Analytical Reports

Analance Analytical reporting tools, HTML Viewer and ActiveX Viewer, help to access the full range of OLAP data sources available within the organization to get a comprehensive view of the business and the cross-impact that one trend may have on another and share results using a simple, intuitive Web interface.

 HTML Viewer

The HTML Viewer tool provides Online Analytical Processing of data by connecting to different OLAP data sources over the web. It allows users to design their custom reports by selecting the measures, dimensions and filters.

OLAP Services provide architecture for programmatic access to information from a data warehouse. OLAP lets data from the warehouse be extracted, summarized, organized, and stored in multidimensional structures (known as OLAP server cubes). The OLAP Server manages the data, while the MDX Analyzer Services work with the server to provide client access to the data.

 MDX Queries

The language used within the tool is called Multidimensional Expressions (MDX). MDX is a query language for OLAP databases, much like SQL is a query for relation databases. MDX provides a rich and powerful syntax for querying and manipulating the multidimensional data stored in OLAP server cubes.

 Cubes

Cubes are key elements in OLAP, designed to enable fast access to data within a data warehouse. They are subsets of data from the data warehouse, organized and summarized into multidimensional structures. These data summaries provide the mechanism for rapid and uniform response times to complex queries. Cubes are defined in terms of dimensions and measures. Dimensions provide the categorical descriptions by which the measures are separated for analysis. Measures identify the numerical values that are summarized for analysis such as price, cost, or quantity sold. Each cube dimension can contain a hierarchy of levels that specifies the categorical breakdown available to users. For example, a Store dimension might include the level hierarchy: Country, State, City, and Name. Each level in a dimension is of finer granularity than its parent. Dimensional hierarchies are a powerful data modeling tool because they can be expanded to reveal more detail, allowing high-level questions to be asked about data. This common OLAP operation is known as drill-down.

 Features
  • Capability to connect to local and remote analysis servers through XMLA services
  • Capability to connect to offline cubes
  • Hierarchical Field Listing with measures, dimensions, levels and calculated measures
  • Easy to use html pivot table with drag and drop facility
  • Ability of swap dimensions from rows and columns
  • Asymmetrical expansion of report
  • Custom formatting of measures
  • Dynamic generation of MDX query
  • Dynamic generation of Bar Charts
  • Ability to Drill through the Bar Charts
  • Ability to add KPIs
  • Dynamic generation of Map charts
  • Ability to Drill through the Map charts
  • Show / Hide Measures
  • Personalized Folders and reports
  • Easy access to the tools functionality using the Toolbar
  • Filtering of results based on selected dimensions
  • Save and Update of reports
  • Exporting to Excel and MS Word
 Benefits
  • Simplicity of the tool to transform the data into useful and strategic information
  • The tool provides a decision support system by helping to determine why the data appears the way it does. For instance, if the sales for North America are way up or way down for a given quarter, it's easy to magnify the North American continent into the states to see which state or states may be responsible for the difference
  • Interoperability of the tool to connect to various data sources using platform independent technology, XMLA
  • Analysis of complex MDX queries
  • Use of Html Pivot table provides a good alternative for traditional Office Web Controls

 ActiveX Viewer

With ActiveX Viewer, users can drill and slice & dice their data to explore causes, trends, patterns, anomalies, and correlations using a standard web browser. The tool helps in accessing relevant information from multiple sources, perform in-depth analysis, and develop sophisticated reports that will improve vital business activities such as planning, budgeting, and forecasting.

 Features
  • Connect to Online SQL 2000 and 2005 Analysis server
  • Work with offline cubes
  • Drag and drop pivot field list to the axis (columns and rows)
  • Sort across / within hierarchy
  • Show empty rows / columns
  • Swap axes (pivot)
  • Show / Hide pivot and chart
  • Filter using MDX queries
  • Export to Excel, Word or Html
  • Easy-to-use web user interface for business users
  • Leverages Microsoft’s office web components
  • Industry standard MDX and XML/A compliant
  • Capability to preserve and restore the Pivot report formats
  • Applying Formats to the pivot data (currency, number formats)
  • Capability to add and use calculated measure (XP and up)
  • Show / Hide pivot fields
  • Drill through to detail
  • Personalized folders and reports
  • Easy access to the tools functionality using the Toolbar
 Benefits
  • Instant production of application-specific reports and analyses
  • Real-time visibility into business trends
  • Increased speed and quality of decision-making
  • Streamlined data analysis that shortens reporting cycles and saves resources
  • Increased reporting flexibility through rich, highly customized, and refreshable report
  • Access to relevant information from multiple data sources
  • Leverage Excel by exporting reports in excel formats, which extends the richness of analysis through "what if" and drill through capabilities