Using Excel as Mid-Tier Level.

[hdwsimon]

We are an Educational Institution with an Oracle based DW containing (Student, financial, HR data) and are looking into various options on how to build out the BI/OLAP environment. In addition to possibly going with a single vendor we’re looking at some “piece-meal” options.

We were wondering if members have some experiences specifically using Excel (2003, or more importantly 2007) at the Mid-Tier level.

Some of the questions we have are around
Security: how did you restrict access to data based on who the user access?
Adoption: even though Excel is a standard office tool, how easy was it for users to become familiar Using it as the Mid-tier interface?
Generation: did excel supersede another tool, or was it introduced as the visualization for another tool (if so which one and why choose Excel).
Pain: was there any painful lessons learned.

Thanks in advance

 

[johnherman]

At one job, we used Excel to create pivot tables against cubes created using Microsoft Analysis (OLAP). Excel was being used in addition to other activies, such as Brio, Cognos, and Crystal. Analysis Services allows security to the cell level in the cube, so security can be managed (or micro-managed) as appropriate.

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The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was - Steven Wright

 

[hdwsimon]

thanks for the reply, I wonder if the same is true of the others major player, Hyperion, Oracle, Business Objects etc...