If you take a look of the picture downloaded from the Microsoft Technet website, you can see that SSAS is only a part of a group.

Figure 1: MS SQL Server Components (High Level)

If you are going to develop a business intelligence solution, you will definitely use two if not three of these components.

The Analysis Services component is an essential one (the subject of talk). The second is the core of MS SQL which is Integration Services. In order to feed AS with data, you need the IS (integration services) to transfer data from any input source (like an SQL Database, Oracle Database, Text Files, etc.) into the AS database. The third component that is of interest to you would be Reporting Services to deliver your OLAP cubes in a presentable way to your end user, but you could use Microsoft Office, SharePoint or even any third part tool.

You could also use notification services to tell you the status of jobs (Data Import, Cube Generation, etc.).