Lately, I have been reviewing various web-delivered,ad-hoc reporting platforms for a client and I have been surprised at the improvement in overall quality that is now available for small budgets with limited technical skill-sets. Many small and middle-sized businesses with insufficient reporting capabilities on their primary business transaction systems (POS/OLTP) have historically not had the money, time or intellectual resources to put many business intelligence (BI) products into their business operations and decision-making. The time and cost of development for these systems was often in excess of what all but the fastest growing and most technically-savvy and resourced corporations could afford. It’s clear that the times have changed – or perhaps we are in the midst of change. Rapid change. I would argue the latter.
Products like LogiXML and Pentaho are examples of the sort of reporting product platforms I see as adding value to decision-making, data mining and trend analysis in many small businesses. These products are easily configured and can be re-configured or rebuilt at any time. This allows businesses to “crawl-walk-run” in their adoption of an ad hoc platform.
The Microsoft SQL Service Analysis Services/Reporting Services 2005/2008 tools can be used to meet the needs of many of the reporting needs of businesses , however it appears to lack ad-hoc capabilities from what I have seen thus far. Perhaps more study and diligence will reveal my ignorance first hand. <grin> Stay tuned.
Step-n-Repeat 