Which reporting technology would fit for the best situation/type of product? I am now thinking of 3 technologies:
- Embedded Reports (Crystal Reports;MS Reporting services)
- Server reports (MS Reporting Services)
- OLAP Databases (MS Analysis Services)
Which report technology would you use for an off the shelf product? Is it possible to have a OLAP type based reporting side of things from a off the shelf product?
Which technology is best suited for historical data? I would guess here OLAP database would be quicker, but that would depend the size of the database, because I reckon you could also use Embedded Reports for historical data.
Which technology would be best for custom software solutions?
I like the idea of having reporting on the server where a user can go log in and run reports like with MS Reporting services. And really only have reports for stuff like invoices, bills, customer information sheet etc as Embedded reports. And also have Reporting services over an OLAP database for historical data.
Unfortunelaty does management not see this layout and wants a off the shelf product, with olap reporting right inside the application with all other reports.
OLAP isn’t a reporting platform, it’s in the database layer.
If you’re going to have a collection of pre-planned, canned reports, then Crystal or RS are the best ideas. Personally I prefer Crystal but it can be quite a pain to develop reports – but when they’re approved, Crystal is a rock steady platform. (We integrate Crystal with .NET apps.)
RS integrates just as nicely, but you do have to maintain the server. Their big advantage is dynamic/reactive menuing, but they are just as tricky to develop and maintain when not quite perfect.
OLAP is a really powerful technology – but if you’ve not got local knowledge, it’s a really challenging product to deploy accurately. But, again, it’s not a reporting product – but there are some interesting layers on top of it (e.g. ProClarity, Excel plug-in).