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| Take Advantage of SQL Server Analysis Services |
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Microsoft's Analysis Services, the Business Intelligence (BI) engine of SQL Server, has changed the BI playing field significantly
and is no doubt partly responsible for the many acquisitions seen recently in the BI market. The continuing development and maturation
of both Analysis Services and SQL Server have combined to drastically lower the cost of entry into the BI market.
Today, organizations of all sizes have access to the kinds of advanced BI and DBMS capabilities which were formerly reserved for
only the largest organizations with the largest IT budgets.
Analyzer, our advanced front-end solution for SQL Server BI, is unparalleled in its ability to make the BI capabilities of Analysis
Services easier than ever to access and use, even by non-technical business users.
Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services: Industry-leading OLAP Engine
Since its inception in 1993, Microsoft's SQL Server database management system (DBMS) has steadily grown in terms of its capabilities
as well as its market share. This includes the Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities of SQL Server, which are delivered through
Analysis Services, the BI engine of SQL Server. The online analytical processing (OLAP) capabilities offered by Analysis Services in
many cases now rival or exceed those provided by the traditional OLAP vendors such as Business Objects, Cognos, and Hyperion.
It is no coincidence that all of these major BI vendors have recently been acquired by larger software companies. The combination of
the ever-increasing BI capabilities offered by SQL Server along with its very competitive pricing has led many organizations to make
the move to the Microsoft platform. This has placed serious pricing pressure on the traditional BI vendors, and will continue to do
so even as their products now become absorbed into the wider product offerings of the larger software vendors which acquired them.
This has all led to Microsoft now being largely recognized as the dominant BI vendor, according to the OLAP Report and other industry
experts.
The reality of the database market today, as well as the BI market, is that no company, regardless of its size or IT budget, can
afford to ignore the very real benefits of the SQL Server platform. The competitive pressures faced by every company in an
increasingly global economy requires a relentless focus on the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of every application. It has become
an axiom that the world of high-tech is fast-moving. This is as true in the BI and DBMS markets as anywhere else.
We believe that CIOs of companies of all sizes need to be taking a long, hard look at the BI and other capabilities of SQL Server,
on an annual basis, to determine whether their current BI/DBMS offering is still the best choice – or whether it makes more sense to
join the growing number of companies making the move to SQL Server. This is both a business and a technical decision and both sides
of the discussion need to be evaluated objectively without interference from other considerations such as personal or vested
interests, which may be related to the use of an incumbent DBMS platform or vendor.
It's also important to recognize that for many companies, it's not an either/or choice between their existing DBMS platforms and SQL
Server. Many of our customers, for example, continue to use existing applications and platforms and then feed the information from
those systems to a SQL Server-based data warehouse or data mart, taking advantage of the advanced, easy to use, and cost-effective BI
capabilities of Analysis Services and other SQL Server services and tools such as Integration Services, Business Intelligence
Development Studio, and Reporting Services.
There are a number of reasons why so many companies are either switching their BI platform to Analysis Services or making Analysis
Services a part of their overall BI solution. The functionality, scalability, performance, manageability, and productivity advantages
provided by Analysis Services are all key factors behind the success of the Microsoft BI platform. The Unified Dimensional Model (UDM)
makes it possible to combine relational reporting and OLAP analysis in the same application. Proactive caching enables companies to
take advantage of both real-time data and the fast performance associated with Multi-dimensional online analytical processing (MOLAP).
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) allow you to define key metrics and scorecards for the purpose of Corporate Performance Management
(CPM). These and other advanced BI capabilities, available now at a much lower price point than legacy BI products, are making
Analysis Services the fastest-growing BI platform on the market.
No single company, not even Microsoft, provides everything that all companies will need for every kind of BI project.
There are simply too many possibilities and variations on the central theme commonly referred to as "Business Intelligence".
Some BI projects are for internal users only. Others are aimed at external users. Some are for advanced business analysts,
while others need to address the needs of more casual BI users. Some BI projects are revenue-generating applications;
some need to be implemented within very specific security constraints. Some are mission-critical, others aren't. Some are
enterprise-wide and must scale, others have a more limited audience.
These and many other variations exist, and what's more, the reality is that any of these requirements can change at any time.
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Analyzer: Proven business intelligence software for Microsoft BI Platform
At Strategy Companion, we are focused on providing the most advanced, flexible, and intuitive BI front-end available for the SQL Server platform.
Our Analyzer™ product allows non-technical business users to perform their own interactive analysis and easily create new reports and dashboards featuring a variety of components such as pivot tables, charts, web pages, scorecards, Reporting Services reports, and more.
Analyzer’s eye-catching visualizations allow users to easily see business results and trends, allowing them to take immediate action to improve performance.
Analyzer reduces the complexity of creating, deploying, and using BI, and makes it easy to incorporate BI into the environments and tools people already use, whether it’s Internet Explorer, SharePoint, or some other application.
Our 100% zero-footprint browser deployment option takes advantage of the widespread availability of Internet Explorer and its familiar interface, while at the same time delivering the kind of functionality, look-and-feel, and performance that people usually associate with a thick-client application. In addition, all of Analyzer’s capabilities are available to all types of users through the zero-footprint Internet Explorer client -- including end users, report creators, and administrators. This approach completely eliminates the complexity, cost, and headaches associated with the need to download and then manage software on users’ desktops.
Our SharePoint deployment option allows you to take full advantage of Analyzer’s advanced analytics and ease of use, totally within a SharePoint portal. You have the flexibility to deliver Analyzer reports and dashboards as you see fit within a user’s familiar SharePoint environment, making BI accessible to users along with the other resources available to them in SharePoint.
Any Analyzer report, dashboard, or pivot table can also be exported to Excel, allowing users to perform further Excel-based analysis in combination with other data sources as required.
Our comprehensive set of Web Services allows your programmers to embed Analyzer’s award-winning BI capabilities within existing applications, seamlessly integrating your BI and other application functionality.
Our partnership with Microsoft ensures our customers are able to take full advantage of the latest BI capabilities of the fastest-growing BI platform on the market, SQL Server and its Analysis Services BI engine. We encourage you to take a look at the powerful combination of SQL Server Analysis Services and our Analyzer™ solution today.
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At PharmaBI.COM, we realize that organizations need a powerful reporting & analysis solution that is easy to use and easily extended to sales & management. With Analyzer, our SaaS model allows for this flexibility. |
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Overview
