Vector Space Inc.

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 Read the rest of this entry »

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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 Read the rest of this entry »

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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. Read the rest of this entry »

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