Intelligent Apps to XLCubed: Moving Forward
Intelligent Apps is an Excel add-in for reporting on Microsoft Analysis Services cubes. The product was marketed from 2001 until being acquired by Sage (UK) Limited in 2004. Within Sage, Intelligent Apps was moulded into the Excel reporting element of the Sage Business Intelligence offerings, but was withdrawn as a generic product for Analysis Services.
As the product stagnated, users upgrading to more recent versions of Office and Analysis Services had the choice of not moving forward on the underlying platforms, or looking for replacement client tools. Users typically liked the work in Excel model, and XLCubed is an obvious upgrade path.
Ease of use and improved performance
The two products approach things in different ways in a number of areas, but users typically find the switch across to XLCubed an easy one, and are very pleased with a significant performance gain on many of their reports. Users moving across also benefit from the improved functionality and ease of use of a product which has been continually developed over the 7 years since the last version of Intelligent Apps. The web delivery capability of XLCubed Web is also a step forward, and provides an alternate approach to delivering structured but interactive reporting to large numbers of users.
