Live Office vs. QaaWS vs. BI Services

If you’re building an Xcelsius dashboard, and connecting it to a database, you have three (main) options. Picking between the three is often a source of confusion. Hopefully this post will help explain some of the differences, and help you decide which is best for your scenario.
First up, an overview of each:

• Live Office. Live Office is a Business Objects tool that is installed as an add-on to Microsoft Office Excel. This allows you to connect the Excel spreadsheet within your dashboard to a Webi or Crystal report, which in turn connects to your data source.
  
• Query as a Web Service. QaaWS is a Business Objects client tool that creates a web service, based on a query, that connects directly to a universe.
  
• BI Services. BI Services is the (relatively) new kid on the block. It creates a web service from a report block in a Webi report, which in turn connects to your data source.

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