Tuesday, February 8, 2011

AX 2009 Ad Hoc vs Self-Service reporting

What is ad hoc reporting? Click HERE. lol. Enjoy that!
'Ad Hoc' (or self-service) capabilities basically means allowing the users to manipulate or create something on the fly. Self service reporting and Ad Hoc reporting are one and the same.

Some people will argue that there are subtle differences between ad hoc and self service but that is not true. They can be used synonymously. Don't let the BI (Business Intelligence) jive trip you up.

It's pretty common to hear customers stressing the importance of Ad Hoc Reporting or the ability to create Ad Hoc Queries. It's one of the buzz words you'll hear throughout the projects. Why? The information needed for end users change from day to day as businesses grow and new requirements are created. Or requirements exist for information analysis that is not possible at the moment.

Can you blame users for wanting a robust way to get the information they need without the reliance on anyone else? I can't. Who wants to get on the phone with a guy from tech to explain that you want a field added/removed/moved from a report. Or that you need a new report made that doesn't exist and then wait at least 3 months before you ever get one only to find out it is filled with bugs (my reports never have those...).

A vital component of future ERPs will definitely be these abilities and the ease of users to get the information they need.

Microsoft has done a great job in its progression from AX 4.0 to AX 2009 (exporting to excel with a single click, SSRS Reporting, SSAS) to AX 2012 (can't give details yet but lets just say you better get used to SSRS).

I won't get into specifics of what AX's capabilities are but just wanted to make a post about how there are no differences between ad hoc and self service reporting. If you want to know more about ad hoc and BI, check out this site: Reporting & BI in AX: An Overview.

Hate the tag, not the coder. Marquee 4 life!

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