Requesting Advice on OLAP Reporting Tools

#1

I'm not very familiar with the world of OLAP. Nevertheless, I suspect
that some of my current projects might benefit from the right OLAP
product. I'd like to describe my needs and see if anyone can suggest a
product for me.

First of all, I need a simple OLAP reporting tool -- something which
links to a data source, offers an easy user interface for defining
reports, and generates tables that can be copied or saved. Something
like Excel's pivot table feature, only better.

Note that I am not looking for a "Business Intelligence" Suite. From
what I've seen, most OLAP products are all about dashboards charts and
metrics and fancy stuff like that. Hyperion and Cognos and Analysis
Services may have basic reporting tools, but if they do, they are
buried deep within enterprise software which I can't afford and don't
want. I just want an app that focuses on slicing and dicing a cube,
and that's all.

Second, I need an Excel add-in that lets me pull aggregate data out of
my cube and put it into a spreadsheet. Specifically, I need to sum,
count, and average over any subset of the cube. I also need to find
values corresponding to given percentiles (e.g. find a median). Again,
I don't want some huge software package. I just need a simple, thin,
add-in that I can train someone to use.

Any suggestions?

-TC

#2

On Mar 28, 10:30 pm, TC <golemdan... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

I'm not very familiar with the world of OLAP. Nevertheless, I suspect
that some of my current projects might benefit from the right OLAP
product. I'd like to describe my needs and see if anyone can suggest a
product for me.

First of all, I need a simple OLAP reporting tool -- something which
links to a data source, offers an easy user interface for defining
reports, and generates tables that can be copied or saved. Something
like Excel's pivot table feature, only better.

Note that I am not looking for a "Business Intelligence" Suite. From
what I've seen, most OLAP products are all about dashboards charts and
metrics and fancy stuff like that. Hyperion and Cognos and Analysis
Services may have basic reporting tools, but if they do, they are
buried deep within enterprise software which I can't afford and don't
want. I just want an app that focuses on slicing and dicing a cube,
and that's all.

Second, I need an Excel add-in that lets me pull aggregate data out of
my cube and put it into a spreadsheet. Specifically, I need to sum,
count, and average over any subset of the cube. I also need to find
values corresponding to given percentiles (e.g. find a median). Again,
I don't want some huge software package. I just need a simple, thin,
add-in that I can train someone to use.

Any suggestions?

-TC

PivotTables

#3

On Mar 28, 10:30 pm, TC <golemdan... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

I'm not very familiar with the world of OLAP. Nevertheless, I suspect
that some of my current projects might benefit from the right OLAP
product. I'd like to describe my needs and see if anyone can suggest a
product for me.

First of all, I need a simple OLAP reporting tool -- something which
links to a data source, offers an easy user interface for defining
reports, and generates tables that can be copied or saved. Something
like Excel's pivot table feature, only better.

Note that I am not looking for a "Business Intelligence" Suite. From
what I've seen, most OLAP products are all about dashboards charts and
metrics and fancy stuff like that. Hyperion and Cognos and Analysis
Services may have basic reporting tools, but if they do, they are
buried deep within enterprise software which I can't afford and don't
want. I just want an app that focuses on slicing and dicing a cube,
and that's all.

Second, I need an Excel add-in that lets me pull aggregate data out of
my cube and put it into a spreadsheet. Specifically, I need to sum,
count, and average over any subset of the cube. I also need to find
values corresponding to given percentiles (e.g. find a median). Again,
I don't want some huge software package. I just need a simple, thin,
add-in that I can train someone to use.

Any suggestions?

-TC

PivotTables

#4

On Mar 28, 10:30 pm, TC <golemdan... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

I'm not very familiar with the world of OLAP. Nevertheless, I suspect
that some of my current projects might benefit from the right OLAP
product. I'd like to describe my needs and see if anyone can suggest a
product for me.

First of all, I need a simple OLAP reporting tool -- something which
links to a data source, offers an easy user interface for defining
reports, and generates tables that can be copied or saved. Something
like Excel's pivot table feature, only better.

Note that I am not looking for a "Business Intelligence" Suite. From
what I've seen, most OLAP products are all about dashboards charts and
metrics and fancy stuff like that. Hyperion and Cognos and Analysis
Services may have basic reporting tools, but if they do, they are
buried deep within enterprise software which I can't afford and don't
want. I just want an app that focuses on slicing and dicing a cube,
and that's all.

Second, I need an Excel add-in that lets me pull aggregate data out of
my cube and put it into a spreadsheet. Specifically, I need to sum,
count, and average over any subset of the cube. I also need to find
values corresponding to given percentiles (e.g. find a median). Again,
I don't want some huge software package. I just need a simple, thin,
add-in that I can train someone to use.

Any suggestions?

-TC

PivotTables

#5

On Mar 28, 10:30 pm, TC <golemdan... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

I'm not very familiar with the world of OLAP. Nevertheless, I suspect
that some of my current projects might benefit from the right OLAP
product. I'd like to describe my needs and see if anyone can suggest a
product for me.

First of all, I need a simple OLAP reporting tool -- something which
links to a data source, offers an easy user interface for defining
reports, and generates tables that can be copied or saved. Something
like Excel's pivot table feature, only better.

Note that I am not looking for a "Business Intelligence" Suite. From
what I've seen, most OLAP products are all about dashboards charts and
metrics and fancy stuff like that. Hyperion and Cognos and Analysis
Services may have basic reporting tools, but if they do, they are
buried deep within enterprise software which I can't afford and don't
want. I just want an app that focuses on slicing and dicing a cube,
and that's all.

Second, I need an Excel add-in that lets me pull aggregate data out of
my cube and put it into a spreadsheet. Specifically, I need to sum,
count, and average over any subset of the cube. I also need to find
values corresponding to given percentiles (e.g. find a median). Again,
I don't want some huge software package. I just need a simple, thin,
add-in that I can train someone to use.

Any suggestions?

-TC

PivotTables

#6

On Mar 28, 10:30*pm, TC <golemdan... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

I'm not very familiar with the world of OLAP. Nevertheless, I suspect
that some of my current projects might benefit from the right OLAP
product. I'd like to describe my needs and see if anyone can suggest a
product for me.

First of all, I need a simple OLAP reporting tool -- something which
links to a data source, offers an easy user interface for defining
reports, and generates tables that can be copied or saved. Something
like Excel's pivot table feature, only better.

Note that I am not looking for a "Business Intelligence" Suite. From
what I've seen, most OLAP products are all about dashboards charts and
metrics and fancy stuff like that. Hyperion and Cognos and Analysis
Services may have basic reporting tools, but if they do, they are
buried deep within enterprise software which I can't afford and don't
want. I just want an app that focuses on slicing and dicing a cube,
and that's all.

Second, I need an Excel add-in that lets me pull aggregate data out of
my cube and put it into a spreadsheet. Specifically, I need to sum,
count, and average over any subset of the cube. I also need to find
values corresponding to given percentiles (e.g. find a median). Again,
I don't want some huge software package. I just need a simple, thin,
add-in that I can train someone to use.

Any suggestions?

The simple solution you are trying find may require a couple of steps
before you can arrive at "OLAP reporting". For me (or any of my peers)
to offer a right and simple solution I would first ask you:

1) What is your "data source", i.e. is it an MS Access file, an SQL
Server database, an HR system in SAP?
2) Do already own any OLAP engines (SQL Server, Hyperion Essbase,
Cognos, Cartesis, etc.)?

#7

On Mar 28, 10:30*pm, TC <golemdan... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

I'm not very familiar with the world of OLAP. Nevertheless, I suspect
that some of my current projects might benefit from the right OLAP
product. I'd like to describe my needs and see if anyone can suggest a
product for me.

First of all, I need a simple OLAP reporting tool -- something which
links to a data source, offers an easy user interface for defining
reports, and generates tables that can be copied or saved. Something
like Excel's pivot table feature, only better.

Note that I am not looking for a "Business Intelligence" Suite. From
what I've seen, most OLAP products are all about dashboards charts and
metrics and fancy stuff like that. Hyperion and Cognos and Analysis
Services may have basic reporting tools, but if they do, they are
buried deep within enterprise software which I can't afford and don't
want. I just want an app that focuses on slicing and dicing a cube,
and that's all.

Second, I need an Excel add-in that lets me pull aggregate data out of
my cube and put it into a spreadsheet. Specifically, I need to sum,
count, and average over any subset of the cube. I also need to find
values corresponding to given percentiles (e.g. find a median). Again,
I don't want some huge software package. I just need a simple, thin,
add-in that I can train someone to use.

Any suggestions?

The simple solution you are trying find may require a couple of steps
before you can arrive at "OLAP reporting". For me (or any of my peers)
to offer a right and simple solution I would first ask you:

1) What is your "data source", i.e. is it an MS Access file, an SQL
Server database, an HR system in SAP?
2) Do already own any OLAP engines (SQL Server, Hyperion Essbase,
Cognos, Cartesis, etc.)?

#8

On Mar 28, 10:30*pm, TC <golemdan... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

I'm not very familiar with the world of OLAP. Nevertheless, I suspect
that some of my current projects might benefit from the right OLAP
product. I'd like to describe my needs and see if anyone can suggest a
product for me.

First of all, I need a simple OLAP reporting tool -- something which
links to a data source, offers an easy user interface for defining
reports, and generates tables that can be copied or saved. Something
like Excel's pivot table feature, only better.

Note that I am not looking for a "Business Intelligence" Suite. From
what I've seen, most OLAP products are all about dashboards charts and
metrics and fancy stuff like that. Hyperion and Cognos and Analysis
Services may have basic reporting tools, but if they do, they are
buried deep within enterprise software which I can't afford and don't
want. I just want an app that focuses on slicing and dicing a cube,
and that's all.

Second, I need an Excel add-in that lets me pull aggregate data out of
my cube and put it into a spreadsheet. Specifically, I need to sum,
count, and average over any subset of the cube. I also need to find
values corresponding to given percentiles (e.g. find a median). Again,
I don't want some huge software package. I just need a simple, thin,
add-in that I can train someone to use.

Any suggestions?

The simple solution you are trying find may require a couple of steps
before you can arrive at "OLAP reporting". For me (or any of my peers)
to offer a right and simple solution I would first ask you:

1) What is your "data source", i.e. is it an MS Access file, an SQL
Server database, an HR system in SAP?
2) Do already own any OLAP engines (SQL Server, Hyperion Essbase,
Cognos, Cartesis, etc.)?

#9

On Mar 28, 10:30*pm, TC <golemdan... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

I'm not very familiar with the world of OLAP. Nevertheless, I suspect
that some of my current projects might benefit from the right OLAP
product. I'd like to describe my needs and see if anyone can suggest a
product for me.

First of all, I need a simple OLAP reporting tool -- something which
links to a data source, offers an easy user interface for defining
reports, and generates tables that can be copied or saved. Something
like Excel's pivot table feature, only better.

Note that I am not looking for a "Business Intelligence" Suite. From
what I've seen, most OLAP products are all about dashboards charts and
metrics and fancy stuff like that. Hyperion and Cognos and Analysis
Services may have basic reporting tools, but if they do, they are
buried deep within enterprise software which I can't afford and don't
want. I just want an app that focuses on slicing and dicing a cube,
and that's all.

Second, I need an Excel add-in that lets me pull aggregate data out of
my cube and put it into a spreadsheet. Specifically, I need to sum,
count, and average over any subset of the cube. I also need to find
values corresponding to given percentiles (e.g. find a median). Again,
I don't want some huge software package. I just need a simple, thin,
add-in that I can train someone to use.

Any suggestions?

The simple solution you are trying find may require a couple of steps
before you can arrive at "OLAP reporting". For me (or any of my peers)
to offer a right and simple solution I would first ask you:

1) What is your "data source", i.e. is it an MS Access file, an SQL
Server database, an HR system in SAP?
2) Do already own any OLAP engines (SQL Server, Hyperion Essbase,
Cognos, Cartesis, etc.)?

#10

On Mar 29, 1:30 pm, TC <golemdan... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

I'm not very familiar with the world of OLAP. Nevertheless, I suspect
that some of my current projects might benefit from the right OLAP
product. I'd like to describe my needs and see if anyone can suggest a
product for me.

First of all, I need a simple OLAP reporting tool -- something which
links to a data source, offers an easy user interface for defining
reports, and generates tables that can be copied or saved. Something
like Excel's pivot table feature, only better.

Note that I am not looking for a "Business Intelligence" Suite. From
what I've seen, most OLAP products are all about dashboards charts and
metrics and fancy stuff like that. Hyperion and Cognos and Analysis
Services may have basic reporting tools, but if they do, they are
buried deep within enterprise software which I can't afford and don't
want. I just want an app that focuses on slicing and dicing a cube,
and that's all.

Second, I need an Excel add-in that lets me pull aggregate data out of
my cube and put it into a spreadsheet. Specifically, I need to sum,
count, and average over any subset of the cube. I also need to find
values corresponding to given percentiles (e.g. find a median). Again,
I don't want some huge software package. I just need a simple, thin,
add-in that I can train someone to use.

Any suggestions?

-TC

Hi TC

I work for a professional service firm and our core product is an OLAP
solution called proCube. It is fast, scalable and and easy to use.
The syntax with in the cubes is the same as MS Excel and we use MS
Excel as our report writer.

Out strengths are in budgeting and forecasting, management reporting,
payroll reporting and to lesser degree, dash boarding. If you would
like more info, please drop me a line, deveringham at
satorigroup.com.au. phone (Australia) + 61 431 475 606

see www.satorigroup.com.au

The Satori Group is an international consulting company specialising
in designing and implementing business improvement solutions