Andy - You've just described a great business case for selling (profit margin) and installing (billable time) and configuring (billable time) and training users on (billable time) a product called FoxFire!
Companies, imo, WANT this type of data and reports that you've described, and they don't have their database organized in a way thats meaningful - ie - truly relational with PK's and FK's. Most SMB's will not want to put in sql anything, as they don't have the money to keep the expertise in house. They aren't gonna wanna 'try' an instance of Business Objects - they don't have the expertise to put their datastores into Oracle or Sql Server, and they mostly just sell their own products , hoping to keep track of inventory, invoicing, and sales. FoxFire! on the other hand, works with ANY kind of data (including VFP data) and can produce the types of reports you're asking about. The thing that I find a cool kick in the pants is the real time preview of the report as one is designing it. For an end-user at a secretary level - this is a fabulous thing. I also see it as a strategic sales / project time / revenue stream for me in the near future. Check out http://www.foxfirereporting.com ---- [from Dave] My point was that end-user reporting is often an add-on for (or uses data from) existing systems that don't have the RI. Even with new systems there seems to be an increasing tendency not to put any logic - not even relational logic - on the database. ... I have yet to see a succesful implementation of any software that can really allow non-tech users to answer *un-anticipated* questions like "what were our profit margins for legacy products in the last 8 quarters" (let alone the questions that people really want answers to - like "what products will be big sellers in two years time"). ----- Again, I suggest you take a really hard look and eval of FoxFire! again - it's not a '20 minute' technical review - Install it, set up the metadata, define your dataspace, define relationships, and go forth. Surely you have datasets you can copy out from prior production for your own testing, yes? Warmest Regards [Bill] -- William Sanders / efGroup {rmv the DOT BOB to reply} _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
