SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services

        Business Intelligence provides you with the ability to make better decisions faster.  It permits the transformation of data into knowledge, knowledge into action, and action into success.  You may or may not have heard of some of the buzz words that are associated with “BI” such as data warehousing, data mining, Online Analytical Processing, OLAP cubes, etc.  But the most practical and useful means to provide relevant information is still the trusty report.

       Report writing has evolved from hand coded COBOL programs to proprietary report writers to the ubiquitous Crystal Reports.  Recently, Microsoft introduced a comprehensive, server-based reporting solution that can author, manage, and deliver both paper-oriented and interactive, Web–based reports.  SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services promises to be a big winner.

       Regardless of an organization's size or focus, companies leverage corporate assets by empowering employees with real-time information that enables them to make quality business decisions.  Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services provides a high-performance, managed reporting environment for the entire enterprise and makes it easier to get the right information to the right people, in virtually any business.

       Reports are developed using Report Designer, a graphical report-authoring tool that is integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003.

       SQL Server Reporting Services supports a wide range of common data sources, such as OLE DB and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), as well as multiple output formats such as familiar Web browsers, Excel and PDF.

       Report developers can create reports to be published to the Report Server using Microsoft or third-party design tools that use Report Definition Language (RDL), an XML-based industry standard used to define reports.  Report definitions, folders, and resources are published and managed as a Web service.  Reports can be delivered both on-demand (pull) and event-based (push) delivery of reports. Users can view reports in a Web-based format or in e-mail.