The OLAP Report is an internationally respected, authoritative source of information on OLAP products, suppliers and trends as well as practical advice on selecting software and implementing applications. Totally independent of vendor influence, The OLAP Report is compiled by an editorial team lead by Nigel Pendse, the leading analyst on the OLAP market.

An annual subscription to The OLAP Report gives you unlimited access to detailed reviews and critical evaluations of all the most important products plus exclusive analysis of OLAP market trends, practical advice on making the most of OLAP software and case studies.

The following section provides more information about the OLAP Report in an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) format.

1. How did The OLAP Report start?

2. When did The OLAP Report first become available on the Web?

3. How is The OLAP Report researched?

4. How is The OLAP Report funded?

5. Subscribing to The OLAP Report

6. Why is some of The OLAP Report Web site freely accessible?

7. Can I have a free preview or trial of the subscriber material?

8. Does The OLAP Report include information on OLAP applications as well as technologies?

9. Which products are included in The OLAP Report?

10. Can I buy individual product reviews?

11. How are products chosen for inclusion in The OLAP Report?

12. Does The OLAP Report provide a good introduction to OLAP for a novice?

13. Is The OLAP Report available in hardcopy form?

14. Does The OLAP Report Web site require a particular Web browser?

15. Is The OLAP Report available in languages other than English?

16. When was the last edition published and when is the next edition?

17. Does The OLAP Report contain material from elsewhere?

18. How is The OLAP Report rated compared with other analyst research?

19. How is The OLAP Report related to The OLAP Survey? Do I get The OLAP Survey as a subscriber to The OLAP Report?

How did The OLAP Report start?

The OLAP Report project began in October 1994, when I approached Business Intelligence (the predecessor company of Optima Media Group), about a new project idea. I had known Business Intelligence for several years, and liked its strict vendor-independence and research-based approach to technology and business reports.

Having worked with decision support software since the mid 1970s, both as a user and as a vendor, I had been very disappointed by the shallowness of the coverage of OLAP by industry analysts. Most had never even used an OLAP tool and they seemed to be more concerned with checklists of often-irrelevant, vendor-promoted features than how products really worked and what they were capable of doing for users. It seemed to me that this was the equivalent of a motoring magazine written by non-drivers, and no more useful. I was also concerned that vendor-sponsored 'research' documents seemed to be too prevalent then, as now.

I was convinced that the OLAP market was about to enter a period of sustained boom and buyers needed clear, unbiased, better-informed help. In particular, they needed genuine research that wasn't vendor-sponsored, performed by people who really understood the area.

We agreed to go ahead with the project and enlisted Richard Creeth to the team. Richard had extensive experience designing and implementing financial OLAP applications using a variety of products, and ran his own consulting firm that specialized in this area. Conversely, I had used, specified, sold and marketed such products for many years. The three of us met in December 1994 and the research commenced immediately in both the US and the UK.

Our original plan had been to produce a 350-page printed report, covering at least 15 OLAP products, by mid 1995. However, once the project got underway, we uncovered far more that needed saying than we expected, and the report that eventually emerged in August 1995 covered 23 products and many other topics in 520 pages, split into two volumes. Only 12 of those 23 products were still included in the final printed edition in 2001, though some of the others remain on the market in a limited way.

When did The OLAP Report first become available on the Web?

We had provisionally planned to do an updated printed second edition in 1997, but we hadn't allowed for the speed of change in this area, or the Web, which altered all our plans. From not even mentioning the Web in the 1995 edition, we started publishing updates to individual chapters for subscribers on the new www.olapreport.com site in late 1996.

By July 1997, the whole of The OLAP Report was available in an updated form on the Web, which had, in effect, superseded the printed edition. But parallel printed editions continued to be produced for some time.

How is The OLAP Report researched?

In most cases, we interview vendors face-to-face, involving management, marketing and product development and management people. This involves seeing and testing the products in action. In some cases, we also install and test the software ourselves. We never review products without at least seeing them in use.

Typically, these meetings last about ten hours, but with larger vendors, they can extend to several long, all-day sessions involving 10-20 people. In particular, we insist that vendors prove their less believable boasts. We also speak to users, competitors and others to get a more complete view. We have interviewed vendors and users face-to-face in the US, UK, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and Spain.

Vendors can see the reviews of their products before publication, and have an opportunity to correct factual errors then or later, but they have no power of veto over our opinions, conclusions and recommendations. Vendors also cannot pull out at this stage if they do not like the opinions in the review.

We also get a lot of valuable feedback from readers, so that errors can be corrected quickly on the Web site, one of the other advantages of online publication. Feedback comes from product users, consultants, vendors and even students.

Click here for more information on the four authors .

How is The OLAP Report funded?

High quality research like that found in The OLAP Report is expensive to produce, and it has to be funded. There are essentially three sources of funding for Web-based publications:
Advertising: this can work (though not as well as it used to) for mass-market, consumer-oriented Web sites such as Yahoo. But it is not appropriate for a specialist site like The OLAP Report, which has therefore never taken advertising.
Sponsorship: most 'free' information on BI is actually vendor-sponsored, but The OLAP Report has always steered clear of this source of revenue. Specifically, no vendors pay for their products to be reviewed or featured in case studies, and although vendors can buy reprints of reviews, this is a tiny part of the total revenues. Reviews and case studies are never written with reprints in mind, so reviews always include criticisms. This freedom from sponsorship allows The OLAP Report to be critical of product weaknesses without fear of loss of income.
Subscription: this has always been the revenue model for The OLAP Report. We believe strongly that the best way to preserve The OLAP Report's independence, and its commitment to providing the best information for OLAP buyers rather than sellers, is for those same buyers to provide the funding. This may make it seem relatively more expensive than sponsored sites, but the extra cost is well worth it for buyers, who are guaranteed impartial material that is designed to help them get the most from their far larger OLAP software, hardware and consultancy investment.

This commitment to independence means that The OLAP Report is entirely funded by subscription, and the rates have to reflect it.

Conversely, if vendors provide free reprints of other analyst research, you should enquire about whether the research was sponsored by the vendor, rather than simply reprinted after publication. In other words, was the 'analysis' originally commissioned and paid for by the vendor's marketing department, or did the vendor pay to reprint independently produced research that merely happened to be favorable? Both types exist, though most vendor-distributed or downloadable reprints from free sites are actually of vendor-funded 'research' (which is really no more than disguised marketing material), and it's worth finding out which is which before reading it.

Subscribing to The OLAP Report

The OLAP Report is available for a multi-user workgroup or , exceptionally, for individual use. Each user is supplied with a user ID and password which gives that person unlimited access to the Web site. The individual sections are not available separately, as they are meant to be used alongside each other. If several people in your organization require access, then you must have a multi-user subscription (available at discounted prices).

Subscriptions are available in US dollars, Euros and UK Uk Sterling. Discounts are available for larger groups and on renewal.

For details of subscription options click here.

Why is some of The OLAP Report Web site freely accessible?

About a tenth of The OLAP Report is available without subscribing or even registering. This material does not include any of the detailed product reviews or positioning analyses. The reason for providing it is to allow non-subscribers to get some value from the site and to get a feel for the style, quality and depth of the overall site. It also ensures that The OLAP Report is noticed by search engines like Google. There are no restrictions on linking to these pages from other sites.

Can I have a free preview or trial of the subscriber material?

Yes, you can register for access to a small subset of the subscriber-only material. This allows you to assess the style and level of detail provided, though in some cases, the preview material is older than that available to subscribers.

Click here to request access to the free trial.

Does The OLAP Report include information on OLAP applications as well as technologies?

Yes, right from the first edition in 1995, The OLAP Report has included reviews on horizontal analytical applications, particularly in the financial consolidation and budgeting areas. We regard these as typical applications of OLAP technology and therefore a good fit in The OLAP Report. The OLAP Report also has general information on a range of other analytical applications based on OLAP technology. However, it does not include reviews of vertical applications, such as those used in banking, transport, etc, as they are too specialized.

Which products are included in The OLAP Report?

You can always find which products are reviewed in The OLAP Report by looking at the products index . This lists all the reviewed products, including the version number, date when the review was last revised and the length of the review. Some of the minor or discontinued products have 'frozen' reviews (indicated with an ice cube icon: ), meaning that the current review will not be updated again, but is kept in the online archive.

Can I buy individual product reviews?

No, The OLAP Report is meant to be used as a whole. For example, even if you are using it for a single selection project, you might use several of the analysis sections, and then look at reviews of several competing products, including comparing their scores in key areas. You may also want to look at relevant case studies, none of which would be possible if you only had access to a single review. Of course, it is also true that most subscribers are only interested in a subset of the material in The OLAP Report, and the subscription price takes this into account.

How are products chosen for inclusion in The OLAP Report?

The most obvious requirement is that they must include OLAP capabilities; we are often approached by vendors of BI tools with little or no OLAP functionality, but have to refuse them. For a guide to OLAP requirements, see the section in The OLAP Report that defines OLAP.

It is also necessary that the vendor be prepared to cooperate with us in producing a tough, impartial review; we would not be able to guarantee accuracy without such cooperation. Vendors must be prepared to be open about how their products work, how they are priced, etc, and if they are not prepared to disclose such information, we cannot include them.

Beyond that, we take account of market demand; products with fewer than ten sites in production, or which are not actively marketing in the US or UK, would not normally be reviewed, even if the vendors are keen to be included.

Does The OLAP Report provide a good introduction to OLAP for a novice?

No, The OLAP Report is not aimed at the many people who have just heard of OLAP and want a basic introduction to the topic. There are many other sites on the Web (typically from consultants and vendors) that provide this function, and there are also books available. The OLAP Report is aimed at organizations with a professional interest in OLAP (buying or selling OLAP products, implementing OLAP applications or investing in OLAP vendors), and they are assumed to already have a basic knowledge of the concept.

Seven years of printed editions of The OLAP Report, from 1995 to 2001, before it went purely on-line.

Is The OLAP Report available in hardcopy form?

The OLAP Report began in 1995 as a conventional 520-page printed report, but it grew too bulky and hard to update in that form, so from 2002 it became an online-only resource. The final printed edition in 2001 had 678 densely-packed pages, without even including all of the material available on the Web site. Now that The OLAP Report is Web-only, it includes many more screen shots, and can take advantage of color and links. It also has an efficient automatic site index , available to both subscribers and non-subscribers (so even non-subscribers can check on the contents).

Does The OLAP Report Web site require a particular Web browser?

This site is intended to provide useful information quickly and conveniently, not to be a test site or demonstration of the latest browser technology. It deliberately uses no frames, Java, ActiveX or plug-ins and few scripts, but it still will not display properly if used with old browsers or on machines with less than 16-bit color. Unlike with many other over-designed Web sites, you are always free to vary font size to suit your screen or printer (for example, by using <Ctrl> <Mouse wheel> with modern mice and IE).

We find that it displays most accurately with Internet Explorer 4 or later, but Netscape Navigator or Opera also display most pages successfully (though sometimes with a slightly different look). We recommend at least 1024x768 screen resolution with 16-bit color, although higher resolutions and more colors are obviously preferable (the pages are usually tested on IE6, using up to 1600x1200 resolution and 24-bit color). For best printed output, you will probably want to reduce the font size before printing.

Is The OLAP Report available in languages other than English?

The original printed edition of The OLAP Report was translated into a French edition. Now, however, The OLAP Report is too large, is updated too often and the content is too technical, for translated editions to be feasible. It is therefore now only available in this English-language form.

When was the last edition published and when is the next edition?

The OLAP Report is not a single document, but is a large Web site containing well over 100 sections. Some of these could be regarded as large reports in their own right, with the equivalent of over 50 printed pages. These sections are updated separately, and each shows the date when it was last revised. Typically, at least one of these sections will be updated every week, so there is no concept of an 'edition' for the site as a whole.

How has the OLAP report helped you to select the software you use?

As they say, "Truth has many faces and any one of them alone is a lie". When vendors of OLAP products are just interested in pushing the positive points of their products, where does one turn to for the full picture? It's The OLAP Report, which shows each product in the correct light, warts and all.
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Does The OLAP Report contain material from elsewhere?

No, all material in The OLAP Report was written specially for it. For example, although all vendors produce case studies and white papers, The OLAP Report does not include any such material. We even try to avoid using vendors' standard architectural diagrams, screen shots, etc; information of this nature in The OLAP Report is usually prepared specially.

How is The OLAP Report rated compared with other analyst research?

The best quantitative evidence is from user surveys asking about influences on OLAP purchase. Among many other things, The OLAP Survey 2 asked respondents about their use of industry analysts when selecting OLAP products. Of those who had already bought an OLAP product, industry analysts were seen as an important influence by 38.2 percent of respondents (behind only previous experience and internet research), and among those who used industry analyst research, The OLAP Report was ranked a strong second behind Gartner, with 24.1 percent finding it the most useful source.

How is The OLAP Report related to The OLAP Survey? Do I get The OLAP Survey as a subscriber to The OLAP Report?

The contents of the two resources are quite different and they are designed to complement each other. Both are about OLAP, and are vendor-independent, but the content and research methods are entirely different.

The OLAP Report is mainly qualitative, expert assessment of products and technologies, whereas The OLAP Survey is a quantitative analysis of the detailed experiences of hundreds of OLAP users. Unlike The OLAP Report, it has no vendor involvement as research is conducted only with user organizations. It does not include product reviews, case studies, etc. The OLAP Report is delivered via the Web and is constantly updated, whereas The OLAP Survey is published periodically in the form of a discrete report, available in printed, soft copy and data mart formats.

The OLAP Report is published by Optima Publishing and The OLAP Survey by Survey.com, though Optima also acts as a distributor outside North America. The OLAP Report subscribers should therefore not expect free access to The OLAP Survey results, apart from the occasional quotes that are included. Equally, The OLAP Survey buyers do not get access to The OLAP Report contents.

This page is part of the free content of The OLAP Report, but ten times more information is available to subscribers, including reviews of products from all the vendors whose results are analyzed on this page. You can register for access to a preview of some of the subscriber-only material in The OLAP Report or subscribe on-line.