2. What steps are used to create a report using Maxene Reporter™?
1. The process begins with the template file, which is the foundation of the report. The spreadsheet that is designed by the end-user which contains the specific layout and location of information that the end-user wishes to review and analyze.

2. The developer creates a new report in Maxene Reporter and uses standard tools in Microsoft® Excel to associate presentation of data to extract into the template file.

3. Depending on the complexity, a Developer can use Visual Basic® to create macros and formulas to be called during report execution.

4. The User schedules a job within Maxene Reporter to create reports and then distributes them to any number of recipients.

3. What distinguishes Maxene Reporter™ from other reporting applications?
Maxene Reporter™ may look like other reporting tools; however, other available applications only enable data or information to be presented in pre-defined format. Maxene Reporter™ automates the population of data in spreadsheets designed by end-users, allowing you to interact with the data presented.

What also distinguishes Maxene Reporter™ from other tools is that it energizes data presentation, analysis, and processing, allowing all end-users the capability to quickly make key decisions that impact its business.

Many business users recognize the power of spreadsheet software such as Microsoft® Excel. According to our research, most of these users prefer getting business reports presented to them in the form of spreadsheets. The problem is that there are no easy-to-use software applications that create reports for end-users using spreadsheets that have been created by the end-users themselves.

One of the fundamental challenges in using spreadsheets is automating the input of information required by any particular spreadsheet. In fact, the power of a spreadsheet is restricted by the amount of information a user can manually enter into it.

Other reporting applications are used to present data in passive formats or layouts without the ability to interact with the information or any kind of a device to analyze the data. If they do have this feature, they duplicate the functionality in spreadsheet applications, usually resulting in a feature set that is incomplete and unsatisfying.

4. What is meant by the term "multiple data sources"?
Reports in Maxene Reporter™ can contain multiple queries. Queries are the fundamental data extraction tools used within these reports. Reports are designed so that queries are executed in a specific order.

Each query is independent of any other in that it is configured with its own set of inputs, outputs and most importantly, its ODBC database.

This means that you can create a report in which one query accesses information from, for example Customer Service or CRM database, and another query accesses information from the Accounting or ERP database and populates data within the same spreadsheet.

A Query may also be designed to be dependent on another query such that the data generated by the latter query is provided as an input to the former query.

These features enable you to create powerful reports based on multiple data sources.

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5. Are there any limitations to spreadsheet-based reports that I design or develop?
Maxene Reporter™ does not have any of its own limitations in terms of the complexity or sophistication of reports developed. The limitations imposed lie within the spreadsheet application itself. There are certain inherent limitations within Microsoft® Excel, such as an upper limit of 65,536 rows in any worksheet and a maximum number of worksheets in a workbook.

It is important to recognize, however, that these limitations far exceed any reasonably expected volume of data in a management information report that a decision-maker would present or analyze in a spreadsheet.

6. Is Maxene Reporter™ accessible over the Internet?
Maxene Reporter™ is a web-enabled application. This means that you install it on a server within your network and users access the functionality via web browsers. The server on which it is installed can be configured so that it can either be accessed only within the network, or from outside the network over the Internet.

7. Why is it better to use Maxene Reporter™ instead of the ability of Microsoft® Excel to execute queries?
When you embed queries within a spreadsheet, you need to open and view the spreadsheet on a desktop machine that is suitably connected to the data source. This means that if you have a department of several people sharing a spreadsheet, every person in the group has to have their computer configured to access the data source. Not only does this create a huge administrative overhead, it virtually eliminates "on the go" report use

With Maxene Reporter™, the report is generated on a server that is configured with all of the data sources, a much easier administration and configuration task. If you choose email as the delivery option, the e-mailed spreadsheets can then be opened up by recipients even when not connected to the network - without the sometimes ugly errors that might otherwise be presented due to lack of data access.

Maxene Reporter™ also allows easier population of a sub-section of a worksheet i.e. several columns and rows easily. Its ability to allow dependent queries in a report also lets you easily set up dependencies across data sets.

Finally, Maxene Reporter™ enables the creation of a development infrastructure for spreadsheet reports. This is a scalable and secure environment for long-term development of critical spreadsheet reports and data access and analysis infrastructure.

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