What is OLAP?

OnLine Analytical Processing

It is the technology behind many Business Intelligence (BI) applications. OLAP is a powerful technology for data discovery, including capabilities for limitless report viewing, complex analytical calculations, and predictive “what if” scenario (budget, forecast) planning.

OLAP in the Cloud

Start building your own multidimensional models with an easy-to-deploy OLAP platform in the cloud. Learn More

OLAP Training

Learn Business Intelligence and OLAP basics with our free hands-on exercises. LEARN MORE

Latest Blogs

Hot

Excel is Not a one Stop Shop for your Data Needs

Excel is Not a one Stop Shop for your Data Needs

Excel is everywhere and it has proven to be a valuable resource to every company across the globe. The problem is that many companies are using spreadsheets as their main line of communication internally. Excel is great at displaying all of the raw data you could possibly dream of, just ask any Data Analyst, who eats, sleeps and dreams of never-ending spreadsheets.

read more
28% of a Data Analyst’s Time is Spent on Data Prep

28% of a Data Analyst’s Time is Spent on Data Prep

As stated by James Haight, “At Blue Hill, we recently published a benchmark report in which we made the case that dedicated data preparation solutions can produce significant efficiency gains over traditional methods such as custom scripts or Microsoft Excel.”

read more
OLAP and Excel

OLAP and Excel

Excel reports are just not cutting in today’s world of even larger and more complex organizations. Thankfully, there is a solution that not only gives companies the capability to access large amounts of data at the speed in which there is no “waiting around” time, but it enhances the every day use of Excel. Let’s take a look at how this is possible.

read more

Categories

Categories

OLAP and BI Technology

Best Practices

Finance and Business Use Cases

FROM OUR SPONSORS

Featured Story

 

The Importance of Planning and Forecasting in BI

From PARIS Technologies

The budgeting and forecasting process for most organizations is long and tedious and occurs on an annual basis, at least. Companies try to do it more often to improve accuracy and aim to ultimately implement a procedure for continuous planning, rolling forecasts, and driver-based planning.

Unlike any other business process, budgeting and forecasting is unique because it is forward thinking. Business processes like accounting, inventory tracking, invoicing, shipping, etc. are based on actual events from the past and present.

This is a fundamental difference as it also defines how the data from these processes are managed. Essentially, actual events are captured as transactions in ERPs, supply chain systems, invoicing and accounting systems, etc., and data related to it is effectively stored in its databases. On the other hand, budgets and forecasts typically reside in spreadsheets where aggregate data is entered by several people in the organization.

CONTINUE READING

OLAP Resources

Downloads

OLAP 101

This ebook offers context for newbies to OLAP technology. Learn where OLAP came from and how it developed into the Business Intelligence technology we know today.

OLAP Timeline

Learn about the history of OLAP technology with this comprehensive inforgraphic

OLAP Terms

Learn all the terms you need to start your OLAP journey.

Subscribe to OLAP.com