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OLAP and spreadsheets - friends or |
| Author: Nigel Pendse Abstract: This major article on OLAP and spreadsheets includes examples from 15 products and mini reviews of four Excel add-ins for Analysis Services: IntelligentApps, MIS Plain, Visual OLAP and XLCubed. OLAP and spreadsheets have co-existed for about 25 years, and are often seen as competitive tools for implementing the same applications, particularly in the financial arena. Indeed, many OLAP applications were implemented specifically to replace failing spreadsheet systems. However, both technologies can also be used very productively together, with Excel add-ins being used as front-ends for OLAP servers. This approach combines the power, scalability and maintainability of sophisticated OLAP servers with the tremendous flexibility and familiarity of the one analytical tool that almost every person already uses: Excel. The document evolved out of conversations with several vendors and users. This research project uncovered far more than we had expected. As a result, this grew into one of the longest sections in The OLAP Report. It became clear that while OLAP spreadsheet add-ins were very popular with end-users (particularly in Finance), they were little understood by IT professionals. That remains true today, and we regularly come across IT people who have no idea of the power of an OLAP server combined with a good Excel add-in. They typically regard any use of Excel as undesirable and often privately confess that they would love to ban the corporate use of Excel altogether. Indeed, few people realize just how much is possible with good add-ins which combine the best of proprietary Windows and Web OLAP clients, often delivering significantly superior solutions to both. They are easier to deploy than the former but much faster and more functional than the latter. And, yes, some Excel add-in-based systems can be deployed with a true thin-client architecture. Excel add-ins are particularly popular with 'active' end-users who demand flexibility and interactivity and are therefore not easily satisfied by passive Web-deployed applications. And no other solution can deliver the quality of OLAP reporting that is possible using Excel add-ins; in the absence of an add-in, users often copy the data into Excel anyway. There is also strong evidence from The OLAP Surveys that applications deployed using good Excel add-ins are more successful in business terms than other OLAP front-ends. This report also includes mini reviews of four of the best third party, separately available add-ins for Analysis Services, which are designed to compensate for the continuing weakness of Microsoft's own Excel OLAP support.
A sample of the numerous specially generated screenshots from this review. Click to enlarge.
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