In most organizations,
many information consumers need reports from business data, but relatively
few people understand the data structures necessary to build the reports.
SAS Web Report Studio bypasses the need to understand complex data
structures. SAS Web Report Studio provides an intuitive user interface
that enables users at all technical skill levels to create, view,
and explore centrally stored reports.
Easy querying
Specially prepared
information
maps (which are data sources in SAS Web Report Studio) provide a metadata (information)
layer between the nontechnical business user and the complexities of database structure
and
query languages. Authorized users that might be more advanced can access tables and cubes
directly. All
data sources contain
data items, which can refer to calculations or physical data (tables
or cubes).
Data items in information maps are described in common business terms that enable both casual
and professional report authors to easily build queries that return consistent results.
Reports can include query results from more than one
data source.
Easy report design
The casual report author
can use the five-step Report Wizard to design a basic report layout
with one table and one graph. More advanced report authors can use
the full-featured report editor to design more complex layouts, choosing
from two different types of tables and eight different types of graphs.
In addition, headers, footers, images, and text can be used to include
corporate standards, confidentiality messages, and even hyperlinks
in the report. Reports can contain multiple sections. Reports can
be rendered as needed for one-time use or stored in a common repository
for personal or shared access.
Easy analysis
Report authors can design reports that, by default,
filter, rank, and highlight the query results based on specified conditions. These features
and others are available to
report viewers, who can select options from menus and toolbars to customize the default
output. Additional options that can help you analyze report data include drilling
and expanding, sorting, and creating percent of total calculations.
Other basic reporting
tasks include printing, copying, moving, and exporting. Advanced tasks
include scheduling reports to run at a specified time (or times) and
distributing reports via e-mail as a PDF attachment or as an embedded
HTML file.