Ad Hoc Query & Reporting Thread Tool Recommendation Ad Hoc Query

Ad Hoc Query & Reporting Thread Tool Recommendation Ad Hoc Query & Reporting Thread March 26, 2002 1

Project Organization Pre-Programmed Reporting Thread Focused on the manipulation of pre-programmed (canned) reports that are currently generated in IMPAC II Ad Hoc Reporting Thread Focused on allowing the NIH user community to query the IMPAC II DB (OLTP & IRDB) to retrieve data on an ad hoc basis. Ad Hoc Reporting 2

Ad Hoc Q &R Team Carol Martin, Group Advocate Krishna Collie, Analyst Jim Tucker, Analyst Ad Hoc Reporting 3

Executive Summary User requirement – provide and support a desktop ad hoc query & reporting tool Analysis – evaluated 4 COTS tools against stated requirements and tested using predefined report and selection criteria. Result - None of the tested tools met all of the ‘MUST’ criteria. Recommendation: Conduct user trial using Oracle Discoverer (recommended for pre-pgm.reports) Ad Hoc Reporting 4

Objectives To retrieve data from the IRDB current, history and frozen (PUB) files and/or the OLTP current files on an ad hoc basis To produce formatted reports To export data to spreadsheet or ASCII delimited file To publish reports to the Web Ad Hoc Reporting 5

Categories of Evaluation Criteria Used General Criteria – Must, Should, Could Support and Maintenance Criteria Security Criteria Performance Metrics Other Considerations Ad Hoc Reporting 6

Commercial Off-The-Shelf System Selection and Evaluation Technique (COSSET) Conduct Functional Analysis And Determine Requirements Perform Preliminary Vendor Survey Develop Product Evaluation Tools Identify Candidate Products Conduct Product Evaluations Report Findings Ad Hoc Reporting 7 COSSET

Functional Requirements Ease of use by end user Allow users the ability to craft queries Allow users ability to save queries Export report to Excel and/or ASCII delimited file Ad Hoc Reporting 8

Technical Requirements Must be easy to configure, use and maintain Ease of creating/maintaining metalayer Scalability across the enterprise Ability to self-join table more than once and use the self-joined tables Ad Hoc Reporting 9

Architectural Issues Integration into eRA enterprise Installation on Users’ Desktops Seat Licenses Web or Client/Server version? Ad Hoc Reporting 10

Vendor Survey Market Leaders* Hummingbird COGNOS Business Objects ORACLE Discoverer *(Gartner Group Survey) Ad Hoc Reporting 11

Finalists While none of the tools met all ‘musts’, Discoverer merits careful consideration for following reasons: Discoverer selected for pre-programmed reports OER already owns licenses for Discoverer NCI staff successfully using tool for ad-hoc query Other new IMPAC II products available to assist ‘power users’: ICSTORe export custom hit list to Excel; Advanced Query Pre-pgm. reports for user export/manipulation to be developed. Ad Hoc Reporting 12

Product Evaluation Queries: Complex Simple Report Formatting Multi-lines per record Headers and Footers Borders, Colors, Shading, Fonts Ad Hoc Reporting 13

Sample of Test Report Ad Hoc Reporting 14

Sample Test Complex Report Ad Hoc Reporting 15

Results of Evaluation Hummingbird Difficult to use Cannot sort in the report Must save query separately from report in order to make changes Meta-layer setup difficult Ad Hoc Reporting 16

Results of Evaluation Cognos Meta-layer setup difficult Can’t self join a table more than 1 time Net80 directory must be on local hard drive After report is formatted, cannot add another data item Ad Hoc Reporting 17

Results of Evaluation Business Objects Can’t self join a table more than 1 time Not easy to add new data items to formatted report Very cumbersome to format multi-line report When partials results are returned, no way to next batch of results Ad Hoc Reporting 18

Results of Evaluation Oracle Discoverer Requires careful meta-layer design & maintenance to facilitate ‘user friendliness’ Lacks advanced formatting capabilities Object terminology very confusing End-user training and support essential Ad Hoc Reporting 19

Recommendation Conduct a “live” demo of Discoverer (IRDBDEV) Present demo to user groups RUG ePUG ADP/EP Determine if their needs are satisfied by this tool Group Advocate to continue evaluating other tools Ad Hoc Reporting 20