The definition of a data warehouse contains little information about reporting. This is not surprising, as the design of reporting is usually tailored to the individual company and therefore a standardised specification does not make sense. Nevertheless, reporting plays a very important role for companies that use a data warehouse. Decision-makers are not interested in the underlying technology, but in decision-relevant information that is made available to them in a visually appealing report "at the touch of a button". The requirements here are often formulated more precisely than for data modelling or data procurement. Compliance with internal company formatting, the replication of existing reports or corporate identity for external reports are just some of the factors. In addition to a consistent data basis and strong performance, a high degree of flexibility in the design of the reports is the basic prerequisite for the acceptance of a data warehouse.

The providers of data warehouses recognised this early on and also supply reporting solutions with their products. SAP offers its Business Explorer Suite, Oracle calls its product Daily Business Intelligence, while Microsoft refers to its in-house product Excel, SharePoint Services and SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services.

The aim of this Diplom thesis is to find out where the strengths and weaknesses of the various solutions lie and how the requirement for flexibility in the evaluations can be met. The following questions should be clarified:

• What technology is currently available on the market for reporting? Office integration, web reports, portal solutions are part of what is technically feasible and also possible.
• How is the connection to the data sources realised? (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, other solutions?)
• What options are available for designing the reports? How are graphics generated, for example? Is there an endless table or is the content presented in a page-orientated manner?
• What functions are available to the user for navigating the database? Is it possible for users to enter data in Excel, for example, and load it into the DWH?
• How are reports distributed? Can the reports be saved as files or links?
• How time-consuming is the creation of a reporting system? Does an 80/20 rule apply (80% of the requirements can be fulfilled in 20% of the time?)
• What solutions do the manufacturers SAP, Oracle and Microsoft offer? How do they differ?
• Which technology will be used in the future (e.g. Adobe Flash)?

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