Simpler interface for SQL Server analysis services cubes for end users

Question

Is there a simpler interface for end users to run "queries" on pre-existing SqlServer Analysis Service cubes? I'm looking for a way to deploy the cubes and allow the users to work with the data through a simpler interface than BIDS. Is this even possible?

Answer 1

You can use Excel with pivot tables for that, no need to write any queries at all, they can drill down to all the data they need

Answer 2

There's a couple of End User Reporting Tools around.

Our tool - RSinteract, is quite cheap and effective. It uses an AJAXy web interface so no need to install on the client and has drag and drop functionality similar to the other tools. It also has a 30 day evaluation.

Answer 3

Dundas has a set of tools that let you drag and drop dimensions/hierarchies/measures to create visualizations like charts and/or grids. The product name is Dundas Chart for ASP.NET Enterprise Edition, and it has a free demo.

ProClarity also had a suite of tools. Not sure how you get those tools any longer, but I think they are part of MSDN now.

Answer 4

As stated by Jay, there are several client tools you can use to query the cubes that give the end user the ability to drag and drop dimensions for ad-hoc querying.

ProClarity has been acquired by Microsoft, and most of the functionality is being incorporated into PerformancePoint

Panorama Software (original developers of Analysis Services) also provide access with their NovaView products

Answer 5

I would recommend Excel too. It is an environment that your users are familiar with anyway, and they will be able to perform additional analysis (totals etc) without learning any new interfaces.

However, I would advise against pivot tables as a method of getting the data into Excel. I once worked on a project using pivot tables, and it was a filthy nightmare. The more recent versions of Office have a slightly different tool called "Microsoft Office Excel Add-in for SQL Server Analysis Services" which can get OLAP data into Excel. I downloaded XLAddinSetup.msi for Excel 2002/3 or you can use this method for Excel 2007.

Answer 6

Another option is Report Builder, that comes for free with SQL Server. Though the SQL Server 2005 version is a bit cranky, the new release with SQL Server 2008 seems to work much better.

Although it isn't as flexible as excel for ad-hoc queries,it comes very handy for some scenarios.

Answer 7

There are many, many tools. An incomplete overview can be found here: http://www.ssas-info.com/analysis-services-client-tools-frontend