Microsoft SQL Server 2005's new Reporting Services feature provides Business Intelligence Developers a built-in reporting tool that can substitute many popular report design and management tools like Crystal Reports and Crystal Enterprise. BI Developers use the Report Designer (included in the BI Studio) to design and publish reports to the web based Report Manager.

Report Manager provides report management, execution properties, and security; as well as providing a clean interface to browse for reports. In addition to publishing reports from the Report Designer, the BI developer can create Report Models, or use Analysis Services to create the Report Models. This exposes an incredibly robust set of report design features to the end user.

Similar functionality required third-party applications like Crystal Reports (design), and Crystal Enterprise (publish, manage, and secure), however SQL Server 2005 combines Reporting Services with Analysis Services, Integration Services, and packages it all in the Visual Studio 2005 Business Intelligence interface.

About Larry Hepplemann
Larry Hepplemann is a Microsoft Certified Trainer who has taught thousands of IT professionals and SQL developers from some of the world's largest software companies. Larry trains IT professionals and helps them to understand, implement and deploy Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005 and Microsoft Business Intelligence applications (SQL2000/2005 Analysis Services OLAP).

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