Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Report Builder 2.0 for SME
By Mark Stair

Microsoft recently released a new tool for building reports. Since SME: Service Management Enterprise works with SQL Server 2008, this tool works great with SME. This tool look very promising on our initial evaluation. Here are some key points:

• It’s Free!
• Works with High 5 Software’s SME: Service Management Enterprise!
• It’s very easy to use with wizards to connect and configure data sources along with an Office 2007 look and feel
• Connects to a report server. I did not try this, but looks like it should allow publishing of web-based reports
• Allows parameters so you can select dates or any other field.
• Allows calculation fields such as sum, average, count, etc.
• Can export to excel.
• I built my first report in 10 minutes. I created a report to show all open Service Orders by Technician from a selectable date with average time to open.
• It claims to work with SQL Server 2008. SME will work with either SQL 2005 or 2008 and many customers are on SQL 2005. I would think it would be able to work with SQL 2005, but did not try it. If anyone knows if it will work with SQL 2005, please let us know!
• Using SME external report option, you can launch the report right from SME.
• Allows gauges, charts and other goodies.
• Download Here

(These Screenshots were created in about 10mins with no experience with this tool! Probably need a bit of tweaking to be more useful, but hopefully you get the idea.)

Here is the Design Mode:		Here is the Running Mode: