Accessing and Analyzing Data with Microsoft Excel (Bpg-Other)

In this chapter, you learned the following:

• The multidimensional and hierarchical nature of OLAP data makes it different from relational data and other types of data. Multidimensional data has more interrelationships than relational data, and the terminology used to display these interrelationships is unique.

• OLAP data is highly summarized; you can cross-reference hundreds of thousands or even millions of data records very quickly to identify business trends. Using OLAP, your organization can broaden the scope of the data analysis that feeds into its business decisions.

• OLTP and OLAP computer systems can both write to and read from data marts to make data-entry and data-analysis workers’ jobs easier and more efficient.

• Products such as Excel, Access, the Office Web Components, and Data Analyzer include features with which you can analyze OLAP data.

In the next chapter, “Analyzing OLAP Data with Microsoft Excel,” you will learn

• How to connect to, query, and work with OLAP data in Excel.

• How to create offline OLAP data cubes and in which scenarios this is helpful.