UFC: Web Analysis vs. Interactive Reporting

Pretty exciting matchup, right? At a high level review, you'll note that Web Analysis and Interactive Reporting overlap on a number of key features. So which tool is the right tool? Historically, IR was good at relational reporting and analysis. WA was good at Essbase reporting and analysis. With version 9.3.1, Interactive Reporting introduced a new CubeQuery feature that now allows it to better report against Essbase (prior to 9.3.1, there were many frustrations when trying to use IR with Essbase). CubeQuery closely models the functionality that is provided with Web Analysis. What is really cool? You can now easily combine Essbase and relational data very easily in IR dashboards and reports.

Let's look in a bit more detail, comparing the advanced analytic capabilities between IR CubeQuery and WA:

	WA Studio	WA Workspace	IR Studio	IR Web Client	IR HTML
Basic Drilling	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Swap Rows and Columns	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Client install	Required first the first time	No install necessary	Client application	Required the first time	No install necessary
Adhoc Query	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Member Selection	High	High	Medium	Medium	None
Traffic Lighting	Yes	Yes	Yes – Called Spotlighter	Yes – Called Spotlighter	No
Formatting / Presentation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Save Personal Queries	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Next let's compare the dashboarding capabilities between the two:

	Web Analysis	Interactive Reporting
Complexity to Create	Medium	Medium - Complex
Requires Programming	None	Yes – Java scripting
Flexibility	High	Very high
Drillable within the Dashboard (Essbase sources)	Yes	No (but in future versions)
Present Essbase Data with Relational Data	Yes – but not well	Yes
Data Controls	Yes	Yes
Risk (when using Essbase as data source)	Low	Medium-High (new)
Time to Implement (when using Essbase as a data source)	Lower	Higher (new)

So in summary, what is the best tool?

It depends…

• Technically you could use both but …
• IR requires Java Scripting knowledge for creating and maintaining dashboards
• Learning curve for both products (similar concepts but steps and design considerations are completely different)

• Web Analysis if you are only reporting on Essbase
• Interactive Reporting if you report against relational sources
• Interactive Reporting if you report against Essbase and relational sources in the same report or dashboard with considerations*
  *Java scripting
  *New (available in 9.3.1); Some fixes and enhancements in 11.1.1
  
• Web Analysis if you don’t have any technical resources available / programmers (Web Analysis is easier to learn for administrators and no Java Scripting or “coding” required)
• From an basic end user perspective using Essbase, IR and WA have the same functionality for the most part (there may be a few more features in WA)
  - Keep only, remove only
  - Navigation is different between the 2 tools – training consideration
  
• From a power end user perspective, Web Analysis provides more adhoc advanced analytic features against Essbase