OLAP Survey 5
Everybody who is interested in OLAP knows about Nigel Pendse's "OLAP Report" - at www.olapreport.com. 4 years ago, in addition to publishing OLAP Report, he also started another project - OLAP Survey. There were 4 OLAP Surveys since then - one each year. Every year it became bigger - more participants, more questions in survey, more analysis, more pages in report etc. Microsoft has bought all the copies of OLAP Survey, and we went page by page over all of them. Even though Microsoft had rights to use the results in the marketing materials, our marketing didn't do it (which is a shame, since Analysis Services has won 1st or 2nd place in most categories of the survey). However, we, the product team, have studied it extensively, both the areas where we have done well, and the areas where we needed to improve. The participation in OLAP Survey has always been good, but it always has been closed survey, i.e. by invitation only. I guess this was done to ensure that vendors don't influence the results by convincing their customers to fill answers which would be favorable to the vendor. But this year Nigel decided to choose different strategy. Now he encourages vendors to spread the word about the survey, and the link to it is open to everybody. This way, OLAP Survey 5 promises to get much more people to answer then in any previous year. Of course, like before the vendors (including Microsoft) don't have any input in formulating the survey's questions so it still stays independant and creditable. As part of "spreading the word" company, Nigel asked me to publish this information in my blog and on www.mosha.com/msolap, which I happily do. Please file the survey and tell us all the good and bad things about Analysis Services. I personally will be going over the results.
The links are:
English version: http://www.survey.com/olap5sur2.html
German version: http://www.survey.com/olap5survey2.html
The official text of customer invitation follows:
Customer Invitation
We would very much welcome your participation in The OLAP 5 Survey. This is the largest independent survey of OLAP users worldwide. The Survey will obtain input from a large number of users to better understand their buying decisions, the implementation cycle and the business success achieved. Both business and technical respondents are welcome.
The OLAP Survey is strictly independent. While Microsoft and other vendors assist by inviting users to participate in the Survey, the vendors do not sponsor the survey, nor influence the questionnaire design or survey results. As a participant, you will not only have the opportunity to ensure your experiences are included in the analyses, but you will also receive a summary of the results from the full survey. You will also have a chance of winning one of ten $50 Amazon vouchers. Click here to complete the survey on-line.