TEKOA Alternatives to Sage 100 Business Intelligence
Sage Business Intelligence is an application from Sage that essentially is an Excel plug-in. It allows you to create data pulls from Sage 100 into Excel. Although a bit cumbersome, it does its job well. One downside of this application is the resource draw on Sage. When the data pulls, it can have a negative effect on the Sage 100 application performance. Lagging, slow connection and occasional crashes can come from the pulls. The application is a good small business solution, but for a larger scale corporation it can be “too heavy” for the system. This is simply due to the fact that there is more data to pull and categorize from more places.
Tekoa offers an alternative to Sage Business Intelligence that uses SQL language instead. This allows the user to avoid the performance problems by caching the Sage 100 data into SQL where the enterprise grade Microsoft reporting tools can be used. These added resources allow for the data to be managed better, and with less consequence to the system itself. Microsoft has a full line of reporting products that function well and Sage 100 users have not experienced performance issues. In the rest of this article, we will look at one solution in particular, the Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).
Sage Business Intelligence is an application from Sage that essentially is an Excel plug-in. It allows you to create data pulls from Sage 100 into Excel. Although a bit cumbersome, it does its job well. One downside of this application is the resource draw on Sage. When the data pulls, it can have a negative effect on the Sage 100 application performance. Lagging, slow connection and occasional crashes can come from the pulls. The application is a good small business solution, but for a larger scale corporation it can be “too heavy” for the system. This is simply due to the fact that there is more data to pull and categorize from more places.
Tekoa offers an alternative to Sage Business Intelligence that uses SQL language instead. This allows the user to avoid the performance problems by caching the Sage 100 data into SQL where the enterprise grade Microsoft reporting tools can be used. These added resources allow for the data to be managed better, and with less consequence to the system itself. Microsoft has a full line of reporting products that function well and Sage 100 users have not experienced performance issues. In the rest of this article, we will look at one solution in particular, the Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).
Microsoft Server Reporting SQL Server 2008 R2
Reporting Services in SQL Server Express with Advanced Services (SQL Server Express) allows you to create, view, and manage reports based on data that is stored in the local instance of SQL Server Express.
How Reporting Services Works with SQL Server Express
1. All the server components of both SQL Server Express and Reporting Services are installed on a single server. You cannot store the report server database on a separate remote server.
2. All sources that supply data to reports must connect to the SQL Server databases that are installed on the local SQL Server.
3. All reports are processed upon demand. Unfortunately, scheduled or unattended report processing is not supported.
4. SQL Server Express always installs a named instance of the SQL Server database engine. Therefore data source connection strings and Reporting Services URLs must include the instance name.
How to Create Reports
The reports that can be created in the Express edition of Business Intelligence Development Studio can use all the report features that you find in other editions of Reporting Services. For example, you can create "drillthrough" reports, subreports, and parameterized reports that include charts, tables, and lists. To reiterate, the entire reporting tool lineup is at your disposal with this option, with less consequence to the system's productivity.
You can reuse or copy report definitions that you have created in other editions of SQL Server. However, be aware that if you publish a report that you created in an earlier version of Reporting Services, the report will be upgraded to use the most recent SQL Server report definition format.
After you create a report definition, you can publish it to a report server. To make a published report available to users, you must use Report Manager to create role assignments that grant access to the report.
In conclusion, Microsoft SQL Reporting Services allow you to build SQL data queries and requests that transcend simple data pulls that put lag on the system. In addition, there is support for easy Excel and PDF exporting. For more information, please visit our website, at https://tekoasoftware.com/
2. All sources that supply data to reports must connect to the SQL Server databases that are installed on the local SQL Server.
3. All reports are processed upon demand. Unfortunately, scheduled or unattended report processing is not supported.
4. SQL Server Express always installs a named instance of the SQL Server database engine. Therefore data source connection strings and Reporting Services URLs must include the instance name.
How to Create Reports
The reports that can be created in the Express edition of Business Intelligence Development Studio can use all the report features that you find in other editions of Reporting Services. For example, you can create "drillthrough" reports, subreports, and parameterized reports that include charts, tables, and lists. To reiterate, the entire reporting tool lineup is at your disposal with this option, with less consequence to the system's productivity.
You can reuse or copy report definitions that you have created in other editions of SQL Server. However, be aware that if you publish a report that you created in an earlier version of Reporting Services, the report will be upgraded to use the most recent SQL Server report definition format.
After you create a report definition, you can publish it to a report server. To make a published report available to users, you must use Report Manager to create role assignments that grant access to the report.
In conclusion, Microsoft SQL Reporting Services allow you to build SQL data queries and requests that transcend simple data pulls that put lag on the system. In addition, there is support for easy Excel and PDF exporting. For more information, please visit our website, at https://tekoasoftware.com/
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