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| FileMaker Pro | |
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Tool Description |
A database creation and reporting tool for Windows and Macintosh platforms. |
| Strengths |
- Keyserved version 4.1 available on
Wellesley Windows and Macintosh computers. |
| Weaknesses | - Generally used for reporting
local data rather than that of a central database - Although this product includes the ability to design multi-table databases and set up detailed security, some users find that these more advanced features are less intuitive and flexible than those of other similar programs |
| Departments Using Tool | Widely used for stand-alone and small group multi-user databases (e.g. Information Services, Stone Center, Wellesley Centers for Women, Center for Work and Service, Residence, Alumnae Office). Server software has been purchased by some departments to increase speed, distribution and number of simultaneous connections. |
| Target Users | Departments and individuals who need to manage data locally. FileMaker can also be used with downloaded data from a central database, however this data will be independent from the live data. |
| Typical Training Path/Prerequisite | Report developers and report modifiers should complete Wellesley IS classes or equivalent, to get started: FileMaker Intro and FileMaker level 2. Training is available at local colleges (e.g. Harvard). Element K offers 3 levels of FileMaker Version 5 courses that are very close to the Wellesley supported version. Report Viewers should be able to navigate through prepared reports after demonstration by those who created the reports. |
| Support Available | Support is available from User Services through the computing help desk for stand-alone and multi-user databases, however users are responsible for building their own database. |
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Costs
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No cost for software that is part of the Welllesley standard package for Windows and Macintosh. Wellesley and Element K training are also at no cost to the user. Each full day of training at Harvard is $195. |
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IBI FOCUS |
| Tool Description | A powerful non-graphical programming tool available with the FOCUS database that has the ability to interface to an ORACLE database. |
| Strength |
- Capable of handling complex reports
with many table joins and advanced logic |
| Weaknesses |
- Steep learning curve for the report developer |
| Departments Using Tool | All administrative departments using Banner have libraries of reports written in FOCUS. The following departments store FOCUS programs are: Admissions, Alumnae Office, Bursar's Office, CWS, Dean of the College, Financial Aid, Finance, Human Resources, IS, Registrar, Resources. Many smaller departments use programs in the public Focus directory. The Budget department has many occasional users who access their budgets through a special Focus menu. The Registrar's office regularly produce FOCUS hold files (groups of populations) that are made available for many others to use with their reports. |
| Target Users Report developers | experienced programmers; Users - basic report viewers who can choose items from a menu and respond to prompts. FOCUS is not a good tool for a report modifier |
| Typical Training Path/ Prerequisite | Report Developer Courses at IBI, SCT. Due to the shortcomings of FOCUS, we do not expect to offer any classes at Wellesley. Experienced users can train other users. |
| Support Available | Database systems, SCT (very basic only), IBI (when problems are escalated through SCT), IBI/SCT consulting, SCT BREPORT e-mail listserv available as a First Class conference, IBI FOCUS FAQ. There is an excellent support web site developed by the Budget office. |
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Costs
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No initial cost for acquiring FOCUS software because the campus has paid for the software and support through our yearly contract with SCT. Training at IBI costs approximately $870 for a three-day beginners class, $990 for a three-day intermediate class and $990 for a three day advanced class. |
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Microsoft Access |
| Tool Description | A database creation and reporting tool for the Windows platform |
| Strengths | - Available on Wellesley Windows
computers - Mainstream product with many support avenues available - Fully functional relational database with lots of built in functions and wizards - Can be used to create very attractive and functional forms and reports - With some work by a report developer, report viewers and modifiers should have no trouble using this product in a very short period of time - Report developers with relational database experience will have no trouble learning how to use this tool |
| Weaknesses | - Can be quirky at times - Stability/performance when using ODBC to communicate with remote databases is questionable - No built in "drill down" functionality in queries/reports |
| Departments Using Too | The Admissions Office, Registrar's Office and Resources are currently using Access with Banner data (either directly against Banner tables or against a datamart). Other offices may be using it for stand-alone databases. |
| Target Users | Report developers are probably the only ones who would want to use this tool for creating reports/databases from scratch. Provided the developer has made the database or report user-friendly enough, all users should be able to "use" the report or database with minimal training. |
| Typical Training Path/ Prerequisite | Wellesley IS classes. Advanced training is widely available at outside vendors and other colleges. Element K training, books and videos are available. |
| Support Available | Support is available from User Services through the computing help desk however users are responsible for building their own stand-alone database. Because Access is so popular there are many public bulletin boards and other services available. |
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Costs
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No cost for software that is part of the Wellesley standard package for Windows. Wellesley and Element K training are also available at no cost to the user. Each full day of training at Harvard is $195. |
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Microsoft Excel |
| Tool Description | A database, spreadsheet and reporting tool for Windows and Macintosh platforms. |
| Strengths | - Version 97/98 available
on Wellesley Windows computers and Macintoshes - Easy to arrange data in a simple spreadsheet design, as well as sort, subtotal, and create pivot tables analyze data - Easy to export to other MS Office products - Can be used to create charts and graphs using a GUI wizard |
| Weaknesses | - Limited amount of data can
be stored in a user-friendly way - Good for reporting simple lists that need to be sorted or counted, but not at designing fancy presentations and formatted reports. - Microsoft Query can sometimes be cumbersome to use - ODBC (the connection to the Oracle database) functionality is inconsistent |
| Departments Using Tool | Widely used for financial reporting and analysis. Many departments keep stand-alone spreadsheets in Excel. |
| Target Users | Departments and individuals who want to analyze data locally. Would not be the best tool for reporting directly off the Datamart, but as a final step in data analysis with data obtained from the Datamart by a different tool. |
| Typical Training Path/ Prerequisite | Wellesley IS classes. Advanced training is widely available at outside vendors and other colleges. Element K training, books and videos are available. |
| Support Available | Excel 97/98 is supported by the IS Computing help desk There are also many experienced users in various offices at Wellesley. |
| Costs | No cost for software that is part of the Wellesley standard package for Windows and Macintosh. |
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Oracle Discoverer |
| Tool Description | An ad-hoc query and analysis tool that runs against a datamart-type environment. There are both client server and Web based versions of this tool. |
| Strengths | - Very easy to
learn - Reports can be generated directly from the tool with little to no formatting - Ability to drill up and down through the data to achieve more or less detail - Has a direct link to MS Excel that can be used for in depth analysis of data - Summary redirection makes reports run very quickly; also detects fantraps to prevent incorrectly written reports from running forever and consuming too many system resources - Can create folders that match the business needs of specific areas in a department and control security to each folder or report separately - Importing and Exporting of SQL - Can generate query statistics to see what fields users are using and which they are not - Ability to create hierarchies and relationships within the data. |
| Weaknesses | - Maintenance requires a department
to have a fairly technical support person to manage the "intermediate" datamart - Does not do sophisticated formatting as Oracle Reports does |
| Departments Using Tool | Human Resources, Dean of the College |
| Target Users | Report viewers, report modifiers, and report developers. Most PC and Macintosh users would have no problem using this tool as it is similar to many other Microsoft applications. This tool also has a viewer version that would allow low end users to only run saved reports. |
| Typical Training Path/ Prerequisite | The Administrator training is a three-day Oracle class that costs approximately $1320. The Discoverer Plus user (our report modifier) would attend a two-day Oracle course costing $1020. Oracle education classes for those administering the product. An in-house training session or tutorial by an end user or administrator would be enough to train the typical report viewer or report modifier. |
| Support Available | Oracle Corporation, Database Systems, Computer Based Training |
| Costs | Three types of licenses available: The administrative license (for the report developer who would become the Discoverer Data Administrator) comes as part of the Oracle Internet Developer Suite (IDS) and costs $5,000per person plus $750per year support. The report modifier license, which allows end users to create and manipulate reports within the environment set up by the administrator, costs $1,000 per person. Users who simply want to view or execute reports would do that using the Viewer license that comes as part of the Internet Application Server for which we have a campus license. It is our expectation that IS would pay for all of these licenses but due to their costs, would be looking to acquire them only for those who truly will use them. |
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Oracle Portal (formerly WebDB) |
| Tool Description | A browser based tool that can report directly against Oracle (or other database) tables, views, and stored functions, procedures and packages. Can also be used as a portal to get to otherreporting and development tools, with customized (by an end user staff) delivery depending upon login. |
| Strengths | - Very easy to use - Simple, straight forward wizards that allow users to start delivering information with ease - Web based, allows remote access to report viewing, report generation and report development - Works with Internet Explorer, Netscape, and other third party browser - Distributes creation and modifications to those who understand the business of the data - Works with OAS and supports SS (via OAS, IAS) |
| Weaknesses | Very complex reports and forms should be developed via other respective Oracle Products, but can be delivered with Portal |
| Departments Using Tool | IS/Database Systems, Alumnae Office |
| Target Users | Report viewers, modifiers, data miners and report developers |
| Typical Training Path/Prerequisite | This web-based product is easy to pick up after a few sessions with IS staff. Users can then gain experience on their own. |
| Support Available | Oracle Corporation, Database Systems, Online tutorials via Oracle, texts available at local bookstores. |
| Costs | This product comes as part of IDS (see above) at a cost of $5000 per report developer plus $750 in support. Staff can use and view this product from the Web through the use of Oracles Internet Application Server, which is part of a campus license. If the office has already purchased Oracle Discoverer or Oracle Reports, Oracle Portal would be part of this same suite of products. Training for Web Portal will be given by Database Systems. |
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Oracle Reports |
| Tool Description | A powerful report development tool that can create very complex reports. Oracle Reports includes eight Components: Project Builder, Form Builder, Report Builder, Graphics builder, Query Builder, Schema Builder, Procedure Builder, and Translation Builder. Composed of Object Navigator, Layout Model, Property Palette and PL/SQL Editor. Can also be used with Oracle Forms to create attractive front ends for report viewers. Talks directly the Oracle database via SQLnet. |
| Strengths | - Can build both
simple and extremely complex reports - User-friendly, especially to report writers who are already familiar with Oracle tools - For simple reports written against the Datamart, end-users need only point and click, yet it is powerful enough to take advantage of the most complex PL/SQL logic against multiple tables. - Flexibility in formatting data - End users can request information simply by clicking a link on a Web page - Supports multiple report types such as tables, matrices, group reports, and graphs, as well as combinations of these formats - Can build Web reports based on data dynamically served from the database - Has the familiar graphical user interface used by other Oracle Products such as Forms (used with Banner) and Discoverer |
| Weaknesses | - Has many features
such as report wizards, templates, data models, and layout models that have
been created to make report-writing easy. However, these features only help
to write the more simple reports. - To create the more complex reports, (where Oracle Reports really has great power), the report developer should have a good working knowledge of SQLPlus and PL/SQL (trigger, procedure, function and package, etc.). - It would make little sense to use a powerful tool like Oracle Reports solely for the development of simple reports. Without significant knowledge about Oracle databases, a report developer would not be able to take the advantage of this powerful tool. |
| Departments Using Tool | Database Systems is beginning to use Oracle Reports to replace some of the more complex FOCUS reports. The Resources Office is also beginning to use this tool. |
| Target Users | This tool has been designed for the report developer, although report modifiers could use some of the wizards to make modifications to existing reports. This tool can also be used and executed through Oracle's WebDB product. |
| Typical Training Path/ Prerequisite | On site instructor-led training class offered by Oracle Corporation (4 days) or on-line technology-based training class also offered by Oracle Corporation. Texts available at local bookstores. |
| Support Available | Database Systems as well as other report developers at Wellesley. |
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Costs
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Reports comes as part of IDS (see Oracle Discoverer information above) at a cost of $5000 per person plus $750 for support. If the office has already purchased Oracle Discoverer then Oracle reports would be part of this same suite of products. Oracle Reports is software intended for report developers and would only be purchased by IS for someone in an end user office who has report writing as part to their job responsibilities (role document). The training class for Oracle Reports is a four-day class and costs $2260. |
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Seagate Crystal Reports Designer |
| Tool Description | A client-server report development tool that can be used against many different databases. |
| Strengths | - Quick to learn for experienced
mid-level programmers and quick to pick up again after long periods of time - Has been used successfully against Banner base tables - Support for ORACLE stored procedures. Ability to force processing onto server. Ability to enhance/replace generated SQL. Data dictionary builder interface. Security pass-through. Ad hoc query SQL tool. Banner database can be accessed via Sqlnet or ODBC - Wizards/visual development tools are state-of-the-art and mature - Formula editor: programming interface for data manipulation, creation of new fields - Ability to create self-contained Crystal report runtime executables - Ability to save and access reports via the Web with version 8 (not currently in use at Wellesley) - Browser access to report runtimes for user community - Types of reports: sub-reports, conditional reports, summary reports, cross-tabulations, form reports, drill-down, OLAP, Top-N, mailing labels - Sophisticated formatting and analysis capabilities. Other features include a formula editor, programming interface fordata manipulation, creation of new fields - Easily distributed. Ability to create self-contained Crystal report runtime executables (ability to run the report on desktop without having to purchase Crystal software). Users can select report from a menu or directory structure, then double-click on the icon to launch the report. Reports deployed via: web, export to RTF, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, text. Export to disk, application or e-mail attachment via MAPI |
| Weaknesses | - Requires an experienced programmer
to write most reports that users would want - Some reports that should be "self-contained" executables (not needing Crystal software on the desktop) degrade and need to be re-saved in the Crystal development server environment in order to run properly - Web distribution capabilities untested. Requires multiple NT/Windows 2000 machines as in the R25WV configurations - Microsoft/IIS recommended |
| Departments Using Tool | IS/Database Systems. Crystal Reports runtime engine comes bundled with Resource25 event scheduling software. IS/Database Systems has purchased a 5-user development license in order to make modifications to Resource25 reports and create custom reports. |
| Target Users | Crystal Reports Designer recommended to experienced programmers. Crystal Reports runtime can be used by anyone |
| Typical Training Path/ Prerequisite | Training should lead to solid understanding of SQL including joining concepts. Some previous programming experience required for handling functions to manipulate data. Recommended training for report developers is a 2-day introductory course and a 2-day advanced course. Experienced users can train other users. |
| Support Available | One IS/Database Systems project manager |
| Costs | Crystal Reports costs approximately $500 per person for the initial software and 1 year of upgrades. Upgrades beyond the first year are typically about $300 per yearly upgrade. A license to use Crystal Reports from the Web would cost approximately $200 per user. Yearly support (not necessarily required for every user) is $200. Both the two-day introductory and the two day advanced training course cost $850. |
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SQL*Plus |
| Tool Description | A character based reporting tool that is the standard SQL (Structured Query Language) plus proprietary functionality that has been added by Oracle Corporation. |
| Strengths | - Is the underlying programming
structure used by many software packages. With the exception of formatting
commands, it is therefore very portable - Can do fairly complicated computations - Can often be used in combination with other reporting tools |
| Weaknesses | - Difficult to learn (requires
programming logic) - Reports can be difficult to format, and formatting commands can only be ported to servers running SOL*Plus - Not capable of encompassing very sophisticated logic |
| Departments Using Too | IS/Database Systems, Resources, Admissions, Registrar's Office |
| Target Users | Technical support staff, Report developers |
| Typical Training Path/ Prerequisite | Courses are offered through Pinnacle and Oracle Corporation that cover SQL and SQL*Plus. Element K courses about Microsoft Access, Dreamweaver and Crystal Reports that all cover topics about SQL. |
| Support Available |
Database Systems |
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Costs
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SQL*Plus licenses come as part off our campus enterprise license with Oracle at no additional cost to our end users. Training for SQL*Plus is generally provided by Oracle Corporation. Their five day course which covers approximately 3 days of SQL*Plus training and two days of PL/SQL costs $2600. |
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SPSS |
| Tool Description | A statistical package that has gone through many versions and runs on Windows, Unix, and (recently) Macintosh. It has recently acquired a more commercial (as opposed to academic) orientation. Besides reporting it can do extensive data manipulation, a wide variety of statistica procedures, and powerful output procedures both tabular and graphing. |
| Strengths |
- Extensive collection of procedures |
| Weaknesses |
- Front end to the report procedures takes
time to learn and requires understanding of data organization |
| Departments Using Tool | SPSS is used in several academic social science departments and is known by many social science faculty and students. It is also used by various research groups, it is not especially known by the administrative user community. Departments using SPSS include the Office for Institutional Research (OIR), Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science and Economics as well as researchers at the Centers for Research on Women. |
| Target Users |
Staff who already use or are familiar with other statistical packages. SPSS is used for reporting which requires data manipulation (preferably from a single database). |
| Typical Training Path/ Prerequisite | Most people learn SPSS from someone else. Like any software, the only way to learn it is to use it. If the report writer already knows a statistical package, a day or so is all that is needed to be able to use SPSS. If one does not know a statistical package or programming concepts (like "if statements" or "do computes" ) then learning the software takes longer. |
| Support Available |
Most of the support available for SPSS is provided by Larry Baldwin in the Office for Institutional Research (OIR). There are online courses, training materials available through SPSS. Wellesley has an active listserv that feeds a campus FirstClass conference (SPSS). |
| Costs | No cost for software to the user - installer for keyserved SPSS available for both Macintosh and Windows computers. Introductory and intermediate courses offered by SPSS are each two-day courses which cost $700 each. |
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