Accessing Cubes from Excel 2007

Cubes are built over an OLAP database to enhance the performance of data gathering. Because of the architecture of a cube, users can generate reports from the. However, if you are using a report tool like SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), there will be times where a user will require a new report or modifications to an existing report.  This task is not only time consuming but also is not necessarily the best use of your time.

If you can provide reporting access to cubes from Microsoft Excel, then the report building can be performed by and end user. Most of the time, using this method they can build their own report the way they want.

With the improvements in Excel 2007, there are a number of new fancy features that can be used with cubes.

Please note that this article does not cover how you can build SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) cubes. If you want that information, sorry you are reading a wrong article.