The OLAP Report

 

 
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The 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 June 19, 2009.

Subscriber hot topics

Information available only to subscribers

Recent or popular product reviews

Cognos 8 BI Release 4
The latest release of Cognos 8 BI now includes PowerPlay Studio

MicroStrategy 8.2
MicroStrategy remains one of the very few comprehensive, single product BI solutions, built by a single vendor, rather than assembled through acquisition.

Tibco Spotfire
A specialist, visual analysis tool

Oracle Business Intelligence Suite EE+
The former Siebel BI is now Oracle’s flagship BI front-end

Preview of Microsoft’s Project Gemini
The forthcoming all-new in-memory, column-oriented analytics tool that also authors server OLAP cubes

BusinessObjects XI Release 3.0
Includes coverage of WebIntelligence, Polestar and Voyager

arcplan Enterprise 5.5
A versatile application building tool that works with numerous back-ends, now with an attached factbase

QlikTech QlikView 7.5
The OLAP Report’s first review of this high profile analysis product, now with an attached factbase

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

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

Key findings from The BI Survey 8 New
The BI Survey 8 is the world’s largest independent BI survey, and this new section summarizes the key findings from the full 489 page document.

Analysis: Oracle’s BI product strategy
What will happen with the bundled, but overlapping, former Siebel, Hyperion and Oracle BI and OLAP tools?

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

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, now updated with findings from The BI Survey 8 New

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

Full list of case studies

Free topical information

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.

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

The latest, much expanded edition of The BI Survey is now available, with even more analyses of the real-world experiences of a record numbers of users around the world. The BI Survey 8 covers a much wider range of BI products, and includes an all-new Customers' verdict section, with KPI dashboards for 23 BI products. A free preview can be downloaded.


 

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

 

“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

 

“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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