It is hard to find a prosperous company that wouldn’t need tons of reports to be generated. Sometimes these reports are required a few times a year, but in the majority of cases it is a few times a month or even more often.
Rubyroid Labs Team would like to share with you an easy tool we all enjoy for building reports quickly and easily. It is SSRS, which stands for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. If you never heard of it, you should definitely try it. Get inside to learn why it is so good.
What is SSRS?
SSRS is Microsoft Reporting Tool, which comes in pack with Enterprise, Standard or Express edition of Microsoft SQL Server. So with great probability you already own it. The tool can draw data from SQL Server databases, relational database (e.g. Oracle) as well as from multi-dimensional or XML-based data spreadsheets. So it would extremely useful both for strategy planning and marketing reporting.
It supports a vast amount of reporting needs and offers plenty configuration options. All this is accompanied by light intuitive design, so that even your grandma can learn how to use it within a few hours.
Sounds like a dream tool? It really is.
How It Works?
Now, you might have a question on how this dream tool works. Have a look at the scheme.
It is pretty self-descriptive. Basically you create a request, set the data source and rules upon which the report should be drawn and the tool does the hard job itself. Besides, it offers a number of styling and management options, which makes it even more flexible.
Why is SSRS so Good?
If you are still not persuaded that your next report should be definitely done with SSRS, let us list all its main advantages again.
- Easy installation
SSRS is really easy to install and tune. No additional skills required and it takes just a couple minutes.
- Plenty export options
It exports to whatever format you might need. The list includes HTML, PDF, CSV, XML, and TIFF; to say nothing about export to all major Microsoft Office software.
- Interactive sorting
SSRS has really great interactive sorting feature. Unlike other software you can even sort by a few columns. For example, sort first by date and then sort in alphabetical order results with the same value.
- Intuitive design
Once again, it is surprising how easily such a sophisticated tool can be managed. SSRS is a great example of user-friendly and intuitive design.
- Integrated Security
And finally, report is definitely something you want to protect from unwanted eyes. Being a Microsoft tool, it inherits Microsoft security level, so you don’t have to worry that the data might be stolen.
We highly recommend using SSRS for reporting needs. And what do you use for reporting? Tell us in the comments.
