According to Business Intelligence Ltd., (http://www.OLAPReport.com). OLAP can be defined in five words - Fast Analysis of Shared Multidimensional Information.
FAST means that the system is targeted to deliver most responses to users within about five seconds, with the simplest analysis taking no more than one second and very few taking more than 20 seconds. ANALYSIS means that the system can cope with any business logic and statistical analysis that is relevant for the application and the user, and keep it easy enough for the target user. SHARED means that the system implements all the security requirements for confidentiality (possibly down to cell level) and, if multiple write access is needed, concurrent update locking CI.t an appropriate level. MULTIDIMENSIONAL means that the system must provide a multidimensional conceptual view of the data, including full support for hierarchies and multiple hierarchies. INFORMATION is refined data that is accurate, timely and relevant to the user.
simply put, OLAP describes a class of technologies that are designed for live adhoc data access and analysis. While transaction processing (OLTP) generally relies solely on relational databases, OLAP has become synonymous with multidimensional views of business data. These multidimensional views are supported by multidimensional database technology and provide the technical basis for calculations and analysis required by Business Intelligence applications.
OLAP technology is being used in an increasingly wide range of applications. The most common are sales and marketing analysis; financial reporting and consolidation; and budgeting and planning. Increasingly however, OLAP is being used for applications such as product profitability and pricing analysis; activity based costing; manpower planning; and quality analysis; or for that matter any management system that requires a flexible, top down view of an organization |
