Professional Documents
Culture Documents
White Paper
Copyright Business Intelligence Technologies, Inc., All Rights Reserved 200 Hyde Park, Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901 PH: +1 215 340-2880 FAX: +1 215 230-2828
1
www.BIXL.com
Mention of Business Intelligence, like the mention of those other termsOLAP, Decision Support, etc. inevitably raises the question, For Whom? Necessarily the answer must be, business end-users. End users need business intelligence for, in effect, any job they need to do! (Wouldnt any business user want a single software application that could do everything?) These user tasks, which millions of spreadsheet users must accomplish each day, could broadly be described as planning, analysis and reporting. The products that call themselves Business Intelligence (BI) solutions need to address some part of those requirementsoptimally, one product would address all of those requirements. As we consider the challenge of providing Business Intelligence, we see that some products do not meet end-users requirements; and thatoften just the oppositeBI solutions sometimes perpetuate the disconnect or technology gap problems they were meant to address. Business Intelligence for ExcelBIXLdiffers from other BI tools in this respect: the product delivers to an end-users Excel spreadsheet data that can be used for analytical and reporting purposes, from Microsofts Analysis Services (and other OLE DB for OLAP cube providers), and adds all-important writeback capabilities for planning (and budgeting and forecasting) tasks. Most importantly, since the interface is Excel, users enjoy the full familiarity and capability of their spreadsheet, just as they are used to. The next figure, Figure 2, shows the schematic for Business Intelligence for Excel. This is followed by a brief Benefits Summary of the product.
Copyright Business Intelligence Technologies, Inc., All Rights Reserved 200 Hyde Park, Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901 PH: +1 215 340-2880 FAX: +1 215 230-2828
2
www.BIXL.com
[Fig. 2 Business Intelligence for ExcelBIXLis a Microsoft Excel add-in that accesses Analysis Services (and other OLE DB for OLAP) data and returns that information for end-users to work with in their spreadsheets. BIXL delivers Business Intelligence into Excel dynamically.]
Benefits Summary for Business Intelligence for ExcelBIXL Business end-users work in the familiar Excel spreadsheet. Write-Back capability to MS Analysis Services cubes, and other OLE DB compliant cubes Fast and easy ad hoc customization of reports Dynamic updating from SQL Server to Analysis Services cubes to BIXL reports Leverage experience and investments in SQL Server and Excel Cost-effective for all organizations The following pages cover the Business Intelligence market and the standard problem of working with data stored in relational systems; Microsofts initiation of an OLAP capability in SQL Server; the third-party vendor products that work with MS Analysis Services and, finally, a further examination of the features and methodology of Business Intelligence for Excels features and benefits.
Copyright Business Intelligence Technologies, Inc., All Rights Reserved 200 Hyde Park, Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901 PH: +1 215 340-2880 FAX: +1 215 230-2828
3
www.BIXL.com
Copyright Business Intelligence Technologies, Inc., All Rights Reserved 200 Hyde Park, Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901 PH: +1 215 340-2880 FAX: +1 215 230-2828
4
www.BIXL.com
Together with SQL Server, Analysis Services offers everything needed to build analysis applications, including integrated OLAP and data mining capabilities. With open standards and flexible client support, the integrated Microsoft solution works in virtually any business environment and offers integration with a wide variety of third party products and client tools. Using the graphical administrator, businesses can create and deploy new analysis applications quickly and easily, yet the solution is scalable to support demanding analysis environments and very large data volumes.
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/BI/AnalysisSvcWP.asp Microsofts entry into the market (originally, with the release of the predecessor SQL Server 7.0s OLAP Services component), employing a technology (i.e., OLAP) that it stated revolutionized the business of finding answers fast, was a powerful endorsement of OLAP. Indeed, Microsofts successive SQL Server releases signaled a dramatic growth in the familiarity and use of this important technology. By most measures, Microsoft, through these releases, has actually become the largest OLAP solution provider. Further, application vendors now create and provide pre-built cubes to Analysis Services, which give general functionality to users enjoying their first exposure to OLAP capabilities. Quite naturally, users expect enhanced Business Intelligence capabilitiesfor reporting, at least. But once again, users requirements have not been met entirely, and in some cases not at all, and the technology gap perpetuatesthat is discussed in the next section. For now it is important to emphasize that Microsoft at least has provided a solution: in its recent relational database release, it has provided the OLAP capabilities of Analysis Services, the key piece in an excellent SQL Server based BI system.
Copyright Business Intelligence Technologies, Inc., All Rights Reserved 200 Hyde Park, Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901 PH: +1 215 340-2880 FAX: +1 215 230-2828
5
www.BIXL.com
Copyright Business Intelligence Technologies, Inc., All Rights Reserved 200 Hyde Park, Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901 PH: +1 215 340-2880 FAX: +1 215 230-2828
6
www.BIXL.com
Copyright Business Intelligence Technologies, Inc., All Rights Reserved 200 Hyde Park, Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901 PH: +1 215 340-2880 FAX: +1 215 230-2828
7
www.BIXL.com