Contents
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OLAP Report consists of over 100 sections, each updated individually.
Each section shows the date when it was last updated. This page
was last updated on
August 12, 2008.
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Information available only to subscribers
Recent or popular product reviews
QlikTech QlikView 7.5
The OLAP Report’s first review of this high profile analysis product
Oracle Hyperion Interactive
Reporting 9.2
The former Brio faces an uncertain future
Oracle Hyperion SQR Production
Reporting 9.3
A long-established reporting 4GL, reviewed here for the first time in
The OLAP Report
WebFOCUS 7.6
A powerful BI application development platform
Crystal Reports
Probably the most widely-used enterprise reporting tool, now owned by
SAP
Cognos 8 BI
One of the most widely-used integrated BI suites
Panorama NovaView 5
Probably the most sophisticated and scalable set of front-end tools for
Analysis Services and now SAP BW as well
Oracle’s Hyperion Essbase 9.3.1
The first post-Oracle release of Essbase, now with much simplified pricing
Microsoft PerformancePoint
Server 2007
A preview of the new performance management application due to ship near
the end of 2007
Microsoft Analysis Services 2005
Increased sales of the new release increased Microsoft’s OLAP market
share in 2006. Includes previews of Analysis Services 2008 (‘Katmai’)
and PerformancePoint Server 2007
Full
list of product reviews
Recent or popular subscriber-only analyses
Analysis: The future product strategy
of SAP+Business Objects
A detailed analysis of the likely fate of the many overlapping BI and
CPM products in the sprawling new SAP-BOBJ product portfolio
Analysis: Oracle+Hyperion
Oracle has completed the then world’s largest BI takeover, but will
it do a better job than with its previous world’s largest BI takeover
of the Express business in 1995?
FAQ: Open source BI/OLAP
Open source software has had a big impact in some other areas, but is
only just beginning to be taken seriously in BI and OLAP
Top 21 tips
Practical, punchy — and sometimes surprising — advice
OLAP and spreadsheets —
friends or foes?
OLAP applications are often installed to replace collapsing spreadsheet
systems, but this doesn’t mean that the spreadsheet needs to be
banished entirely
Storing multidimensional data
The key to OLAP performance is the efficient storage of large volumes
of multidimensional data
Full
list of analyses
Recent case studies
IBM Finance
A CFO portal provides a highly cost-effective global
solution to analysis, reporting and performance management applications
BP Exploration & Production
A sophisticated, international planning system that is much faster and
more reliable than the spreadsheet-based system it replaced.
Full
list of case studies |
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Information available to anyone
Why are OLAP market shares now too hard to calculate
accurately?
OLAP/CPM Consolidations
The wave of BI consolidations peaked in 2003, but there have been more
than 30 since the mid 1990s. The big news in 2007 is the largest-ever
BI acquisition: Oracle’s $3.3bn purchase of Hyperion
Solutions, and Business Objects purchasing Cartesis,
but Pilot changed hands for the sixth
and presumably final time in 2007 when it was acquired by SAP. SAP also
bought OutlookSoft and Cognos
bought Applix, just before IBM
agreed to buy Cognos itself. But
the acquisition of Business Objects
by SAP was larger than all the others (pre-Cognos) combined.
The BI Survey 7
The latest, expanded edition of The BI Survey is now available,
with even more analyses of the real-world experiences of large numbers
of users around the world. The BI Survey 7 covers a wider range of BI
products, and follows on from six successful years of The OLAP Survey.
A dozen ‘Next Big Things’ that
didn’t happen
Many new developments are hyped to the rafters, then quietly fade away.
This controversial new piece looks at a dozen of them.
OLAP vendor financial results
Revenue, license fee and earnings trends of the dwindling band of publicly-quoted
OLAP specialists, all of which are now growing again, but at very different
rates.
Commentaries on:
Free Analyses
What is OLAP?
Two alternative definitions of OLAP
Performance matters
Why fast performance is getting ever more important
Database explosion
The most complete explanation of what really causes OLAP database explosion,
and how to avoid it
How not to buy an OLAP
Invaluable practical advice to avoid the hidden traps that catch many
OLAP buyers
The origins of today’s OLAP products
A succinct perspective on the 45 years of evolution of multidimensional
analysis
OLAP applications
The technology is powerful, but where do people use it?
OLAP architectures
MOLAP, ROLAP, HOLAP... What do they all mean?
Full
list of analyses
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Data capture for The BI Survey 8 is now nearly over, so this
is your last
chance to take part. This year’s Survey will include analyses
of more products than ever, but we are particularly keen to include
data from more Oracle BIEE and SAS sites.
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The OLAP Report is committed to providing strictly independent
information
to help buyers make the most of their OLAP tool selection and implementation
projects. While much of the content, including all the product reviews,
is
available exclusively to customers, about a tenth of the material
is open to everyone. |
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“As
well as product and general market analysis, The OLAP Report also
provides excellent 'white-papers' on a wide range of BI/OLAP related
topics, definitions, explanations and recommended approaches…
which are all well worth a read for anyone wishing to fast-track
their understanding of this business-empowering technology.”
John Morter
Regional IT Delivery Manager
Hallmark International |
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“A
word of thanks for the information contained within The OLAP Report.
This is my third year of subscribing and I find the report an invaluable
aid.”
Matthew
Croft
Finance Manager - MI Development
Prudential UK
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“The
OLAP Report is more than just a report. It has been developed and
is being updated with a great deal of passion and perspicacity.
No book or textbook can claim to contain the wealth of information
that the OLAP Report provided me with.”
Aziz Guergachi,
Ph.D.
Professor
School of information Technology Management
Ryerson University
Toronto, Ontario
Canada |
The OLAP Report has been available since 1995 and is now primarily
a subscription Web site to help buyers make better-informed decisions
to make the most of their OLAP projects. However, about a tenth of the
material is open to non-subscribers.
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