Users Cheer Microsoft’s New Reporting Services

Users Cheer Microsoft’s New Reporting Services "Although Microsoft’s competitors have tried to downplay the capabilities of the first-generation Reporting Services offering, users say they’re impressed with the product's features and functionality. For example, says report developer Witter, the report publishing, distribution, and lifecycle management tools that are part-and-parcel of the Reporting Services experience have been an especially pleasant surprise. “I have been very impressed with [Reporting Services] and its capabilities for such a new product. At first glance I thought it was just a report writer, but after working in it for a while I started to realize it was much more powerful than I would have ever expected,” he concludes."

I agree -- it's much more than simple reporting, and it also works with non-Microsoft data sources. Interesting to see Microsoft run multi-page ads for a product (e.g., in the latest issue of Application Development Trends) that's free if you already own SQL Server 2000.