…………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………..
1

Client Summary
NYU Stern School of Business (Stern School) is one of the top business schools in the United
States. As such, Stern School needs to manage a wealth of information related to various aspects of students and staffs’ life such as admissions, registration, bursars, human resources, career development and alumnae involvement.
Historically, Stern School databases were developed independently of each other to streamline a single administrative function such as admissions, HR, students registration, students financial information, executive MBAs, alumnae, and so on. Different technologies and
RDBMSs were used for each database.
While Stern School needs to maintain seven distinct databases, each database is comparatively not big. For example, Admission’s DB of Stern has had ¼ million records, student’s DB 300,000 + records, alumnae’s DB are 70,000+ records, and HR DB 1000-2000 records.
The seven databases are Admission DB (SMS – Student Marketing System), EX MBA
DB (Executive MBA), Student DB (AIS-Administration Information System), Office of Career
Development DB (OCD), Ex Develop DB (Continuing Education), DOTS Alumnae DB and HR
DB.
Figure 1:
Admissions DB
SMS (Student Marketing
System)
SQL 6.4
Contains Application information, recommenders and such.
Reports are created using
MS Access
Ex MBA
Ex Devel
My SQL
OCD (Office of Carreer
Development)
4GL
AIS (Administration
Information System)
Ingress 2
List of all students sonce
1989. Contains course information, enrollment, grades, bio, financials,
Register, Bursar, Advising data and such
Reports are created using
C
HR DB
Access
Contains information about
Stern administrators and staff
DOTS
Alumnae DB
SQL 7.0
2

Current Issues
Currently Stern School faces a few issues that it wants to address:

Database access is not uniform. Some reports are implemented using MS Access, some using C, and some using Access and Java.

Reports are often received in a hard copy format and subsequently typed into other system. Same information needs to be entered multiple times in several databases.

New custom reports take weeks of programming effort and are not re-usable

Changes in business rules result in a need to re-write queries that are scattered across many report layers. In effect, reports are scattered in all layers, that makes reports hard to maintain, since many queries have to be adjusted, and they are interconnected.

While it is easy to extract data from a single database, it is challenging to extract and relate data from multiple databases simultaneously. Many reports require information from multiple sources.
The customer wants to achieve higher degrees of integration of databases, establish a uniform
“Stern way” of reporting, and find a way to encapsulate business logic so that reports become more maintainable and re-usable.
Achieving that will allow Stern to

Introduce a common set of tools

Save time and money on training

Extract, process and present information to end users faster

Provide high-level integration of Stern databases by being able to extract and process data from multiple databases.

Implement custom reports faster, either by database users or by Stern IS staff.
Project Goal
The goal of the project is to evaluate various report writing tools and to make a recommendation to Stern. The recommended tool must be able to integrate with all the databases and must provide a common standard “Stern way” of reporting.
3

The following is a list of functional and non-functional requirements that we gathered during client interviews.
Functional Requirements

Tool must be able to access multiple data sources simultaneously.
Some reports require joining data from several databases. An example of such report: Are there are Stern
Alumnae (Alumnae DB) who were recommenders for Stern applicant (Admissions DB) who can participate in a recruiting event (Office of Career Services DB) that I can contact in Merrill Lynch?

Tool must be able to join/relate data from different databases based on some key.
Figure 2:
Admissions DB (D1)
Applicant SSN Last Name
123-45-6789 Smith
555-33-6677 Goldberg
456-78-9101 Doe
HS GPA
First Name
John
Arthur
Jane
SSN
123-45-6789
555-33-6677
456-78-9101
GPA
3.7
3.6
3.8
SAT SSN
123-45-6789
555-33-6677
456-78-9101
V
520
600
650
M
640
720
550
Total
1160
1320
1200
SQL
AIS Database(D2)
STUDENT SSN Last Name
123-45-6789 Smith
555-33-6677 Goldberg
456-78-9101 Doe
G3812 SSN Grade
123-45-6789 B-
555-33-6677 A
456-78-9101 A-
G3033 SSN Grade
123-45-6789 B+
555-33-6677 A-
456-78-9101 A-
First Name
John
Arthur
Jane
Custom Report
SSN
D1.Applican
t.Last Name
555-33-6677 Goldberg
456-78-9101 Doe
D1.Applica
nt.First
Name
Arthur
Jane
D2.G3812.G
rade
A
A-
D1.SAT.M
720
550

If Stern accepts our report writing tool recommendation and deploys the tool, Stern will probably want to migrate most of existing reports to a new tool. Thus our Tool should make it easy to migrate existing reports and should try to minimize migration time.

Tool should be able to connect to multiple databases simultaneously using dedicated login names and passwords.
4

Non Functional Requirements

Tool must be able to extract data from legacy RDBMS such as SQL Server 6.4 and 7.0. It is preferable for report writing tool to natively extract data from Ingress database.
However, it is not a firm requirement since there is a workaround. Stern MIS department has a Seagate which can extract data from Ingress and export it into an SQL Server format.

Reports must be generated in real-time: 2-3 minutes at most

Tool must potentially be deployable on the Web
In order to receive a serious consideration, a tool must meet all of the functional requirements and achieve as many as possible of non-functional requirements. It should also be upgradeable and be issued by a developer that has a record of acceptance in the industry. Ideally, the tool will also be easy to use and come at a reasonable cost.
5

After meetings with the Stern MIS department, we have come up with a list of reporting tools that are possible candidates for further evaluation. All of the following tools come from established companies that have a good track record and are likely to provide service, support, and upgrades in the future. The list includes Microsoft Access, Microsoft Visual Studio, Crystal
Report, Brio Reports, Cognos Impromptu, Acumen, and ClearPath.
As we have established, the ability of the reporting tool to access and combine data from multiple data sources is the crucial factor in the report writing tool evaluation process. Therefore, as the first step in the selection process we set out to analyze each tool’s database access capability, as well as each tool’s architecture for integrating data from various data sources.
Design, implementation and generation of reports should be done in a user-friendly manner. Therefore, look and feel of the program is important, since users who are not experienced programmers will do many reports.
A detailed analysis of each tool’s database access capability as well as data integration architecture follows.
Database Connectivity Matrix
Native SQL
MS Access
Server connectivity
X
MS .NET
VisualStudio
X
X
Excel
CrystalReport
Brio
X
X
X
Non-native
SQL Server connectivity
X
X
X
Native
Ingres connectivity
Non-native
Ingres connectivity
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Impromptu
Acumen
X X X X
ClearPath X X
* Non-native connectivity relies on implementations of open database connectivity standards such as ODBC, JDBC, OLE DB.
In the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) architecture, an application (such as Access or a
Microsoft Visual Basic program) connects to the ODBC Driver Manager, which in turn uses a
6

specific ODBC driver (for example, Microsoft SQL ODBC driver) to connect to a data source such as SQL Server database. Access uses ODBC data sources to connect to data external to
Access that does not have built-in drivers.
Open Database Connectivity is a standard through which many different types of data can be accessed by a single application. If a DBMS simply provides a means by which ODBC can access its data, the DBMS data becomes an ODBC data source. Any application that can communicate with ODBC (such as Seagate Crystal Reports) will instantly have access to any
ODBC data source.
To connect to these data sources, one must install the appropriate ODBC driver on the computer that contains the data source. Then, he must define a data source name (DSN) by using either the ODBC Data Source Administrator to store the connection information in the Windows registry or a DSN file, or a connect string in Visual Basic code to pass the connection information directly to the ODBC Driver Manager.
Advantages
The biggest advantage to accessing data through ODBC is the ability to access a wide range of data with just one interface.
Disadvantages
Because of the many layers involved in passing data through ODBC from a database to an application, ODBC data sources often take more time to return data than other directly accessed data sources.
Accessing SQL Server: There are two ways for the Access database to access data stored in
SQL Server.
The most seamless way is to use the new Microsoft DATA Engine. Microsoft DATA
Engine (MSDE) provides an easy way for Access to extract and manipulate data from Microsoft
SQL Server. The MSDE interface can be built once and will work for accessing both SQL
Server and Access databases.
The second method is to use the Microsoft Access Jet data engine, which also provides capabilities to retrieve and manipulate data from SQL Server as well as abilities for bi-directional data replication between MS Access and SQL Server. Microsoft recommends using the MSDE engine for Access because of its seamless integration with SQL Server.
7

Accessing Ingres: MS Access can retrieve data from Ingres via drivers implemented with OLE
DB standards. OLE DB is a specification for a set of data access interfaces designed to enable a multitude of data stores, of all types and sizes, to work seamlessly together.
Another way of accessing Ingres data from MS Access is to use ODBC drivers. ODBC, just like OLE DB is a generic database access interface. It’s more widely used outside of
Microsoft products. There is performance degradation when using these generic database access drivers because the client doesn’t directly interact with the server. Every interaction needs to be brokered through either ODBC or OLE DB drivers.
Usage:
To run a query in MS Access, one needs to select fields from appropriate tables and then refine their relationship in the MS Query window. In order to run queries accessing several databases, the appropriate tables must be present in MS Access file, and such tables must be linked to the tables in external databases. User must utilize the Import or Link Tables commands on the Get
External submenu of the File menu. A query can then be constructed as if tables were part of the
Access database.
Microsoft Access uses different icons to represent linked tables and tables that are stored in the current database. If the user deletes the icon for a linked table, he or she deletes the link to the table, not the external table itself. Here is an example of MS Access file that accesses dBase and Paradox databases by means of linked tables.
There are several ways to create a new query. A novice user will click on the queries tab and then select Create query by using wizard . He or she will be given a choice of tables or queries from which to select fields for the query. The selection is done via graphical interface in a very intuitive manner. Or, the user may elect to go directly to making a report by using a report wizard. Field selection will be done in the same intuitive way.
8

Lets assume that most tables come form the same
(primary) database.
However, we have a table (Table1) that is linked externally to a different database. The primary key in
Table1 is ID , which corresponds to primary key in
Categories table called CategoryID . When the user attempts to run a query combining these two tables from different databases, MS Access will issue an error message that fields are unrelated and asks user to clarify a relationship. The clarification can be done with a simple point-and-click in the window pictured here.
Such clarified relationship will be saved for future queries and reports. A query such as the one listed below can now be automatically generated. If necessary, the user can manually adjust it.
SELECT [Categories].[CategoryID], [Categories].[CategoryName], [Table1].[ID], [Table1].[Field1]
FROM Table1 INNER JOIN Categories ON [Table1].[ID] =[Categories].[CategoryID];
As we have mentioned above, a user could have chosen to run a report, rather than a query. In this case, the result would look as follows:
Table1
Category ID Category Name
1 Beverages
Monday, March 25, 2002
ID
1
Field1
45634
Page 1 of 1
Note that Category Name comes from the primary database, while Field1 comes from an external database. The matching could be done because we have indicated that ID corresponds to
Category ID.
9

Connectivity
The following is the list provided in the MS Access documentation
Data sources Microsoft Access can import or link
Data source
Microsoft Access database
Microsoft Access project
Version or format supported
2.0, 7.0/95, 8.0/97, 9.0/2000
9.0/2000
DBASE
Paradox, Paradox for Windows
III, III+, IV, and 5
7 (Linking (read/write) requires Borland Database Engine
4.x or later )
3.
x , 4.
x , and 5.0
8.0 (Linking (read/write) requires Borland Database
Engine 4.x or later )
3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 7.0/95, 8.0/97, and 9.0/2000 Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets
(Linking is read-only)
Microsoft Exchange
Delimited text files
Fixed-width text files
HTML
.wks, .wk1, .wk3, and .wk4
All versions
All character sets
All character sets
1.0 (if a list)
2.0, 3.
x (if a table or list)
SQL tables, Microsoft Visual
FoxPro, and data from other programs and databases that support the ODBC protocol
Visual FoxPro 2.
x , 3.0, 5.0, and 6.
Microsoft Knowledge Base . x ( import only)
For an up-to-date list of supported ODBC drivers, see the
Overall Tool Evaluation: MS Access offer the advantage of being familiar to users. It also provides tools for extensive data manipulation once the report is run. However, it tends to be more cumbersome to set up. A rule of thumb is setting a new, solid, extensive report in MS
Access will take a day, including some testing.
MS Visual Studio and .NET: Same as MS Access. Using the same database access platform.
Crystal Reports connects to almost any database available on the market. There are two methods of connecting to a database, Data File and SQL/ODBC. The first method is designed for the simpler, PC-based databases, such as dBASE and MS Access. The other method is to use ODBC
10

to connect to any database that has an ODBC connection. Some of the databases in this group are
MS Access, Oracle, Sybase, and MS SQL Server.
Accessing SQL Server: Crystal Reports has built-in capabilities to access SQL Server natively via the DataDirect facility in SQL Server. As specified in the Crystal Reports documentation, the tool has direct access to databases created by Microsoft's SQL Server, versions 6.0 and 6.5.
The PDSSQL.DLL file installed with the program translates requests to the SQL server and then returns data from the server. It communicates directly with the Microsoft SQL Server driver
MSDBLIB.DLL.
In addition, it also supports OLE DB as well as ODBC drivers that can talk to SQL Server nonnatively. With ODBC drivers available for most common DBMS products, the range of data types that Seagate Crystal Reports can use is almost unlimited.
Accessing Ingres: None. It doesn’t appear that Crystal Reports has either native or non-native driver support for communicating with Ingres.
Usage
Crystal Reports works by connecting to one or more databases. Using these connections, Crystal
Reports draws in the values from database fields user selects and uses them in the report, either in their original form or as part of a formula that generates more complex values.
As one can see from the exhibit below, Crystal Reports provides easy to use Explorerlike menu that lists all the databases user is connected to. The user can navigate through databases, tables, and fields much the same way as he would navigate through directories and file. When a custom basket of fields is selected, a report can be run.
11

If linking between primary keys is unclear, the user can use a simple graphic interface similar to that in MS Access to clarify the relationships.
In the example here, two tables come from a foreign exchange trading database via ODBC connection, while the other three tables belong to a MS Access database.
12

Finally a report can be generated by an automatically created SQL query. Of course, additional formatting can be done on the report. Also, the query can be examined and adjusted as necessary. Since Seagate Crystal Reports uses SQL to communicate with ODBC, SQL programmers and Database Administrators can view and edit the SQL statements sent to ODBC, controlling exactly how data is retrieved from the data source.
Connectivity
The following sample list of data sources can access is provided in the Crystal Reports documentation. Of course the list is by no means exhaustive, since any database management system that implements ODBC interface can be accessed by Crystal Reports.
Common direct access database formats ODBC data sources
Direct Access - dBASE, FoxPro, Clipper ODBC access – Access
Direct Access –Paradox
Direct Access –Microsoft Access
Direct Access – Jet
Direct Access – DAO
ODBC Access – Excel
ODBC Access – INFORMIX
ODBC Access - SQL Databases through INTERSOLV DataDirect
ODBC Access - INTERSOLV DataDirect Library
Direct Access – Btrieve
Direct Access - Btrieve DDF files
ODBC Access - DataDirect Library vs. ODBC
ODBC Access - DataDirect Library structure
13

Direct Access – Exchange ODBC Access - INTERSOLV DataDirect Library databases
Direct Access - ACT!
Direct Access - Oracle 7
Direct Access - Microsoft SQL Server 6.x
Direct Access - Sybase System 10/11
Direct Access - Arbor Essbase
Direct Access - NT Event Log
ODBC Access - Visual FoxPro
ODBC Access - Lotus Notes
Overall Tool Evaluation: Crystal Reports is a simple to use, effective tool that was designed specifically to work with multiple databases.
The powerful SQL query engine in Brio Intelligence processes complex queries against a wide array of relational and multi-dimensional data sources - with simple drag-and-drop functionality.
With both browser-based and client/server tools, users are able to query data from multiple data sources in a single document - on-the-fly or from pre-built data models.
Accessing SQL Server: Brio Reports is able to connect to
SQL Server via both native and non-native drivers. It can also use the SQR reporting server facility for sharing data across two database platforms. Primary key matching facility is similar to that of Access or Crystal Reports.
Accessing Ingres: Brio Reports has the ability to connect to Ingres databases at least nonnatively. Will need to confirm whether they also support native Ingres database drivers.
Overall Evaluation: Brio offers simple access to information that drives business analysis. Using the drag-and-drop interface, data models can be created from relational and multi-dimensional data sources. Relationships are clearly shown as the model is built and the layout can be customized for relevance, look-and-feel, or level of detail.
14

Accessing SQL Server: Impromptu supports both native and non-native database connections to
SQL Server based on the database connectivity HTML attached with this report (see attached cognos_dbsheet.html and cognos_Impromptu.pdf).
Accessing Ingres: Impromptu supports both native and non-native database connections to CA-
Ingres databases according to the features spreadsheet.
Usage: Impromptu introduces an important concept called Catalog . Catalog is a file (with the extension .cat) that contains all the information necessary for Impromptu to access and retrieve information from a relational database. A catalog does not store data, but it does provide
Impromptu with a business view of the data. A catalog also contains information about what database to access, where the database is stored, and how the tables in the catalog are joined. In other words, Cognos claims to provide an additional level of abstraction: instead of thinking of data in terms of tables and databases, the user can think in terms of business information.
15

Reports show data from the database. The Impromptu catalog contains all the information necessary for Impromptu to access and retrieve information from a relational database. Every time user opens a report, Impromptu updates it with the most recent data. Subsequently, the report’s appearance can be improved by rearranging and aligning parts of a report, changing the font, applying borders and patterns, setting margins, and so on.
One of the ways to create a report is to use the Report Wizard. It asks what type of report user wants to create, a list report or a crosstab report. The wizard then prompts for the title of your report, the data to include, the data items to group (if applicable), and how to filter the data.
The Report Wizard does the rest.
Reporting infrastructure: Cognos seems to be a more powerful tool that has not only simple reporting capabilities but also complex analytical abilities. For example, one can use Cognos to do trending analysis and data mining. However, because of all these capabilities, Cognos works best in a data warehouse environment even if one simply just wants the reporting capabilities and not analytical capabilities. Even though Cognos has recently made an effort to simplify their tools just for reporting purposes, it remains to be more complicated to implement than other simpler reporting tools like Actuate.
Report delivery: Cognos can generate HTML reports but can't generate Excel reports natively.
All users who wish to view their reports in Excel will need to import the report from Cognos to
Excel in a CSV format.
Security: Cognos maintains a layer of security for tools that are different from existing security mechanism for the underlying data sources.
When a new user needs to access a Cognos report, he must be added to the
Congos security layer first.
As you can see, in addition to logging into the database, the user has to log into the catalog.
16

Overall Tool Evaluation: If Cognos delivers on its promise to abstract business data from database layout, it will be an excellent reporting tool for non-programmers. Additional evaluation is required to make a judgment on such promise.
Accessing SQL Server: Actuate supports both native and non-native database connections to
SQL Server.
Accessing Ingres: Actuate supports non-native database connections to CA-Ingres databases using the ODBC standard.
Reporting infrastructure: Actuate has a simple reporting infrastructure but limited analytical abilities. All data needed for reporting is consolidated (either real time or batch) in the central
Actuate reporting server. End users access reports only from this central server. A data warehousing environment is not needed. However, Actuate tools have only limited analytical functions such as simple drill downs and field linking.
Report delivery: Actuate has built-in abilities to generate reports in Excel or HTML formats.
17

Security infrastructure: Actuate has a Open Security architecture that relies on existing security mechanism that's in place. Cognos, on the other hand, requires the maintenance of a separate security layer. However, in the case that users reside in different securities environment and need data from different data sources, a separate security layer will still need to be maintained for Actuate.
Overall Evaluation: Actuate is an attractive reporting tool because it offers simpler reporting architecture and native reporting generation capabilities in Excel and HTML
Accessing SQL Server: Not available. Data is imported into acumen indirectly using a ASCII text file.
Accessing Ingres: Not available. Data is imported into acumen indirectly using a ASCII text file.
Accessing SQL Server: Can use the UniAccess ODBC software to non-natively connect to MS
SQL Server.
Accessing Ingres: : Can use the UniAccess ODBC software to non-natively connect to Ingres.
Overall Evaluation: ClearPath appears to be more of an information architecture than a reporting tool.
18

After an extensive examination and analysis of all the tools listed in this report we have concluded that, with the exception of Acumen, all of the tools meet the basic criteria of being able to run uniform reports from multiple databases including SQL servers, handle multiple database log-ins and passwords, migrate current reports easily, and posses fast query run time performance. If the primary criterion is a tool with complex analytical abilities, then either
Cognos or Crystal Report is a good fit. They are powerful tools that are also easy to learn and use. However, they may require an extra effort in installation, set up, and maintenance. If the preference is an easy to implement reporting tool with limited analytical abilities built-in into the tool, then Brio or Actuate is a better choice.
Potential Future steps:
1.
Evaluate Cognos’ claim to provide Business Data for the company as abstracted from a particular database.
2.
Run reports in Crystal to create sample reports accessing data from different databases.
3.
Examine running version of Actuate.
4.
Read appropriate documentation on encapsulation of business logic in various reporting tools.
5.
Examine cost aspects of the tools.
19