We are drafting a document of factors for users to evaluate whether
recommendations by analysts in the OLAP market are being made in the
interests of users or whether there are other factors to consider. Our
experience in the OLAP industry extends back to 1991 and we have recently
seen some things that are definitely not in the interests of users. I hope
that the document will be expanded on and we aim to hopefully supply this to
an independent source who would take over the maintenance and evaluation of
OLAP products.

The questions to ask:

1. Are analysts having a negative impact on the OLAP market?

2. Are analysts advising independently and in the interests of the
client/user? What factors affect their opinions, disclosures or
non-disclosures in some cases.

Yes, we do have an OLAP product which works on the Microsoft Analysis
Services platform. We are currently looking for independent sources that
meet the criteria we specify to evaluate O2OLAP.

Yours sincerely
Howard Taylor
Chartered Accountant (SA)

Howard.Taylor (AT) o2olap (DOT) com
www.o2olap.com

Call me a cynic but... almost every vendor in this space has a
friendly/passive analyst source that they can call on to give the
appropriate opinions. Like they say "nobody bites the hand..."


"Howard Taylor [O2OLAP]" <Howard.Taylor (AT) o2olap (DOT) com> wrote

The only reason o2olap isn't mentioned on my website is Howard won't
give me a copy.

I asked him for a copy sometime ago when I was compiling my
functionality tables.

For the last two years I have been searching for the 'best' Excel
add-in for AS.
'Best' is always going to have a subjective element to it.
But I can honestly say that I have tried to be as objective as
possible.

I do take exception to inferences that I haven't been fair.
I have shared my limited knowledge for free.

However, this gives me the opportunity to inform the newsgroup that my
independence will be ending as of 1st Oct as MIS have offered me a job
as a consultant.

Any postings from then on will state that I work for MIS.

Who knows, maybe at a later date I can return to offering free advice.

Regards,

John

www.johnkeeley.com



"davout" <davout (AT) dial (DOT) pipex.com> wrote

John

Thank you for the discussion earlier. Below is an extract from your email of
27 August 2003.

"I'm conscious that neither my website nor my newsgroup postings make hardly
any reference to your product. I can't do this until I've looked at it
myself & assessed the functionality. From what you've shown me it looks
good; especially the dynamic narratives. ..... I see my website as
encouraging the better BI solutions & as a counter balance to the marketing
hype of some of the big boys, ... This adds up to AS with Excel add-ins.
This should include your product; don't you think?"
At this point I think it appropriate to point out how we know each other.

- Through one of the user groups we made contact in about December 2001.

- I demoed what was possible within the MS AS environment, although O2OLAP
was not nearly ready for market at this stage. This was when you were at
Chaucer.

- I put you in touch with a UK based consultancy to help you with the setup
of the SQL relational side of things as we were only concentrating on
developing O2OLAP for AS at this point.

- Subsequent to this you went on a sunny sabbatical.

- Although we kept in contact over time we then met up in London and demoed
O2OLAP. I think this was in July this year. You requested a copy at this
point. We have hung off supplying you with a copy and we have discussed the
reasons why today. I do not think anything further needs to be said other
than some of my reasons were justified by your announcement today. I do
appreciate you were trying to supply information to the market as
objectively as you could.

As I mentioned to you at the meeting in July the only competitor I rated on
the market is the one you are going to work for. So good luck. This was
prior to your announcement today. The company is a good company despite the
slanted comments made by one of the commentators on the market. My contact
with this commentator is to be detailed in a separate thread as this needs
to now be addressed.

For the record, on a couple of occasions, pre year 2000, there were
discussions between MIS and myself.

Lastly, I will make some comments re the test that is currently on your site
and I hope you consider the suggestions irrespective of your new posting. We
discussed this briefly.

Good luck
Howard


"John Keeley" <duvinrouge (AT) servihoo (DOT) com> wrote

John

Thank you for the discussion earlier. Below is an extract from your email of
27 August 2003.

"I'm conscious that neither my website nor my newsgroup postings make hardly
any reference to your product. I can't do this until I've looked at it
myself & assessed the functionality. From what you've shown me it looks
good; especially the dynamic narratives. ..... I see my website as
encouraging the better BI solutions & as a counter balance to the marketing
hype of some of the big boys, ... This adds up to AS with Excel add-ins.
This should include your product; don't you think?"
At this point I think it appropriate to point out how we know each other.

- Through one of the user groups we made contact in about December 2001.

- I demoed what was possible within the MS AS environment, although O2OLAP
was not nearly ready for market at this stage. This was when you were at
Chaucer.

- I put you in touch with a UK based consultancy to help you with the setup
of the SQL relational side of things as we were only concentrating on
developing O2OLAP for AS at this point.

- Subsequent to this you went on a sunny sabbatical.

- Although we kept in contact over time we then met up in London and demoed
O2OLAP. I think this was in July this year. You requested a copy at this
point. We have hung off supplying you with a copy and we have discussed the
reasons why today. I do not think anything further needs to be said other
than some of my reasons were justified by your announcement today. I do
appreciate you were trying to supply information to the market as
objectively as you could.

As I mentioned to you at the meeting in July the only competitor I rated on
the market is the one you are going to work for. So good luck. This was
prior to your announcement today. The company is a good company despite the
slanted comments made by one of the commentators on the market. My contact
with this commentator is to be detailed in a separate thread as this needs
to now be addressed.

For the record, on a couple of occasions, pre year 2000, there were
discussions between MIS and myself.

Lastly, I will make some comments re the test that is currently on your site
and I hope you consider the suggestions irrespective of your new posting. We
discussed this briefly.

Good luck
Howard


"John Keeley" <duvinrouge (AT) servihoo (DOT) com> wrote