Using Microsoft frontend tools to query Analysis Services

Analysis Services is not the BI tool from Microsoft. It is only one of the available tools to a BI developer. To get a complete BI solution, the analytical component is not the sole component. More functionality is needed, especially a frontend tool for end users. Throughout the book you have seen some examples of query tools, but in this section, we will have a look at other tools that are available.

You can divide the tools in two major groups: tools with a developer focus and tools with an end user focus.

Developer-focused tools

Many of the available tools require development skills to really be an effective user. They are targeted to developers in the sense that they plug in to existing development tools and, in some cases, support build scripts to deploy assets to different environments. The developer-focused tools allow for the biggest possibilities when it comes to customizing the created reports; in general, you can get pixel...