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Advice: SQL Reporting Services vs Cognos
Our current setup is a SQL 2000 backend database with an Access 2003 front end to generate reports etc. Theres more manual issues involved with this setup because we send reports via email and over the network in PDF format. Access 2003 doesnt have PDF ability so we end up having to preview the report and then print it to PDF and then either email it or move it to a network location.
The other aspect to our setup with SQL 2000 is the use of DTS. Its pretty easy and I understand SQL 2005 doesnt have DTS so, from what I have heard righthly or wrongly, the process of importing and exporting data into SQL is no longer straight forward.
For the most part, our reports are basic tabular reports with summary pages for totals. However there are other reports which we do through Excel (very VB Script intensive) which produce graphs and charts of the data. This would also be a good selling point for our dept in future for more visual reports.
The topic of COGNOS has come up and my concern with going down this path is that its diverting too much from our existing setup. I understand its used in the finance sector for reporting but what are its capabilities? Would you say its a good, feature rich, reporting platform?
I have heard that SQL Reporting Services has a lot of functionality that I would be looking for (email, graphs, pdfs).
So if you have used either - could you provide some feedback or advice as to what would be a good road to go down?
The other aspect to our setup with SQL 2000 is the use of DTS. Its pretty easy and I understand SQL 2005 doesnt have DTS so, from what I have heard righthly or wrongly, the process of importing and exporting data into SQL is no longer straight forward.
For the most part, our reports are basic tabular reports with summary pages for totals. However there are other reports which we do through Excel (very VB Script intensive) which produce graphs and charts of the data. This would also be a good selling point for our dept in future for more visual reports.
The topic of COGNOS has come up and my concern with going down this path is that its diverting too much from our existing setup. I understand its used in the finance sector for reporting but what are its capabilities? Would you say its a good, feature rich, reporting platform?
I have heard that SQL Reporting Services has a lot of functionality that I would be looking for (email, graphs, pdfs).
So if you have used either - could you provide some feedback or advice as to what would be a good road to go down?
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Was hoping the community would add to the COGNOS question but the comments on SQL 2005 steered me in a direction at least.
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