it virtually free, but users (especially Finance folks) are very comfortable in Excel, so there is little to no learning curve.
In a previous life, we used Business Objects, which was a pain to manage.
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I've used ProClarity which is very nice for management types that insist on "graphical" and "pretty" reports. MS Excel pivot tables are good for the CPA types used to using Excel.
Nigel Pendse has a website where he has researched a lot of the different OLAP vendors if interested - http://olapreport.com/
HTH
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Ray Higdon MCSE, MCDBA, CCNA -
I have deployed a number of Analysis Services solutions and my recommendation to clients it to use Excel to begin with. This reduces training time and provides an opportunity for the user community to make additional functionality requests. These requests can then be used to propose the purchase of a third-party browser.
Depending on your requirements here is what I have found in my deployments so far:
Proclarity is by far the most complete browser available. However, it is geared toward analyzing the data. If you are in a large implementation with users who just want to see the data MS Excel or Reporting Services should be able to deliver the Analytics as required.
Excel is a natural fit for financial solutions. Comshare has a lot of financial specific tools in its solution as well.
Reporting Services will work for a "reporting only" scenario. At this point, I am not convinced that I would want to use RS for real analysis where you need good pivot and drill functionality.
Swiftknowledge is another product that claims to deliver analytics to the masses. Good web based, Excel-like client with zero footprint.
Hope the ramblings help.
Steve Hughes, Magenic Technologies
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Where I was working previously we used Excel for most users, because it's no additional cost if you already run MS Office and it gave users the results they required and also the ability to do graphs etc. The high level users used Business Objects to give them the additional functionality. Personally, Business Objects is a real pain to administer but it is a good tool from the users perspective.
If you don't need something ultra fancy stick with Excel. It's low cost, easy to set up, and it's an interface user's already know.
Cheers,
Angela
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Proclarity all the way, apart from the excel spreadsheets and soon reporting services. We use excel for flat bulk reporting and Proclrity for analysis and viewing KPI's, looking into RS to replace Excel. After a cost/ benefit analysis Proclarity turned out to be best for us.
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I have been using Excel for last two years, it works fine but once when I tried to create a dimension with 4 levels and 4 measures in the report, it have a message, "Too many rows or columns, hide some of the columns or rows to refresh data". After this I was never able to get rid of this error and hence I cannot use this report after that. So, in my opinion there are some restrictions to use Excel, otherwise, it is easy and compatible, especially in the end-user point of view.
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One point that has been neglected is the ability to use mdx, ProClarity supported this. Briefing books was another major choice factor, this is a feature where snapshot views of a cube can be saved, much like a favourite, the books can be made available centrally thus allowing mutlipe users the same particular view of a cube. There are a number of features ( some maybe different ) that most olap tools support that excel does not.
I wouldn't actually want to allow users unfettered access to cubes through excel <grin>
[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/
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