Building OLAP style applications with SalesForce/Apex

Question

We are considering moving a planning and budgeting app to the Salesforce platform. The existing app is built on a dimensional data model, and has extensive ad-hoc query capability implemented through star joins.

We see how the platform will allow us to put together the data entry screens quickly, but the underlying datamodel and query languages do not seem suitable for our reporting requirements.

Is it possible to have fast and flexible reporting with this platform? If not, how cumbersome is it to extract the data on a regular basis to bring it into an analytical application?

Answer 1

Hmm - I guess I answer my own question? The relative silence on this (even with bounty- who wants to have anything to do with something that is ignored on stackoverflow?) is a kind of answer.

So - No, this platform is not well suited for applications that have any kind of ROLAP requirements. I guess shame on me for asking a silly question, but I welcome any responses...