SQL Server Reporting Services traditionally has been used for creating paginated reports. Paginated reports are formatted for printing and are reports you can export and email. Paginated Reports is just one of the type of reports today that companies use in their BI workloads. But in modern times, users are demanding reports that are accessible from mobile devices like phones and tablets and a modern data visualization experience.

In 2015, Microsoft acquired Datazen, an industry leader in mobile business intelligence and data visualization on Windows, iOS and Android devices. This acquisition paved the way for some of the most exciting changes in SSRS that we will go over in this post.

Interactive Mobile Reports

Interactive Mobile Reporting in SSRS is finally here! Mobile Reports in SSRS 2016, dynamically adjusts content to fit your screen. The responsive layout allows you to create one report for multiple devices.

New Modern Web Portal

SSRS has a brand new modern web portal, a place where you can access paginated reports and mobile reports all in one place. This is compatible with your favorite browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Edge.

Mobile Report Publisher

Mobile reports are created in SSRS 2016 using the SQL Server Mobile Report Publisher, which is a new desktop app similar to Report Builder. The Mobile report publisher allows you to create mobile reports optimized for mobile devices with a design surface for adjusting grid rows and columns.

Pin to Power BI Dashboards

Now with SQL Server 2016, you can pin visuals from your on-premises SSRS reports to Power BI Dashboards. Visuals that are available for pinning include charts, maps, gauges and images.

This capability allows you to visualize your existing on-premises reports on Power BI.

Modern Paginated Reports

SSRS 2016 has a new modern look for its paginated reports with new styles for tables, charts, gauges, maps, and other data visualizations. New chart types like Treemap and Sunburst charts are not available,

Flexible Parameter Positioning

Report Authors now have direct control over the positioning of parameters in SSRS. Parameters can be inserted in a particular position, moved using drag-and-drop functionality and spaces can be inserted between groups of parameters.

With the shift to mobile computing and more and more work being done on mobile devices compared to what it once was, these new features in SQL 2016 Reporting Services will allow reports to be consumed on phones and tablets and deliver a great experience on phones and tablets for executives and mobile workers.