October 8th, 2007
Making Excel better with open source
For companies that still base their planning on Microsoft Excel speed can be a big issue. (The book, unfortunately, is in Hungarian.)
By keeping processed data in memory the new Palo Server from Germany speeds the processing of Excel queries by a factor of 10. And the open API means you can plug other applications in easily, if you’re not an Excel-head.
Now you want to know what’s really neat about this solution? Yes, it’s open source. The company behind Palo Server, Jedox GmbH, specializes in enterprise solutions using Excel, and claims 20% of the country’s top public companies use its software.
It’s another reminder, if one were needed, that open source works as an enterprise business model, and that open source need not conflict with Microsoft software.
The company’s home page is filled with apparent contradictions — an SAP business partner bug and a patent free bug below it — but these are not contradictions. Or at least, they don’t need to be.
Peace out from Freiberg.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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