AS/400 Query & Reporting Tools

[TimboA]

My company is in the process of buying a CRM package that runs on the IBM iSeries Server running AS/400.
My remit is MIS and Reporting. I know that AS/400 comes with it's own query tool (AS/400 Query), but from what I've seen this is totally "green screen" based and not very user friendly (plus the output is very basic)

Does anyone know of any GUI type reporting tools that can sit on AS/400 and can be used to produce pretty presentation quality reports and graphs etc...?

Thanks in advance !

 

[jrjuiliano]

Don't be fooled. The "green screen" query tool is a very powerful tool!

I think you can use Client Access Express to create new queries also, or you can export the data to a PC and manipulate it from there. J.R. Juiliano
Information Systems Specialist
Tri-City Emergency Medical Group

 

[TimboA]

jrjuiliano,

Thanks for your reply, and I agree that the AS/400 Query tool is very powerful. However,my quest is to allow my average User to run their own pre-templated reports therfore negating the need for further manipulation on their PC - most of my Users can only just use a PC (bless 'em!), and I cannot forsee them manipulating data in Excel or Access or Crystal Reports to produce the quality of reports they need to distribute to coroprate customers. Therefore, I need to look into GUI reporting tools for AS/400.....

 

[QUSER]

Our company is using Showcase Stragegy for that purpose. The Marketing and Finance departments seem to like it. I've also heard of Cognos, which is also supposed to be good.

 

[QUSER]

Sorry, that was Showcase Strategy.

 

[stevejc]

To keep it "cheap", add the AS/400 data access tool (Part of CA Express) to Excel. You can create templates that do your queries within Excel, and from there, it's just plain old PC/Excel stuff to produce your your reports and graphs. You can even have the 400 update excel in "real time" by setting an automatic refresh rate.

Imagine the surprise of your CEO when he can watch daily sales (or whatever) updating hourly on his PC.

 

[ktw]

There are many many reporting tools out there. A couple come to mind right away. Check out a product called SEQUEL from Advanced Systems Concepts. Their web site is:

http://www.asc-iseries.com

This is an SQL based PC tool that makes nice reports in Windows format.
If you are a good programmer and know SQL you can use a free tool called Net.Data. Actually this is is a programming language built around HTML. You can quickly design web browser based reports with it.
If you are a really serious report designer, then get Crystal Enterprise. It can build OLAP cubes and distribute your AS/400 reports by e-mail, web, and others.

 

[Skittle]

My company has set up a data warehouse file on the AS400 we are exporting to a Microsoft SQL server every night.

The next step is to use ASP on our intranet to interface 'English Query' requests for data. English Query allows you to type in simple requests in plain english that are converted to SQL. Our marketing department are very excited about it. I haven't got it working yet but the concepts seem straight forward.

 

[pcawdron]

How simple a solution do you want? And how much are you prepared to pay for it?

If you're got a decent IT budget look at web intelligence by BusinessObjects. It can be used by the most illiterate (sp?) manager to design a report in minutes.

It's like Crystal Reports for Dummies, producing complex reports with ease.

 

[TimboA]

Thanks everyone for your valuable input. I've been looking at the SEQUEL software (from ASC) and it looks to fit the bill !! It allows me to create predefined SQL views (with parameters if necessary) and via the SEQUEL Web Interface Module, my Users can then run the views via a browser.

Thanks again.

TimboA

 

[SetiYeti]

Just to round off the discussion...
We use Business Objects to query out AS/400 based BPCS data and most users find it easy to use. The caveat is to keep your universes down to sensible sizes. It's tempting to keep adding to them but be warned!