Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Scenario 12
You want to create monthly management reports that are mostly static and want
users to be able to subscribe to these reports.
Solution
: SSRS is the perfect choice for this situation. It excels in allowing you to
create mostly static reports, where you just have a few filtering options. Also, users
can easily subscribe to any report and choose when and how they want the report
delivered. On the other hand, Power View is geared more toward non-static, heavily
interactive types of reports and does not have an option to subscribe to them.
Scenario 13
Your manager wants you to dig into the data and find out why a particular store is
underperforming. You are trying to answer a single, specific business question.
Solution
: A typical scenario is that a manager sees a SSRS report that indicates a
trouble spot, such as a store that is underperforming, based on some predefined
threshold. The SSRS report has no ability to slice and dice the report to find out what
is causing the store to underperform, so the manager asks you to try and find out
why. This is where Power View comes into the picture. It's the perfect tool to pull in
data for the underperforming store and slice and dice it to find out the underlying
issue. Maybe when you dig into the details, you will find it's a particular product
that is the problem and action can be taken to improve the sales of that one product.
Summary
In this chapter, we learned the difference between standard reporting and
self-service reporting and how SSRS is ideal for the former and Power View for the
latter. We got a brief overview of these two products and the data sources they use,
and discussed Power View's limitations, which prevent it from being the tool used
for all reporting. Finally, we saw certain reporting scenarios and discussed the best
tool to use and why.
In the next chapter, we will start using SSRS and cover it in more detail.
