Blog: Beyondintelligence.org

UNDERSTANDING OLAP TOOLS – THE BASICS OF THIS BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOFTWARE

Online Analytical Processing or OLAP tools have been some of the most widely accepted and used systems in the

field of business intelligence and relevant data processing. These systems are used in various formats across the

world in business organisations looking to collect, store and analyse the data generated by their organisations and

use it for relevant decision making.

OLAP tools have been designed to help users in interacting with and analyzing multidimensional data from multiple

perspectives. This business intelligence software combines effective data processing with data mining and rational

reporting functions to make it a complete and comprehensive solution for the information needs of an enterprise.

Key analytical operations performed by these tools are- consolidation, drill-down and slice 'n' dice. Consolidation

involves aggregating data and pieces of information from multiple facets of an enterprise for effective analysing. The

drilling down operation focuses on sifting out relevant information from the large volumes of data and sorting it

from multiple viewpoints and objectives. The slice 'n' dice technique allows users to remove (slice) a particular data

set to allow closer inspection (dicing) of the selected data set. These three operations make OLAP a more versatile

and flexible business intelligence software as compared to its counterparts that are available in the market.

OLAP allows the users to generate ad-hoc queries and complex, analytical processing requests, helping them to work

with a multi-dimensional data model that effectively supports their information needs. This business intelligence

software has made quite a name for itself in the industry.