Hi

Interesting question.

I think the answer to the ideal length of report is it depends!!!

For many managers a one page summary is just fine with a little data as possible. Too much data and there is the tendancy to miss information or worse still misunderstand. A nice graphic helps - though not too busy. This should ideally print on one page of A4.

However to get the most out SSRS I think that other reports need to more dynamic. There needs to be selectable parameters, user-defined sort orders and drill-downs to other data / reports. Here the print on one page idea can get kinda shaky.

At the other scale users may want caseload reports (Local Government speak here - customer reports for businesses) with rows of data that will most likely print off on multiple pages.

As for reports with millions of rows of data - are these really not extracts which are then manipulated in other software to produce reports. Or am I missing something?

On the subject of who is the best person to write reports - Business or ICT - I am not sure that Business people are necessarily bad at writing reports. I have seen some terrible reports written by very clever ICT superstars. Myself, I am an Information Officer - not sure if that puts me in the realms of Business or ICT (or neither). I create reports to suit the end users so that they get what they want (and more) and more importantly actually use them. I do not pretend to understand all the inner working of a SQL database, however I do know (sort of as I am constantly learning) how to manipulate large volums of data from SQL databases to return only the information needed for reports. Rightly or wrongly we use a reporting database to do this so as not to impact on the performance of the live databases (and fall foul of the software suppliers who would love to supply us with reports that do not quite work, but cost a premium).

Tim