>Hi Tom,
>
>Thanks for the info on your experience with Crystal.
>
>Just curious, how is Cognos implemented? DLL? OCX? Stand-alone EXE? Got a price?
>
>Thanks,
>Paul

Paul;

It is a number of exe's, and so far I use three of them. One is used for drill down types of reports and is called PowerPlay. It is a multidimensional analysis tool. You can import text, data, spreadsheets, etc. and do amazing things. Another product is called Impromptu and is used to create standard and ad hoc reports. The third one I use is called Transformer for OLAP Modeling.

I am using these tools with SQL Server, Oracle, 4D (Mac) and VFP tables. We are able to create complex data analysis or simple reports. I have no idea of the price and will find out. This is the most powerful report tool I have used. By the look of the training facility I went to I would say there is a great deal of money involved.

The final reports, data cubes, etc. are stored on a server. We are using it through our corporate Intranet. After creation you deploy to a server. It also has security and you can define who can see what, etc. We have it integrated with Lotus Notes and I am using it for stand-alone reports (no Lotus notes or browsers) as well as Intranet (no Lotus notes) solutions.

Tom