BI Reporting Tool Comparison

1
Purchase Cycle Indicators
Reason for choosing a product

• Take Away This criteria could be used while
  selecting a product considering easier, quicker
  and error free development

2
Purchase Cycle Indicators
Benefits-driven ranking of selection criteria

• Take Away This criteria could be a prime
  indicator while choosing a product depending
  upon broad business/technical features required

3
Purchase Cycle Indicators
Benefits-driven ranking of selection criteria

• Take Away Depending on the business benefit the
  organization seeks, this criteria
  could help in selecting a particular product
  addressing those needs

4
Purchase Cycle Indicators
Departments using BI by product

• Take Away Use this indicator to select a
  product depending on the Business
  function which requires implementation of the
  OLAP tool.

5
Oracle BI Enterprise Edition General
Specifications

• Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Plus offers an
  integrated, comprehensive suite of open,
  standards-based business intelligence products
  and provides the best foundation for building
  enterprise-wide BI solutions.
• OBIEE Plus comprises powerful BI server
  technology and BI presentation tools - referred
  to as Oracle BI Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) - and
  supplements them with specialty BI reporting
  tools secured in the Hyperion acquisition (Plus).

• Platform Support
• N-Tier Architecture
• MS SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle 9i/10g Enterprise
  Server, NCR Teradata, Sybase SQL Anywhere, MY
  SQL, XMLA data source
• Multidimensional data sources (MS SQL Server
  Analysis Services, SAP BW, Oracle OLAP, Oracle
  Hyperion Essbase), ODBC data sources
• Supports LDAP servers (Sun Java Enterprise System
  (SunOne) Directory Server, Microsoft Active
  Directory)

• Web Support
• Reports can be developed on the Web using Oracle
  BI Web link.
• Reports are created, managed and published
  through web.

• Linguistic Support
• Oracle BI EE is available in wide range of
  languages including English, Chinese, French,
  Dutch, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean,
  Swedish etc

• User Support
• There is no limit on the number of concurrent
  users. However, it depends upon the licenses
  purchased.

6
Oracle BI Enterprise Edition
Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Drill down across any dimensions is available
• Drill through to detail is supported
• Drill across can be achieved by adding a
  Dimension Level to the Preferred Drill Path

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Images can be added in the
  background
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent - Capable of conditional
  formatting to identify exceptional data in a
  report
• Embedded Linked Graphics Can be done

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly - Report level mathematical
  calculations available
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis -
  Statistical functions available. Time series
  analysis like Year to Year comparison can be done
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Can integrate
  with MS Access MS Excel
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Report data can also be exported to HTML, PDF,
  CSV etc.
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools - MS
  Access, Cognos, Brio, BO etc are compatible with
  it

7
Oracle Hyperion Essbase Analytics
General Specifications

• The Hyperion Essbase is a part of Hyperion suite
  of Products. It is a multidimensional OLAP tool
  used for high end analysis of data.
• The different modules are Application Manager,
  Calc Scripts, Load Rules, Reports, etc.

• Platform Support
• Client Server Architecture is supported
• Data can be loaded from RDBMS, Flat files, Excel
  etc.
• Supports
• Microsoft Active Directory
• Netscape Directory Server
• Generic LDAP Server
• UNIX NIS , Windows NT/2000 authentications, for
  authentication

• Web Support
• Web Access is provided through the Hyperion
  Workspace and Web Analysis

• Linguistic Support
• Hyperion Essbase supports French, German,
  Spanish, Korean, Turkish, Russian, Traditional
  Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese

• User Support
• No restrictions on the number of users it can
  support. Thousands of concurrent users can access
  from anywhere.

8
Oracle Hyperion Essbase Analytics
Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Supports Drill down /drill up features on the
  report items

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Images can be added in the
  background
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent - Supports traffic light
  signals
• Embedded Linked Graphics Can be easily done

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly Complex calculations can be
  performed using dynamic variables
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis
  Various statistical functions are available. Time
  series analysis like Year to Year comparison can
  be done and is supported in the dimensionality
  itself.
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Integrates
  easily with Microsoft Office Products like excel
  , word etc
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Reports can be exported to Spreadsheets
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools -
  Best suited for Hyperion Web Analysis, Excel,
  Oracle BI EE, BO, Cognos etc

9
Hyperion Essbase Differentiators Goal
Achievement

• Take Away Reflects that Essbase has most often
  met the goals for which it was
  implemented

10
Hyperion Essbase Differentiators
Fewest Product Related problems

• Take Away Indicates that Hyperion Essbase has
  very few product bugs which translates into more
  savings for the organization during development,
  implementation, UAT deployment phases.

11
Hyperion Essbase Differentiators
Deterrents to wider Deployment

• Take Away Clearly indicates that Hyperion
  Essbase has the best potential to be
  deployed on an Enterprise scale.

12
Hyperion Essbase Differentiators Lack of
Product Features

• Take Away Shows that Hyperion Essbase has all
  the features required for an
  Enterprise wide deployment.

13
Hyperion Essbase Differentiators
Administrative Complexity

• Take Away Indicates that Hyperion Essbase has
  comparatively lesser Administrative
  issues which translates into more savings for the
  organization in the long run for
  development support.

14
Oracle Hyperion Interactive Reporting
General Specifications

• Oracle Hyperion Interactive Reporting provides
  executives, business users, and analysts with
  intuitive user-directed relational query
  capabilities.
• Interactive Reporting can pull together data from
  disparate sources to produce easy to use charts,
  pivot tables, highly formatted reports, and more.
• Interactive Reporting shares common
  administration, user management, and installation
  and configuration support with other Hyperion BI
  modules of Oracle Business Intelligence Suite
  Enterprise Edition Plus.

• Platform Support
• Distributed Server Architecture. N-Tier model is
  supported.
• Supports databases DB2 7.2 and higher, DB2 8.x,
  Essbase (multi-dimensional databases), Informix
  9.2.0 and higher, MS OLAP 7, MS SQL Server 2000,
  MS SQL Server 7.x, Oracle 10G/9i, Oracle 8.1.7
  and higher, Red Brick Warehouse 6.x, SAP BW 3.x,
  Sybase 12.x (ASE and IQ) CTLib, Teradata v2r4,
  ODBC as source.
• Supports Microsoft Active Directory, Netscape
  Directory Server, Generic LDAP Server, UNIX NIS,
  Windows NT/2000 authentications

• Web Support
• Web Access is provided through the Hyperion
  Workspace

• Linguistic Support
• English, Chinese, French, German, Italian,
  Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

• User Support
• No restrictions on the number of users it can
  support. Thousands of concurrent users can access
  from anywhere

15
Oracle Hyperion Interactive Reporting
Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Supports Drill down /drill up features on the
  report items
• Hyperion Integration Services is needed for this.
  This will help in drilling down data from MDB to
  RDBMS

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Images can be added in the
  background
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent All these functionalities are
  supported
• Embedded Linked Graphics Various report
  objects can be embedded

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly Report level calculations are
  supported
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis Both
  Statistical Financial analysis are duly
  supported
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Integrates
  easily with Microsoft Office Products like Excel
  , Word, etc.
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Report data can be exported to .htm, .xls, .wks,
  .slk, .txt, .csv, .jpeg pdf files
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools -
  Oracle BI EE semantic layer can be connected,
  Excel

16
Oracle Web Analysis Reporting
General Specifications

• Hyperion System9 BI Web Analysis is an online
  analysis, presentation, and reporting interface
  for both multidimensional and relational data
• Advanced analytics let workers make multiple
  selections with a single click.
• Powerful data analysis allows users to enable
  other features such as user-defined calculations,
  exception reporting, and advanced filtering.
• Can combine data from Oracle Essbase and SAP
  NetWeaver BI to visualize multidimensional
  information to solve complex business problems.

• Platform Support
• Distributed Server Architecture. N-Tier model is
  supported.
• Supports databases DB2 7.2 and higher, DB2 8.x,
  Essbase (multi-dimensional databases), Informix
  9.2.0 and higher, MS OLAP 7, MS SQL Server 2000,
  MS SQL Server 7.x, Oracle 10G/9i, Oracle 8.1.7
  and higher, SAP BW 3.x, Teradata v2r4, ODBC as
  source.
• Supports Microsoft Active Directory, Netscape
  Directory Server, Generic LDAP Server, UNIX NIS,
  Windows NT/2000 authentications

• Web Support
• Web Access is provided through the Hyperion
  Workspace or using Web Analysis Home

• Linguistic Support
• English, Chinese, French, German, Italian,
  Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

• User Support
• No restrictions on the number of users it can
  support. Thousands of concurrent users can access
  from anywhere

17
Oracle Hyperion Web Analysis
Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Supports Drill down /drill up features on the
  report items
• Relational Drill-through is possible

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Images can be added in the
  background
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent All these functionalities are
  supported
• Embedded Linked Graphics Various report
  objects can be embedded

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly Report level calculations are
  supported
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis Both
  Statistical Financial analysis are duly
  supported
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Integrates
  easily with Microsoft Office Products like Excel
  , Word, etc.
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Report data can be exported to .htm, .xls, .wks,
  .slk, .txt, .csv, .jpeg pdf files
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools -
  Best suited for Hyperion Essbase

18
Oracle Application Server
General Specifications

• Oracle Internet Application Server provides a
  single integrated packaged solution for
  middleware infrastructure including Oracle
  Containers for J2EE, Oracle Web Cache, Oracle
  HTTP Server, Oracle Forms, Oracle Reports, Oracle
  Portal and Oracle Discoverer. 
• Also included in this infrastructure are
  integrated security, management and integration
  technologies.   Oracle Internet Application
  Server is a member of the Oracle Fusion
  Middleware family of products, which bring
  greater agility, better decision-making, and
  reduced cost and risk.

• Platform Support
• Works as Client/Server Architecture and multitier
  architecture
• Supports Oracle Database 10g as data source.
• Supports LDAP Microsoft Active Directory
  authentication

• Web Support
• Web features are enabled through Oracle Web Cache
  Oracle HTTP server.

• Linguistic Support
• Multiple languages are supported.

• User Support
• No restrictions on the number of users it can
  support.

19
Oracle Application Server
Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Supports Drill down /drill up features on the
  report items
• Relational Drill-through is possible

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Images can be added in the
  background
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent All these functionalities are
  supported
• Embedded Linked Graphics Not supported

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly calculations can be performed on the
  fly
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis Both
  Statistical Financial analysis are duly
  supported
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Integrates
  easily with Microsoft Office Products like Excel
  , Word, etc.
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Supports Exporting Report data on Spread sheet
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools
  Minimal compatibility

20
Oracle Discoverer General Specifications

• Web-publishing tool that empowers business users
  at all levels of the organization to gain
  immediate access to information from data marts,
  data warehouses, online transaction processing
  systems and Oracle E-Business Suite.
• The key enhancement in the latest release of
  Oracle BI Discoverer, is its ability to access
  both relational and multidimensional data within
  a single reporting environment
  
  
  

• Platform Support
• 3 Tier Server architecture
• Oracle Discoverer provides native connectivity to
  the Oracle Database Server and Oracle RDB via
  Net8.
• Non-Oracle database using ODBC is no longer
  allowed
• Supports LDAP MS AD authentication.

• Web Support
• Data from Oracle BI Discoverer can be rendered to
  HTML, PDF, or exported to Excel while maintaining
  any formulas that were used in the original
  calculations through the Web in pure HTML

• Linguistic Support
• English, German, Japanese, French, Simplified
  Chinese, Dutch, Spanish, Finnish, Italian, and
  Swedish.

• User Support
• No restrictions on the number of users.
• User load can be handled dynamically for stable
  performance.

21
Oracle Discoverer Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Supports Drill down Drill up features
• Supports Drill through
• Supports Drill across

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Images can be added in the
  background
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent No built In capabilities for
  Exception detection automatically
• Embedded Linked Graphics Various report
  objects can be embedded

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly Report level calculations are
  supported
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis Both
  Statistical Financial analysis are duly
  supported
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Can import
  export Microsoft Xls data
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Report data can be exported to PDF, XML, DHTML
  (HTML 4.0), Word, Excel, RTF, Lotus 1-2-3, Text
  and MS-Access.
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools -
  can import metadata

22
Oracle Web Analysis Reporting
General Specifications

• As the technical foundation for a
  service-oriented architecture (SOA) and SAP
  Business Suite, SAP NetWeaver helps evolve the
  existing IT infrastructure into a more
  cost-effective platform that improves efficiency,
  insight and flexibility.
• The platform enables to consolidate heterogeneous
  systems, applications, and data to simplify the
  IT environment and reduce operational costs,
  freeing resources to focus on strategic,
  innovative solutions

• Platform Support
• Supports client server as well as web
  architecture
• Data can be sourced from BW and non BW sources
  using ODBO, XMLA etc
• Supports LDAP authentication

• Web Support
• Web Access is provided through the Web
  Application Designer (WAD).

• Linguistic Support
• Provides multi-lingual support.
• Unicode and country versions of the software are
  available.

• User Support
• Supports large number of users

23
SAP NetWeaver BI Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Supports Drill down Drill up features
• Supports Drill through

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Not Supported
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent Exception reporting can be
  defined in the queries with minimal effort
• Embedded Linked Graphics Various report
  objects can be embedded

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly Complex calculations are also
  supported
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis
  Statistical functions are provided, advanced
  analysis provided through BPS functions
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies
  currency conversion on the fly as well.

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office Integrates
  with Microsoft Office Products like Excel , Word,
  etc.
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Supports exporting data to spreadsheets, since
  BeX works as an addon to Microsoft Excel
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools -
  SAP BW is OLE DB compliant

24
SAP Business Objects XI General Specifications

• BusinessObjects XI 3.1 gives customers more
  flexibility and power to access all information
  regardless of format, shape, size or
  locationenabling everyone to make more confident
  decisions based on trusted, reliable information.
• BusinessObjects XI 3.1 now offers integration
  with data sources from a variety of vendors,
  including HP, Microsoft, Netezza and Oracle.
• SAP BO XI 3.1 also offers simplified access to
  transactional data, increased speed and
  scalability with new native support for 64-bit
  architecture.

• Platform Support
• 4 Tier Architecture
• Supports Hyperion System 9, MS SSAS 2006, Generic
  JDBC ODBC Data Sources, HP NeoView 2.2, IBM
  DB2/UDB for iSeries 5.3, IBM Informix Dynamic
  Server 10.0, 9.4, MS SQL Server 7.0, MySQL AB
  5.0, Netezza NPS Server, Oracle 10g, Sybase
  Adaptive Server Enterprise 15, IBM Informix XPS
  8.50, Microsoft Excel 2007, NCR Teradata V2R6.1
  as data sources.
• Supports LDAP, Active Directory and Windows NT
  Authentication

• Web Support
• Supports web based report access, report
  publishing and report creation

• Linguistic Support
• Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Dutch,
  English, French, German, Italian, Japanese,
  Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish

• User Support
• There is no restrictions on the number of users
  it can support.

25
SAP Business Objects XI Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Drill Up/ Drill Down are supported
• Drill Through is supported
• Drill across multiple tables and charts is
  supported

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Supports Canvas based
  reporting
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent All these functionalities are
  supported
• Embedded Linked Graphics Various report
  objects can be embedded

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly Complex calculations are also
  supported
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis
  Statistical functions are supported. Time Series
  Analysis such as 'MTD', 'QTD', 'YTD' is possible
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Integrates
  with all the MS Office components and allow users
  to access analysis and reporting features
  dynamically
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Report data can be exported to csv, excel, XML,
  PDF, HTML formats
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools -
  Essbase cubes are supported. MS OLAP cubes are
  supported

26
Business Objects XI - General Specifications

• BusinessObjects XI, the scalable and adaptive
  service-oriented platform, helps organizations
  confidently deploy and standardize their BI
  implementations and deliver information in
  multiple Web and non-Web user interfaces.
• Handling Crystal Reports, Web Intelligence,
  Desktop Intelligence, Voyager, Live Office,
  Dashboard Builder, or BusinessObjects Performance
  Manager, this BI platform allows to extend BI
  insight to greater numbers than ever with proven
  scalability.

• Platform Support
• 4 Tier Architecture
• Data can be from packaged applications(ERP, SCM,
  CRM), Mainframes systems and Relational Databases
  or OLAP sources. Data can be from one data source
  or multiple data sources. It can retrieve data
  from Hyperion cubes, HOLOS, SQL.
• Support LDAP authentication. AD and NT
  authentication also supported. Enterprise is the
  default authentication.

• Web Support
• Delivering crystal reports within BO Enterprise
  XI R2 reports can be published over the Web

• Linguistic Support
• English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch,
  Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, Hebrew
  and Kanji (Japanese).

• User Support
• No restrictions on the number of users it can
  support.

27
Business Objects XI Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Drill Up/ Drill Down are supported
• Drill Through is supported through mouse click on
  the report
• Drill Across is supported through mouse click on
  the report

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Crystal report XI R2
  allows helps to build dynamic and cascading
  prompts
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent Dash Board Manager XIR2
  provides personalized view of key metrics and
  alerts
• Embedded Linked Graphics Well supported, it
  can also automatically check for broken links

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly All types of calculations are
  supported
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis OLAP
  XI helps in Multi Dimensional Analysis graphs and
  calculations
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Integrates
  easily with Microsoft Office Products like Excel
  , Word, etc.
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Report data can be exported to .htm, .xls, .wks,
  .slk, .txt, .csv, .jpeg pdf files
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools -
  Best suited for Hyperion Essbase

28
Actuate 8 General Specifications

• Actuate provides a complete suite of products to
  meet the reporting and analysis needs of any user
  in the organization, any partner and any
  customerwithin the context of a
  business-specific application experience.
• Actuate has an array of products listing across
  Development, Deployment and User Adoption
  phases.

• Platform Support
• Open Server Architecture. 3-Tier model with
  Reporting engine as the middle tier.
• Supports databases Oracle, Progress, Sybase,
  ODBC, ASCII, XML, Legacy systems, ERP, EJB. as
  source.
• Supports LDAP, Active Directory and support
  object management.

• Web Support
• Actuate supports publishing of reports in the
  i-Server and accessing it over the web

• Linguistic Support
• English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese,
  Chinese, Korean

• User Support
• No restrictions on the number of users it can
  support.

29
Actuate 8 Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Supports drilling up to see summary views or
  drilling down deeper into detailed data.
• Drill through support opens another report from
  within a report, such as a detailed report in
  summary.
• Users can even drill across reports to review
  related information

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Supports usage of
  background colors to fill and shade pages,
  sections, and report components or make
  backgrounds transparent
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent Specific criteria can be
  entered for values of dimensions and only data
  meeting these criteria will be displayed for
  clear exception reporting
• Embedded Linked Graphics Graphic images can
  be embedded in the report and linked by
  specifying file locations.can be embedded

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly - On Fly calculation can be done in
  actuate.
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis Time
  series analysis is supported actuate
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Integrates
  easily with Microsoft Office Products.
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Report data can be exported to PDF, XML, DHTML
  (HTML 4.0), Word, Excel, RTF, Text
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools -
  Provides support to third party reporting tools
  like Crystal reports, etc.

30
MS OLAP 2008 General Specifications

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 helps enable
  organizations to build comprehensive,
  enterprise-scale analytic solutions that deliver
  actionable insights through familiar tools.
• The latest version of SQL Server called SQL
  Server 2008 simplifies management by providing
  one integrated management console to monitor and
  manage the SQL Server relational database, as
  well as Integration Services, Analysis Services,
  Reporting Services.

• Platform Support
• 2 Tier , 3 Tier and N- Tier comes with
  client/server architecture
• Supports almost all data sources, including all
  types of RDBMS and OLE databases.
• Supports Microsoft Active Directory, Windows
  NT/2000 authentications for authentication

• Web Support
• Can have web based reporting by deploying Pivot
  Table Services on a Web Server.

• Linguistic Support
• Support all languages. But new translation
  objects need to be created for each language.

• User Support
• No restriction as long as hardware support is
  available

31
MS OLAP 2008 Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Supports Drill Up and Drill Down
• Drill through is only limited to base measures.
• Drill Across feature is also supported.

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Can be created.
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent Exception can be created in
  server side and ProClarity side too. KPIs can be
  created at server and by ProClarity itself
• Embedded Linked Graphics No direct picture
  can be attached. However, it provides a feature
  called Actions to allow for combining graphics

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly Supported using MDX queries
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis
  Provides functions that support budgeting
  applications besides providing functions for
  Standard Deviation, Variance, Average etc.
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Supports a
  variety of Microsoft Office products like Excel,
  Office Web Components
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Report data can be exported to Excel, XML
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools
  Supports Knosys, BO, Arc plan, Microstrategy and
  Cognos.

32
Cognos 8 BI General Specifications

• Provide the capabilities and information needed
  to make better decisions. Reports, analysis,
  dashboards and scorecards can be used to monitor
  business performance, analyze trends and measure
  results. A service-oriented architecture makes it
  easy to deploy and manage.
• Reporting gives access to a complete list of
  self-serve report types, is adaptable to any data
  source and operates from a single metadata layer
  for a variety of benefits such as multilingual
  reporting.

• Platform Support
• N-tiered, multi-server, multi-threaded
  architecture
• Supports Oracle, SQL, IBM, Teradata, Sybase, and
  ODBC, Cognos OLAP, SAP BW, Microsoft SSAS,
  Essbase, Oracle 10G, IBM DB2 CubeViews, SAP,
  PeopleSoft, Siebel, Excel files, Access files,
  and flat files as data source.
• Supports LDAP as a third party security provider.
  In addition to that Windows NT LAN Manager
  (NTLM), Microsoft Active Directory, Netegrity
  SiteMinder , Sun directory server

• Web Support
• Report Studio, Query Studio and Analysis Studio
  are the core reporting components of Cognos and
  all the Components are absolute zero footprint
  bases.

• Linguistic Support
• English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch,
  Finnish, Swedish, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese,
  Chinese, Korean, Czech, Hungarian, Polish,
  Romanian, Slovak, Greek, Turkish, Norwegian,
  Danish, Hindi, and Russian

• User Support
• No restrictions on the number of users it can
  support.

33
Cognos 8 BI Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Drill Down\Drill Up feature is supported by
  Cognos Transformer
• Drill-through report can be created to link two
  reports containing related information
• Navigation among different stars is possible in
  report

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports can use any of the
  developed report with all images and
  specifications as a template
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent Can use conditional
  formatting to identify exceptional data in a
  report
• Embedded Linked Graphics Various report
  objects can be embedded

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly - On-the-fly calculations are possible
  in query studio
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis All
  Statistical functions are available in report
  studio like Standard Deviation, Variance, average
  etc. Inbuilt categories such as 'MTD', 'QTD',
  'YTD'
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - All MS
  access, MS access Math and MS Trigonometric
  functions are available
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  can produce a report in HTML, PDF, CSV, XML or
  XLS
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools -
  can import a third party metadata source into
  Cognos Frame work manager at any level.

34
Microstrategy General Specifications

• Hyperion System9 BI Web Analysis is an online
  analysis, presentation, and reporting interface
  for both multidimensional and relational data
• Advanced analytics let workers make multiple
  selections with a single click.
• Powerful data analysis allows users to enable
  other features such as user-defined calculations,
  exception reporting, and advanced filtering.
• Can combine data from Oracle Essbase and SAP
  NetWeaver BI to visualize multidimensional
  information to solve complex business problems.

• Platform Support
• N-tiered, multi-server, multi-threaded
  architecture, Service Oriented Architecture
• Supports databases Generic ANSI SQL92, IBM DB2
  UDB 8.2, Informix Dynamic Server 9.4, MS Excel
  2003, MS Access 2003, MS SQL Server 2000, Netezza
  2.5, Oracle 10g, RedBrick 6.3 as data source.
• Supports LDAP, Active Directory and support
  object management

• Web Support
• MicroStrategy Web and Web Universal provide
  powerful user-friendly environment.
  

• Linguistic Support
• English, Spanish, German, French, Italian,
  Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Swedish

• User Support
• No restrictions on the number of users it can
  support

35
Microstrategy Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Supports Drill down an drill up
• Supports Drill Through
• Supports Drill Across

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Use background colors to
  fill and shade pages, sections, and report
  components or make backgrounds transparent
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent Thresholds and stoplights can
  be used for highlighting
• Embedded Linked Graphics Various kinds of
  graphics can be embedded

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly supported only when using the OLAP
  Analysis as the source
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis
  Provides ready functions for calculating IRRlt
  depreciation, present and future value etc.
  Running and Moving Average, TY-LY, MTD, YTD for
  Time series analysis
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Integrates
  easily with Microsoft Office Products through COM
  objects Active X
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Report data can be exported to PDF, XML, DHTML
  (HTML 4.0), Word, Excel, RTF, Lotus 1-2-3, Text
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools -
  Reporting Tools that use MDX OLEDB for OLAP
  standard API

36
SAS General Specifications

• SAS 9.2 brings a wealth of new capabilities and
  delivers a wide range of benefits for both
  business users and IT departments. It helps
  business users gain insights that are often
  hidden in data so they can reach evidence-based
  decisions with confidence.
• For IT, this release helps ease integration with
  existing IT infrastructures and helps IT deploy,
  manage and scale the SAS environment to
  efficiently meet organizational needs

• Platform Support
• 4 Tier architecture.
• Supports almost all data sources, including all
  RDBMS, all ERPs and OLE DB.
• Supports LDAP, Active Directory and support
  object management.

• Web Support
• SAS has information delivery portal.
• Supports third party vendors tools.

• Linguistic Support
• English, Japanese, French, etc.

• User Support
• No restrictions on the number of users it can
  support.

37
SAS Functionality Analysis

• Drill Features
• Static Drill down supported in the form of
  summary and detail reports
• Drill through is supported with mouse click on
  the report
• Drill across is supported with mouse click on the
  report

• Graphical Design
• Canvas based Reports Images can be added in the
  background
• Traffic Lighting, Exception Reporting
  Intelligent Agent Point out specific
  information with Report Alerts, custom messages
• Embedded Linked Graphics Various report
  objects can be embedded

• Calculations Supported
• On the Fly possible with point and click
  operations on the report or chart
• Statistical/Financial/Time Series Analysis
  possible with 2 powerful SAS tools called
  SAS/STAT and SAS/ETS (Econometrics and time
  Series)
• Currency Support Supports multiple currencies

• Integration
• Integration with Microsoft Office - Integrates
  easily with Microsoft Office Products through COM
  objects Active X.
• Exporting Report data and Spread Sheet Access -
  Report data can be exported to PDF, XML, DHTML
  (HTML 4.0), Word, Excel, RTF, Lotus 1-2-3, Text
  and MS-Access.
• Compatibility with 3rd party reporting tools
  compatible using SAS Universal ODBC driver and
  SAS OLEDB interface

38
BI Reporting Tools Comparison Snapshot