Imagine being able to see detailed and vivid analysis of your GoldMine data or data pulled from an external database in the form of professional looking charts, graphs, and reports right within your GoldMine screen, even within the GoldMine Contact Record.
What’s more, how nice would it be to have immediate access to this information from anywhere over the Internet through a web browser? Or even, to automatically distribute reports on a timely basis to the right people? It’s all possible with the new Microsoft SQL 2005, improved SQL Reporting Services, and the features in GoldMine!
As far as reporting solutions go, Microsoft is a relative late comer to the scene. But within the past two years Microsoft released Reporting Services as a free add-on to SQL Server 2000. With its ability to deploy web-based reports, connect to any ODBC data source, and various display export and print options, SQL Reporting Services became a serious contender on the reporting circuit. Now with the recent release of SQL Server 2005, Microsoft has made significant improvements to SQL Reporting Services (2005). Included with this recent version is Report Builder which allows a user to design an ad hoc report in an easy-to-use interface.
Possibly the most exciting aspect of SQL Reporting Services is its web-based report deployment. All reports are viewed in a web browser such as Internet Explorer. In other words, users can launch reports from anyplace from a web address/URL … GoldMine users can launch reports from their “Task Bar.
Reporting Services automatically creates a web-based report management tool that allows users to run reports either on-demand or on a scheduled subscription basis deliverable via Email. Reports can be printed or exported to a variety of file formats including Adobe PDF, Excel, HTML, and XML.
Since SQL RS is web-based, it lends itself perfectly to many of GoldMine’s frequently under utilized features. SQL Reporting Services is a perfect match for GoldMine’s GM+ Views, GM+ Browser, and MyGoldMine. At their core, all three of these tools are really web browsers and can be setup to display information from your GoldMine database or even an external database system with a tool such as SQL Reporting Services.
Consider a few possibilities: You could be on a GoldMine Contact Record and the GM+ View tab showing monthly sales orders and product information relevant to that company/contact. Or envision using the GM+ Browser, introduced in GoldMine CE 7.x to look at a company-wide pipeline report without having to leave your GoldMine screen. Or use MyGoldMine for what it is really meant for, a dashboard interface that shows you at a glance exactly what you need to know when you need to know it. Pie charts, bar graphs, data from multiple sources, and all of it web-based. SQL Reporting Services is such a good fit for GoldMine, it looks and feels like a natural part of GoldMine … truly seamless integration.
Another great thing about SQL Reporting Services is that it is a 100% server side solution. Client machines do not have to be installed, no need to worry about creating DSN connections or loading DLL files on the client machines. And GoldMine Corporate Edition v7.0 has built-in tools to allow users to subscribe and schedule reports from right within your GoldMine menus. Microsoft SQL Reporting Services has already made a big impact on the reporting scene since its recent release, and we can be sure to see its popularity grow!
Want to see a demo or start using MS SQL Reporting Services … contact First Direct.
