Recently we worked with a customer to replace Oracle’s OBIEE with Microsoft’s SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services). This client engagement was focused on three main areas of concern. The main driver was the client’s very specific branding requirements centered around its image. OBIEE was not able to provide an end product that was compatible with the branding on the client’s digital and physical media. The client was also concerned with what they perceived as a large maintenance burden of the environment. This consisted of expending developer resources to perform system upgrades and patches, thus reducing the amount of developer time available to perform actual development. And lastly, they felt that it was difficult to support development on multiple platforms. Since they already had a footprint of the Microsoft BI stack, they felt that their ability to leverage their developers across development tools would be enhanced, and make it easier for them to acquire resources from the marketplace.
The engagement consisted of the client selecting several reports, each with unique formatting challenges. Prototypes were developed allowing the client to not only evaluate the look and feel, but to also gauge the overall effort to replace their existing reports.
After interacting with the SSRS reports, the client felt like they could achieve what they wanted in terms of look and feel, and gain the extra bonuses of cost savings in licensing fees and performing updates, make better use of existing development staff by leveraging their knowledge of the Microsoft toolset, and improve their ability to locate developers with the appropriate skillset.
Check out this YouTube video to hear the whole story straight from the client.
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