Thursday, September 17, 2009

My first impression of the Palo Worksheet Server 3

Recently I got a change to download Palo Worksheet Server 3, I was planning to build a small test case and impress some people at work with what Palo can do. But I'm not sure if I should really show too much of the Worksheet Server during my presentation after I started playing with it a bit more. Here is why:

  • Pros:
    • The frontend of Worksheet Server looks nice.
    • The Charts and Micro Charts look nice.
    • Many people won't think of Palo as a full BI tool if it doesn't provide it's own frontend
  • Cons:
    • Why did Jedox release a software that is so unstable? I'm always worried to do too much in a worksheet because I don't know whats gonna happen next. Will i get lots of "value?" Will my session end and I loose my data? (Just happened)
    • If you are used to Excel & Google Docs you get impatient, some of the context menus are too slow.
After working with it for half a day I wouldn't let a client create his own reports, the frustration level would probably be too high. Am I alone with that opinion?

4 comments:

cuboo said...

No, you are not ... I like the ETL-Server which suits very well for palo, but I faced lots of problems using the worksheet-server ... quite buggy. Hope you felling well in Canada! the best, Lars

George said...

Hi. Any updates on this topic?

Is a copy of your thesis available to read?

Benjamin said...

Hi,
I haven't had a close look at Palo lately but I'm pretty sure they improved by now. The latest version on their website is Palo Web 3.1 from December 2009 (http://www.jedox.com/de/download/Palo-Downloads/download.html).

I wish I could publish my thesis but the company I worked for didn't want it to be published because of customer data in it. I might be able to help you if you have specific questions.

George Herson said...

It's work, but customer data can usually be de-identified.

I'm at an early stage of comparative research, so currently no questions. Thanks though!