SQL SERVER REPORTING SERVICE

Generating reports for distribution can be a time consuming process, and even after you get the right data, you still have to worry about organizing it in a clear and concise manner, and what to do when your architecture changes.

Entrance has developed SSRS line of business reports for a wide variety of applications.  From live reports against Line of Business systems designed to augment in-application report capabilities to tabular exports of regulatory data drawn from a variety of sources merged into a data warehouse, Entrance has the expertise to analyze your SSRS needs and convert them into reports that are clear, clean, concise, and easy to maintain.

OVERVIEW

SSRS was first released in 2004 as a simple report generation tool for SQL 2000 and was intended as a single destination report source for your entire enterprise.  Its focus was on tabular outputs with simple charts, and was best suited for generating printable summaries of data.

Over its history, SQL Server reporting has undergone a number of drastic improvements, and the version of SSRS you use is intrinsically tied to the SQL database you are generating your reports from.

For this reason, Entrance recommends starting your report efforts with the creation of a consolidated data warehouse, and using SSIS to perform a data master and ETL process.  This enables you to update your reporting services independently of your line of business applications.

SQL SERVER 2005 REPORTING SERVICES

The 2005 release of the SQL Server Reporting tool set was full of core improvements.  It empowered developers to use Visual Studio to create new reports with powerful code backed functionality in a common development tool.  It allowed end users to custom design simple reports through the new Report Builder tool.

SQL 2005 ended its extended support in April 2016, taking the SQL 2005 reporting services with it.  Upgrading SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 reports is often as easy as importing them to the new version, although that means bringing along some of the limitations of an obsolete design.  Sometimes, however, upgrading requires changing the way features are implemented.  Either way, we’ve been working with SQL Reporting Services a long time, and know how to upgrade services without rewriting the whole thing from scratch.

SQL SERVER 2008 R2 REPORTING SERVICES

When SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services came out, it added part sharing functionality to use the same parts across multiple reports, as well as shared datasets to enable management of data connections across all reports at once.

It also added a few new GUI components, Spark Lines, Indicators, Data Bars, and Maps.  Report calculation and layout functionality was also improved.

SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 is currently the most widely used version, as 2008 R2 was a particularly well received and long lived version, and SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services was the version that the software truly came into its own as a full featured reporting system.

Whether you’ve got an existing SQL 2008 reporting services server with reports you’d like to migrate, or you’re sticking with a stable and time tested system and need someone to update your existing reports, Entrance has the experience to keep your critical business reporting firing on all cylinders.

SQL SERVER 2012 REPORTING SERVICES AND SQL SERVER 2014 REPORTING SERVICES

These were small incremental improvements to reporting services, adding minor features like new renderers and support for Google Chrome.

One new feature of interest is SQL Reporting Services 2012’s new Data Alerts feature that delivers reports based on rules which monitor the data at specific intervals, and deliver fresh reports when the data meets specific criteria.

SQL SERVER 2016 REPORTING SERVICES

With the release of SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 revision, SQL Reporting Services has repositioned itself to compete in the modern business intelligence landscape.  A new Reporting Services portal and mobile reports surface more user friendly data than ever before, and a host of new GUI report components enable you to create scheduled reports that look as good as any viral data visualization.