PeopleSoft Crazy

I am doing a R&D on how “Add Attachment” works. I think it behaves differently across HCM and other streams. I will post my findings soon. Meanwhile, I was checking on different types of free reporting tools available for download in the net. I came across a reporting tool called LogiXML. It is pretty simple to use. Preparing drill down reports is piece of cake.  I think you can also use N-Vision for the same. But I feel producing drill down reports takes lesser time than N-vision.

The major hurdle is incorporating security to the data. The security feature is available only in the advanced versions. But then again, the advanced versions come with a cost. You will have to buy the product to incorporate security.

The other product I checked out was Microsoft Reporting Services, SQL Server 2005. This one is certainly worth it if your organisation has a licenced version. Otherwise you can also download the free version which is SQL Server Express Edition. Preparing drill down reports, incorporating security, formatting, parameterizing reports and deploying it takes so less time that you will be tempted to bring most of your MIS reports in PeopleSoft into Reporting Services.

It took me hardly a day to prepare a complex drill down report which will easily take me a week to do the same in PeopleSoft if it has to be done in one single page. I was able to bring security based on the network ID. I was able to bring into the system logic, that identifies the user who is logged into the network and filters data based on the user. This is fantastic.

I was also able to produce graphical reports, crosstab(matrix) reports with drill down and without it. All this requires no coding. Everything is drag and drop. Ofcourse for all those code buffs out there, there is a facility to write your own code using extensions that Microsoft provides.

The best part is I was able to schedule a job that takes in the transaction data from PeopleSoft(Oracle database) and port it into my local reporting database(MS SQL Server 2005) using DTS available along with the SQL Server 2005 as SSIS(SQL Server Integration Services). Then the report will be produced based on the mini-datamart that I had created in the SQL Server. Even, the report processing can be scheduled and made to run at a particular time. We can also automatically send the report via email to a set of users in the email distribution list. This feature is called Subscription. The report can be sent in excel, PDF, web archive, TIFF etc. This is a cool feature. When I got the email automatically sent by the server, I was thrilled.

I can also do a data driven subscription. This means, I can dynamically generate the content that will appear to the users as comments, or I can dynamically generate the list of users to whom this email has to be sent.

Whatever I have said is just tip of the iceberg. There is so much you can do with this tool. Check out whether you can satisfy your organisation needs with this tool. I am sure you can if you have too many reports in PeopleSoft. The best part is that the productivity of the developer is increased manifold.

Hope this post is useful.