Ad Hoc Analysis and OLAP Tools

Why do organizations go with an ad hoc analysis approach along with OLAP tools? It's important for organizations to consider a broad spectrum of data to make relevant, informed decisions.

In an enterprise reporting environment, it is crucial for organizations to utilize an ad hoc analysis approach along with OLAP tools. Disregarding or missing key information can have adverse effects on any organization.

In order to perform a successful and effective analysis on a data set, new and unclear questions should always be answered without hesitation because it's so easy to ignore. To simplify the process, ad hoc analysis and OLAP tools assist in answering anything unclear.

At InetSoft, our powerful and intuitive business intelligence solutions guide the process of ad hoc analysis by using OLAP tools. Users will have the ability to analyze multi-dimensional data from different perspectives while answering questions along the way.

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How Ad Hoc Analysis Coexists With OLAP Tools

Ad Hoc Analysis

Considered a common practice in business intelligence, ad hoc analysis provides users with answers to specific questions that haven't been touched upon or discovered. It is advantageous in the enterprise reporting environment as it allows users to explore reports more in depth while being cost efficient and effective.

Because an initial static report can be vague and miss details, ad hoc analysis may be used to drill deeper into those static reports to get data that hasn't been brought to the table. Additionally, the process of doing an ad hoc analysis can be to create reports that don't already exist, getting details about accounts, transactions, or records from it. The result of an ad hoc analysis can consist of statistical models, analytic reports, or other types of data summary.

InetSoft's in-report exploration and ad hoc reporting tools enable this analysis. What makes InetSoft stand out compared to other vendors is the maximum self-service enabled in the area of ad hoc analysis via end-user defined data mashup. Users are able to combine data within a single data source or across multiple data sources into unified data sets using union, intersection, minus, inner/outer joins, etc. The self-service aspect includes our simple drag-and-drop interface, a unique capability on our Style Intelligence product.

The key advantages of InetSoft's InetSoft's Ad Hoc solution:

  • Easy to use, minimum training
  • Low IT investment and overhead
  • The ability to leverage existing infrastructure
  • More affordable than Power BI or Tableau
  • Cloud-flexibilty of deployment
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“Flexible product with great training and support. The product has been very useful for quickly creating dashboards and data views. Support and training has always been available to us and quick to respond.
- George R, Information Technology Specialist at Sonepar USA

OLAP Based Tools

OLAP tools enable users to interactively analyze multidimensional data from multiple perspectives. They are specifically designed to facilitate ad hoc analysis by providing quick and easy access to data from an original report. Users can immediately access data by using a point-and-click interface. This cuts down asking different divisions and/or departments for separate data in a pressing situation.

Because OLAP plays an intricate part in traditional business intelligence, at InetSoft, we ensure to bring quality performance. We support OLAP tools with a special XMLA data source type. Furthermore, we provide an integrated OLAP front-end that allows business users to tap into this rich source of data.

The key advantages of InetSoft's OLAP solution:

  • The ability to leverage a data warehouse investment
  • High performance
  • The ability to mashup OLAP data with other sources

InetSoft's rich ad hoc analysis options empower business users of all skill levels by providing the OLAP server tools necessary to access insightful information.