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Vector Space Inc. has been acquired by Application Consulting Group Inc, a New Jersey-based Business Inteligence consulting company.
This acquisition will bring substantial new resources to Vector Space’s activities, enhancing its ability to deliver outstanding Applix TM1(TM) solutions to its customers.
The press release is attached
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December 20th, 2006
Writing about the origins of TM1, I realized that I knew very little about the developments that led up to the invention and introduction of this seminal tool. So I decided to take a detour in this account of the origins of spreadsheet OLAP. I called Manny Perez, who filled in some of the details, as follows:
In the mid-80s, Manny was managing a departmental IT group at Exxon International Company. Oil supply and demand planning were an overwhelmingly manual process, with paper, pencil and calculators. The only computer assistance was a rudimentary mainframe system that helped add up numbers from different offices.
The system was expensive and had few features; it seemed to Manny that it could be improved. With a degree in mathematics, it was clear to him that this was a (more…)
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August 19th, 2006
I wish I had a penny for every person who has asked me what Applix TM1 is and why we like it so much. Even enthusiastic users often know little of its origins. I thought readers of this website might want to know a little more –. I meant to write a short piece, but it just grew — so I’ve split it into parts. Let me know what you think. . . . David
In the beginning there was the spreadsheet
TM1 began as a part of the spreadsheet “revolution” in 1984. Dan Bricklin had invented the spreadsheet with VisiCalc in 1979; Lotus 1-2-3 followed in 1983. This new type of computer application exponentially increased the ability of users to apply computer power to problems of their choice without expert intervention. Modelled on a simple grid of paper, the spreadsheet was easy to grasp and easy to use. (more…)
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August 8th, 2006
Following our post on the new PALO open source package, Jedox president Kristian Raue agreed to answer a few questions about the company’s plans for the product.
How is PALO planning to relate to the broader world of spreadsheet OLAP?
By July 2006 more than 10,000 people had downloaded Palo and we have 50 new downloads each day. So I think we have already had a large impact in the spreadsheet OLAP market. (more…)
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August 3rd, 2006
Every now and then we see a request for the OLAP Council benchmark, last updated in 1998; since nobody else seems to have all the materials in one place, we have decided to put them here as a service.
- The specification can be downloaded here.
- The data generation program is here.
While it may be somewhat dated now, this is still the only such benchmark there has been. Our friends Erik Thomson and George Spofford of DSS Labs produced it for the OLAP Council, which was (more…)
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August 1st, 2006
This article says that almost nobody reads an Internet news post more than 36 hours old.Well, that article is almost a month old, but it’s still very timely.
This by way of saying that now that this site has begun to take on a life, it seems that we’reproducing new content about once a week. We’re no fireballs, but hopefully the infrequency is balanced by the quality and subject matter — how are we doing? Send us email at Vector Space.
August 1st, 2006
I mentioned the new open source OLAP server PALO (OLAP backwards) in an earlier post. This TM1 workalike is still at an early stage, but any new offering in this area - especially if it is free - is of great interest to spreadsheet OLAP users.
In this post; I will give readers some idea of what this software offers, what it promises and what it lacks. I’ve put together some screenshots and added some thoughts on this entry.
Some of the people behind PALO were earlier involved with MIS AG’s spreadsheet product Alea, and PALO looks quite similar. There’s a long history here which may be worth telling elsewhere, but what matters in this context is that the designers of this software “get it” about how OLAP and spreadsheets should work together.
What’s more, the product is not cheap, it’s actually free - released under the orthodox Gnu Public License (GPL) which (more…)
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July 25th, 2006
Let me start this post by saying that Vector Space has no involvement or business interest in DQS, a startup with a product in beta. But when we heard about it from a former colleague, we thought it was worth a deeper look. Perhaps you’ll find it interesting too.
DQS proposes a new way of bringing together the information resources of large enterprises.
To understand why we’re interested in DQS, we must peek at the dark side of IT. Consider the following common scenario:
Our consultants go to a meeting with a major client.
“I need to analyze corporate operations,” says the customer. “Sales, cost of sales, profitability by channel, that sort of thing, month by month. (more…)
enterprise software interoperability merger software Resources
June 27th, 2006
We’re always looking for software that can help solve problems.
Think about it. No problem, no special solution. No special solution, no consultant to implement it. So consultants are always looking for problems, and then figuring out how to solve them.
It may not always be the easiest way to pay the bills, but it’s what we do.
So here’s some of the software we’ve been (more…)
June 19th, 2006
Since I had more questions than answers about Temtec and Applix (see my last post below), I decided to take the bull by the horns and call Dave Menninger, Applix’s Vice President for Marketing to get a little perspective on what Applix is thinking. Here’s what he told me:
While TM1 continues to be the king of the Excel-OLAP connection, (more…)
June 16th, 2006
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