Microsoft Reporting Services Product Overview

A comprehensive reporting platform that enables real-time and scheduled reports accessible through a Web browser, familiar desktop applications, or specialised line-of-business tools.

More and more companies need to upgrade their existing desktop solutions to a more cost effective, managed and scaleable enterprise reporting platform. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services provides a complete, integrated, reporting and analysis solution. It 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.

• Enterprise reporting: Use Reporting Services for operational reporting or Business Intelligence applications. Corporate IT staff can design a variety of reports and deploy them to individuals throughout the enterprise, using a combination of e-mail distribution and corporate portals.
  
• Ad Hoc reporting: 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.
  
• Embedded reporting: Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) can use Reporting Services to deliver pre-defined or ad hoc reports as part of a packaged application. The customer’s IT organisation can access these reports as-is, customise reports or create new ones for specific business needs.
  
• Web-based reporting: 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 personalisation and interactivity.