17
CHAPTER
Reporting from OLAP Cubes
Relational database systems provide the vast majority of the data analysis and reporting capabilities that most organizations need. However, a smaller segment of many organizations can benefit from more flexible and sophisticated analysis tools. In many cases, an organization’s higher-level analysts are still using spreadsheet tools in combination with relational databases to make strategic company decisions.
Online analytical processing (OLAP) is a newer analysis technique that provides much more flexibility in analyzing company data. Crystal Reports supports most standard OLAP tools and enables you to create reports based on these database systems.
What Is OLAP?
Most typical company data is viewed in two ...

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