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Tools for Business

In:

Submitted By vicenten70
Words 25350
Pages 102
Mid Sweden University
The Department of Information Technology and Media (ITM)
Author: Katarina Lundqvist, kalu9700@student.miun.se
Study program: Master of Science in Engineering – Computer
Engineering, 270 higher education credits
Examiner: Tingting Zhang, tingting.zhang@miun.se
Tutor: Aron Larsson, aron.larsson@miun.se
Tutor: Mats Olsson, mats.olsson@sogeti.se
Scope: 20102 words inclusive of appendices
Date: 2010-03-17

M.Sc. Thesis in Computer Engineering AV,
30 higher education credits

Tools for Business
Intelligence
A comparison between Cognos 8 BI, Microsoft BI and SAP BW/NetWeaver

Katarina Lundqvist

Abstract
2010-03-17

Tools for Business Intelligence
A comparison between Cognos 8
BI, Microsoft BI and SAP
BW/NetWeaver
Katarina Lundqvist

Abstract
The aim of the thesis was to conduct a general study of Business Intelligence and BI systems followed by a comparison of Cognos 8 BI, Microsoft BI and SAP BW/NetWeaver. The goal was to distinguish similarities and differences between the tools regarding technique, cost, usability and educational need and to provide a mapping for different customer situations. The method consisted of a theoretical study followed by a practical part including development, testing and interviews. The comparison showed that SAP and Microsoft both use the client/server model while Cognos is an integrated web-based system built on SOA.
SQL Server can only be installed on Windows while BW and Cognos also support UNIX, Linux and IBM. SSRS report formats are HTML,
PDF, CSV, XML, TIFF, Word and Excel. In BW, query results can be viewed as HTML, CSV and Excel. Cognos report formats are HTML,
PDF, CSV, XML and Excel. The educational need for SQL Server and
Cognos is low and may often be solved internally or through e-learning.
In contrast, BW uses its own terminology and the enhanced star schema,

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