To be successful in today's competitive marketplace, organizations need to
extend information beyond the walls of their organization and seamlessly
interact with customers, partners, and suppliers in real time. Microsoft SQL
Server Reporting Services enables organizations to transform valuable
enterprise data into shared information for insightful, timely decisions at a
lower total cost of ownership.
SQL Server Reporting Services is a comprehensive, server-based solution that
enables the creation, management, and delivery of both traditional,
paper-oriented reports and interactive, Web-based reports. An integrated part
of the Microsoft business intelligence framework, Reporting Services combines
the data management capabilities of SQL Server and Microsoft Windows Server
with familiar and powerful Microsoft Office System applications to deliver
real-time information to support daily operations and drive decisions.
An Integrated Architecture
SQL Server Reporting Services supports a wide range of common data sources, such
as OLE DB and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), as well as multiple output
formats such as familiar Web browsers and Microsoft Office System applications.
Using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework, developers
can leverage the capabilities of their existing information systems and connect
to custom data sources, produce additional output formats, and deliver to a
variety of devices.
Full Reporting Life Cycle Support
SQL Server Reporting Services supports the full reporting life cycle, including:
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Report authoring. Report developers can create reports to be
published to the Report Server using Microsoft or other design tools that use
Report Definition Language (RDL), an XML-based industry standard used to define
reports.
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Report management. Report definitions, folders, and resources are
published and managed as a Web service. Managed reports can be executed either
on demand or on a specified schedule, and are cached for consistency and
performance. New in SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, administrators can use
the Management Studio to organize reports and data sources, schedule report
execution and delivery, and track reporting history.
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Report delivery. SQL Server Reporting Services supports both
on-demand (pull) and event-based (push) delivery of reports. Users can view
reports in a Web-based format or in e-mail.
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Report security. SQL Server Reporting Services implements a flexible,
role-based security model to protect reports and reporting resources. The
product includes extensible interfaces for integrating other security models as
well.
Key Reporting Scenarios
SQL Server Reporting Services combines a single, complete reporting platform
with a scalable and extensible architecture to meet a wide variety of reporting
needs, including:
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Enterprise reporting. Enterprises can use Reporting Services for
their operational reporting or business intelligence applications. Using
Reporting Services, corporate IT staff can design a variety of reports and
deploy them to individual throughout the enterprise.
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Ad-hoc reporting. SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services includes Report
Builder, a new ad-hoc reporting tool that enables business users to create
their own reports and explore corporate data. Report Builder incorporates a
user-friendly business query model that enables users to build reports without
deep technical understanding of the underlying data sources.
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Embedded reporting. Organizations can access pre-defined or ad-hoc
reports from third-party applications that use Reporting Services and use these
reports as-is, customize them, or create new ones for specific business needs.
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Web-based reporting for partners and customers. Organizations can deploy
interactive Web-based reports to deliver information to customers or partners
over extranets of the Internet. Reporting Services isolates report consumers
from the complexity of the underlying data sources, while providing
personalization and interactivity.