Harnessing The Power Of The SAS System Over An Intranet. By Andrew Oliver, Info Quest Solutions. SEUGI 17, June 1999

Transcription

1 Harnessing The Power Of The SAS System Over An Intranet By Andrew Oliver, Info Quest Solutions SEUGI 17, June 1999

2 Background Requirements Demonstration Integration with The SAS System Benefits Summary Customer Feedback & Future Directions Questions A SAS intranet solution was initially developed for an Insurance client who required an online management information solution to replace an existing labour intensive process. The system was to be used by different levels of management spread geographically to monitor sales force productivity and activity. Timely information was required in tabular and graphical format. The client required a secure, user-friendly OLAP enabled system that performed well over an Intranet. To meet the client s needs we developed and implemented a generic intranet solution, later named Questor. This presentation will demonstrate Questor, show how it integrates with the SAS System and highlight the benefits of the solution.

3 The key requirements of the solution were: Costs minimise initial and on-going costs Appearance, Usage provide a user-friendly format with a high impact appearance. Timely OLAP reports should offer significant flexibility to allow the users to investigate data Print enable users to print reports Responses provide adequate application response times Security provide for different levels of access to data, dependent on the privileges of the user Maintenance provide minimal and easy maintenance Export provide the ability to export data to other applications, e.g. Microsoft Excel

4 Some screenshots from the presentation:

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7 Questor is a SAS System intranet based enterprise reporting solution. On the browser, information is presented in a HTML table and a chart. Dynamic HTML technologies including JavaScript are employed throughout the application. As a result, many tasks are executed completely on the browser therefore significantly reducing the level of network traffic generated. The look and feel is defined using Cascading Style Sheets, enabling the appearance to be customised very easily towards a particular corporate branding or colour scheme. Questor integrates tightly with the SAS System by using the Application Dispatcher feature of SAS/Intrnet and the metabase in SAS/EIS A number of custom attributes have been added to the metabase. Data can be read from SAS data sets or Multi-Dimensional Data Bases (SAS/MDDB ). Questor also supports the SAS System hybrid OLAP model, hence enabling access to large volume, distributed data. Making reports available to the user is a simple matter of registering the data into the standard SAS/EIS metabase and editing a report menu HTML page.

8 As a result of Questor, SAS software users can achieve a number of benefits: Low start up and maintenance costs to implement Questor requires SAS/Intrnet, SAS/EIS and a browser. Tested on Windows 95/98, Windows NT and UNIX Easy to use graphical interface requiring minimal user training. Non-technical people are successfully able to use the interface Provision of high level summary information whilst allowing exploration of data by drilling down and filtering. Traffic lighting at any level within the data to highlight areas requiring further investigation. Definition and saving of reports for easy retrieval when the underlying information has been refreshed High quality printed output that can immediately be adopted in internal or external reports. Users can decide how to present the information most effectively by table or graph. Appropriate access can be granted to any individual defined to the corporate network. Requires little or no customisation, but can be, if desired. One central application is maintained, minimising ongoing costs. All that is required on the User PC is browser software, e.g. Internet Explorer 4. All processing is carried out on a central server, reducing the specification of PCs required by users. The only restriction on the number of concurrent users is the processing power of the server and the size of the network. There are no additional costs when adding users. Access rights can be granted on an individual or group basis.

9 The solution (later named Questor) was delivered on time and to budget in September It was primarily designed to be operated by non-technical business users. On seeing the solution, one senior sales manager, who had previously refused to use a computer, insisted on having the solution on his desk. The feedback to date has been very positive and as a result, we have enhanced Questor further from the initial delivery specification and have implemented it at a number of other customer sites. We are continuing to develop Questor in response to customer requests, but are also determined not to make the software over-complicated for non-technical users. Contact Information Info Quest Solutions Limited, Arquen House, 4/6 Spicer Street, St. Albans, Herts AL3 4PQ England Tel: +44 (0) Fax: +44 (0)