OLAP tools

OLAP tools are widely used to analyze information from different perspectives and provide functions like drill-down, slice-and-dice and to offer a very high performance. In the table below is a list of OLAP & reporting tools.

Functionality

OLAP tools are well known for their drill-down and slice-and-dice functionality. Also they enable users to very quickly analyze data by nesting the information in tabular or graphical formats. They generally provide very good performance because of their highly indexed file structures (cubes) or in-memory technology. The most important functions of OLAP tools are:

• Drill-down: drilling down in a hierachy to a lower level.
• Drill-up: drilling up to a higher level or the highest level in a hierarchy
• Drill-through: drilling through detailed data, often to the lowest level.
• Slice-and-dice: the ability to switch easily between dimensions and create valuable insights on-the-fly
• Nesting: placing two or more dimensions in a report in such a way that they are nested

OLAP, ROLAP & MOLAP

OLAP is an abbreviation for On-line Analytical Processing and contains a multidimensional or relational datastore designed to provide quick access to pre-summarized data & multidimensional analysis. There are three flavours:

• MOLAP: Multidimensional OLAP – enabling OLAP by provding cubes.
• ROLAP: Relational OLAP – enabling OLAP using a relational database management system.
• DOLAP: Desktop OLAP – enabling OLAP functionality on the local computer (simulation); DOLAP products do not contain an OLAP server.

List of reporting & OLAP tools

The following products which include OLAP tools were thoroughly examined on 103 criteria considered important for high productivity and reporting systems that actually add value to your organization. In random order.

No.	Reporting & OLAP tools	Version	Vendor	OLAP included?
1.	Oracle Enterprise BI Server	11g1	Oracle
2.	Microsoft BI & OLAP tools	2008/2010	Microsoft
3.	IBM Cognos Series 10	10.1	IBM
4.	QlikView	11	QlikTech
5.	Board Management IntelligenceToolkit	7.1	Board International
6.	Oracle Hyperion System	9	Oracle
7.	SAP NetWeaver BI	7.3	SAP
8.	Microstrategy	9	Microstrategy
9.	SAP Business Objects Enterprise XI	r4	SAP
10.	SAS Enterprise BI Server	9.2	SAS Institute
11.	BizzScore Suite	7.3	EFM Software
12.	WebFOCUS	8	Information Builders
13.	JasperSoft (open source)	4.5	JasperSoft
14.	Style Intelligence	11	InetSoft
15.	Pentaho BI suite (open source)	4	Pentaho
16.	Tableau Software	6.1	Tableau Software

>>> The niche players Arcplan, Spotfire, Talend, Actuate and Panorama software were not included, because they did not want to fill in the questionnaire and the comparison cannot be done without the vendor’s cooperation.

Vendor independent comparison

The comparison is made by Passionned Group, an independent consultancy and research company based in The Netherlands. Download our BI Tool Survey 8.0 today for a thorough comparison of the OLAP & reporting tools listed in the table above.

Download the BI Tool Survey 2012: OLAP tools evaluated

Get all information to select the best reporting & OLAP tooling for the best price by ordering the BI Tool Survey 2012. You will get real insight into using BI tools to build successful BI applications and cubes and we will send you results of comparing sixteen OLAP & reporting tools across 103 criteria. Open the table of contents to see what’s in the BI Tool Survey 2012. The price is given in Euros and excludes local taxes. Applicable taxes will be added during the checkout process.