The first step in any software project is to define the objective. We could spend a lot of time writing a requirements document with great care. But, users and the developers rarely interpret the words in the same way. It is far more effective to build a small-scale prototype that looks and behaves like the target solution. We deliver our OLAP prototype in two phases:

1.	We spend a day at your offices to develop a standalone Excel prototype. The prototype will include some sample data that is transformed into an Excel Pivot table and associated charts.
2.	Working off-site, we analyze your data sources and computing environment to deliver an implementation plan for a production report.

Once the prototype is completed, we will have enough knowledge to submit a competitive fixed bid to develop the production report.

This fixed cost custom development service will get you started for a small investment that could pay for itself within 90 days. The GL Starter Cube includes:

	Balance Sheet that you can drill down hierarchically through account rollups
	Profit and Loss Statement that you can drill down
	Custom Account Rollup Dimension: a ragged hierarchy based on your chart of accounts.
	Up to five additional dimensions. For example, you might choose [Transaction Period], [Client / Customer], [Product], [Location] and [Vendor]. Any of these dimensions may be ragged hierarchies.
	At least two on-site visits: one at the beginning and one at the end of the project.
	SQL Server 2000 installed and configured, if necessary.
	General Ledger data mart configured and installed in SQL Server 2000.
	A custom Data Transformation Services (DTS) package that automatically updates your GL data mart each day with new transactions from your accounting system.
	Excel macro that automatically refreshes OLAP pivot tables so that you always see the most recent updates.
	Excel macro that support drill through to transaction journal entries.

* Please refer to the software prerequisites below for an itemized list of the Microsoft products that must be purchased separately and installed on your PCs.

All of our services require:

Microsoft Excel 2002 / Office XP: provides significant enhancements to OLAP-based PivotTable reports such as multiple member selections in page-level dimension drop-down menus and support for OLAP member properties. It will be less expensive to upgrade to Office XP before we start than to workaround limitations and incompatibilities between Excel and SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services later on.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000: If your organization already owns a SQL Server 2000 license, we can deploy our OLAP solution on an existing SQL Server 2000 instance. Otherwise, SQL Server 2000 trial software can be downloaded from Microsoft or you can purchase a SQL Server 2000 license from Microsoft or your favorite software distributor. There is a variety of SQL Server 2000 licensing options starting with Standard Edition and 5 client access licenses (CALS) @ $1,500.