I first heard about Palo last year after finding a thread on OLAP Forums in a Google search for open source Cognos TM1 alternatives.

While I did download the software last year, I didn't get around to installing it. Jedox recently released version 3.0 of the software, and I've just started looking at it.

I really have to say that I'm impressed, and I've only scratched the surface. The documentation is professionally written, complete, and best of all, free. Palo also offers a web-based spreadsheet interface that is super-polished (to me, it's significantly nicer than TM1), and offers a nice selection of charting features, including microcharts and analog gauges (which I'm not a fan of, but there's no accounting for taste).

The Excel plugin has a similar feel to the one provided by TM1 as well.

I haven't been able to dig deeper, because I'd like to use a different data set from the provided sample, but I'll get there soon.

While I'm not ready to give this product a thumbs up, based on my cursory experience with the tool, I do strongly suggest that prospective TM1 buyers take a close look at this tool. At the very least, you can use it as a negotiating chip when you start talking about the pricing on TM1.

I've just installed Palo and started playing with it.

I haven't been able to dig very deep into the OLAP portion of it, but there are a couple of things worth mentioning.

The software is quite easy to install, and the web GUI is quite polished. As nice, if not nicer than its more famous, more expensive competitors.

Stay tuned.