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Ad Hoc Query & Reporting Thread

Tool Recommendation

Ad Hoc Query & Reporting ThreadMarch 26, 2002

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Project Organization

Pre-Programmed Reporting ThreadFocused on the manipulation of pre-programmed

(canned) reports that are currently generated in IMPAC II

Ad Hoc Reporting ThreadFocused on allowing the NIH user community to

query the IMPAC II DB (OLTP & IRDB) to retrieve data on an ad hoc basis.

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Ad Hoc Q &R Team

Carol Martin, Group AdvocateKrishna Collie, AnalystJim Tucker, Analyst

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Executive Summary

User requirement – provide and support a desktop ad hoc query & reporting toolAnalysis – evaluated 4 COTS tools against stated requirements and tested using pre-defined report and selection criteria.Result - None of the tested tools met all of the ‘MUST’ criteria.Recommendation: Conduct user trial using Oracle Discoverer

(recommended for pre-pgm.reports)

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ObjectivesTo retrieve data from the IRDB current, history and frozen (PUB) files and/or the OLTP current files on an ad hoc basisTo produce formatted reports To export data to spreadsheet or ASCII delimited fileTo publish reports to the Web

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Categories of Evaluation Criteria Used

General Criteria – Must, Should, Could

Support and Maintenance Criteria

Security Criteria

Performance Metrics

Other Considerations

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Commercial Off-The-Shelf System Selection and Evaluation Technique (COSSET)

Report Findings

Conduct Product Evaluations

Develop Product Evaluation Tools

Identify CandidateProducts

Conduct Functional AnalysisAnd Determine Requirements

Perform Preliminary Vendor Survey

COSSET

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Functional Requirements

Ease of use by end user Allow users the ability to craft queries Allow users ability to save queries Export report to Excel and/or ASCII delimited file

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Technical Requirements

Must be easy to configure, use and maintain Ease of creating/maintaining meta-layerScalability across the enterpriseAbility to self-join table more than once and use the self-joined tables

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Architectural Issues

Integration into eRA enterprise Installation on Users’ Desktops Seat Licenses Web or Client/Server version?

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Vendor Survey

Market Leaders* Hummingbird COGNOS Business Objects ORACLE Discoverer

*(Gartner Group Survey)

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Finalists

While none of the tools met all ‘musts’, Discoverer merits careful consideration for following reasons: Discoverer selected for pre-programmed reports OER already owns licenses for Discoverer NCI staff successfully using tool for ad-hoc query Other new IMPAC II products available to assist

‘power users’: ICSTORe export custom hit list to Excel; Advanced

Query Pre-pgm. reports for user export/manipulation to be

developed.

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Product Evaluation

Queries: Complex Simple

Report Formatting Multi-lines per record Headers and Footers Borders, Colors, Shading, Fonts

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Results of Evaluation

Hummingbird Difficult to use Cannot sort in the report Must save query separately from

report in order to make changes Meta-layer setup difficult

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Results of Evaluation

Cognos Meta-layer setup difficult Can’t self join a table more than 1

time Net80 directory must be on local hard

drive After report is formatted, cannot add

another data item

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Results of Evaluation

Business Objects Can’t self join a table more than 1 time Not easy to add new data items to

formatted report Very cumbersome to format multi-line

report When partials results are returned, no

way to next batch of results

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Results of Evaluation

Oracle Discoverer Requires careful meta-layer design &

maintenance to facilitate ‘user friendliness’

Lacks advanced formatting capabilities Object terminology very confusing End-user training and support essential

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Recommendation

Conduct a “live” demo of Discoverer (IRDBDEV)Present demo to user groups RUG ePUG ADP/EP

Determine if their needs are satisfied by this toolGroup Advocate to continue evaluating other tools