Thinking Through Charting Options in SharePoint
“You know what would be really cool? We could add scorecards and dashboards to our SharePoint environment so executives can get direct access to reporting and analytics.” Oh, if I only had a dollar for every time I have heard that!
Business Intelligence is a core component of MOSS. SharePoint is a very good medium for report and data delivery. Simple. The challenge, I think, is deciding what means you will use to deliver this reporting (assuming that you don’t want to just add hyperlinks to existing reports). Like everything else, you need to think through your options.
I love Excel Services. I’ve used it many times and believe it is a fantastic (albeit sometimes quirky) tool. I also love my power drill but I don’t use it on every home project. There is a right time and place for all things, including Excel Services. What gets lost sometimes is that there is an administration cost to a solution deployment. Choose wrong and administration is much more costly (in time and effort) than it needs to be. In my opinion, Excel Services is not always the right choice, even when you have the Enterprise licensing.
Since this is becoming a common discussion point, I decided to qualify some of my thinking by building the decision table below. I tried to outline the key criteria I use to determine a SharePoint reporting solution. Full disclosure, I love the Dundas product line (including their SharePoint web parts). I have used them often, inside and outside SharePoint; they work well and I can customize them to behave exactly as I need. That’s why they are on my list. Bottom line, key takeaways from the table below:
· Excel Services is not necessarily always the right tool, even when you have access to it.
· I think Excel Services when I hear distributed reporting (i.e. lots of business users generating charts)
· I think Dundas web parts when I hear the need for advanced chart types (or high quality user experience)
· I think Reporting Services when I hear centrally managed reporting (especially that which needs to be highly secured)
· You don’t need to pick one solution. It’s possible to have multiple tools based on needs and requirements
· Plan! Good decisions are always made on great requirements gathering. Is it really Microsoft’s fault when you roll out Excel Services and the users complain because they need a chart type that is not available? Do your homework! Prototypes are king!
Additional Note: Marc Anderson reminded me that you can also consider the Data View Web Part for simple reporting... especially if you only have WSS.
Criteria:
Enterprise CAL? : Are you running the Enterprise version of MOSS (licensed separately)? No means Standard Edition
SQL 2008? : Are you running SQL Server 2008 (which includes some Dundas charts as part of Reporting Services)? No means SQL Server 2005
Distributed Report Creation? : Do you have multiple (business) users creating and distributing reports? No means report creation is centrally managed
Advanced Chart Types? : Do you require advanced chart types (e.g. Funnel charts, etc.)? No means basic charts (i.e. pie, bar, etc.) are fine
|
Enterprise
CAL? |
SQL
2008? |
Distributed
Report
Creation? |
Advanced
Chart Types? |
Recommendation |
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
Excel Services |
|
X |
X |
X |
|
Excel Services |
|
X |
X |
|
X |
Reporting Services ‘08 |
|
X |
X |
|
|
Reporting Services ‘08 |
|
X |
|
X |
|
Excel Services |
|
X |
|
|
X |
Dundas Web Parts |
|
X |
|
|
|
Reporting Services ‘05 |
|
|
X |
X |
X |
Reporting Services ‘08 |
|
|
X |
X |
|
Reporting Services ‘08 |
|
|
X |
|
X |
Reporting Services ‘08 |
|
|
X |
|
|
Reporting Services ‘08 |
|
|
|
X |
X |
Dundas Web Parts |
|
|
|
X |
|
Reporting Services ‘05 |
|
|
|
|
X |
Dundas Web Parts |
|
|
|
|
|
Reporting Services ‘05 |