OT: Complex Data Analysis Tool Suggestions Requested

[Smartin]

I have been using a combination of Access + VBA + Excel pivot tables to
analyze data sets numbering some 500K rows. Each row is a data point and
has half a dozen attributes.

My task has been to put some meaning on all this data and I have been
successful thus far however each time I present an interpretation to
management I am handed back a new request to slice and dice the data
differently.

I am now beyond the point where the requirements exceed what pivot
tables can do easily (as far as I know), e.g., "what is the 80th
percentile value on categories {a, 1, c, 15} on Fridays in September
across category {x}?". I can write new queries and functions to adapt to
these changing requests, but it is becoming markedly more costly in
terms of effort. It's no problem per se as I get paid by the hour, but
I'm thinking there might be something out there that can not only make
this kind of work more efficient but may provide other meaningful ways
to analyze the data we haven't even thought of yet.

Can anyone recommend a tool that will potentially simplify this kind of
exploratory analysis? Graphing capability would be a plus.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[aaron.kempf]

Analysis Services and Office Web Components

Drag and Drop; it's 100 times more powerful than either Access or Excel

 

[Guest]

Hi,

Did you try using pivot tables in Access it has more features than the excel
one.

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

Try Total Access Statistics. It may do much of what you need:

http://www.fmsinc.com/Products/statistics/index.html

 

[aaron.kempf]

try Analysis Service

www.olapreport.com
I would move to a completely- sql server driven application.. and use
Access Data Projects

If Access could report on Olap data I probably wouldn't be so pissed
off about MDB
I mean.. it's literally impossible to pull Analysis Data into a MDB
application.. right?

-Aaron

 

[Smartin]

Thanks all for your input.