SQL Server 2005 Distilled

Chapter 5. Overview of Business Intelligence

Almost every application at some level has reporting. Whether it be a simple query or a view that provides the number of new orders or a count of website hits, analysis is implicit in all applications. More and more we see customers focusing on reporting and analytics as the competitive edge—especially in the U.S., where marketing, not product quality, can win the day for a product or service. This chapter covers the new features of the SQL Server areas of business intelligence (BI). Microsoft has been committed in a serious way to making BI more accessible, and this release is a tipping point for that goal. Additionally, Microsoft continues to make great strides in improving integration with Microsoft ...