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.