Chapter 57. Easy BI with Silverlight PivotViewer
Gone are the times when business intelligence (BI) was one of those things that only large enterprises could afford. More and more smaller organizations are now into BI. Microsoft has in many ways helped this cause. With the introduction of the Unified Dimensional Model (UDM) in SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services, business intelligence for the masses became a reality, or at least a step closer. But building the information base for BI is one thing; building BI information visualization is something else. BI users need to see data for business insight (for that’s what BI is all about) that’s presented in an intuitive way. Microsoft addresses this through several technologies, one of which is Silverlight PivotViewer.
Silverlight is Microsoft’s implementation of a rich internet application (RIA) framework. It’s similar to Adobe Flash and is used to create applications that require a rich web or multimedia user experience. Applications developed using Silverlight can be run on top of most browsers by means of a plug-in. Windows Phone 7 applications are also created using Silverlight.
