Multidimensional OLAP is a major component of any business intelligence (BI) tools suite. A widely accepted definition of OLAP is that it refers to online analytical processing technology that creates new business information through a robust set of business transformations and calculations executed upon existing data.
What do OLAP tools do?
OLAP tools are a very important component of application development in a BI decision-support environment. While conventional query and reporting tools are used to describe what is in a database, OLAP is used to uncover why certain business events happen.
Advantages of OLAP tools
From the business analyst's perspective, a positive side-effect of OLAP tools is that it reduces their dependency on having to go to the developers every time for changing report definitions. OLAP tools give analysts intuitive and easy access to their data for analysis. They can combine their data in any order they want, design their own queries, summarize data in any form based on any parameter, see trends over time, etc. They can drill up, drill down or drill across dimensions.
OLAP Tool Features
- Multidimensional view
- Summarizations and aggregations
- Interactive query and analysis
- Designing own queries
- Drill-down, drill-up and drill across dimensions
- Analytical modelling
- Charts and Graphs
Data Dynamics Analysis is a .NET OLAP component that is part of the ActiveReports Reporting and BI Suite of tools from GrapeCity and supports all these features.
