If you told anyone that you could take one part Excel, add a little PHP to the mix, stir gently, bake - and the result? A simple worksheet server that takes an Excel spreadsheet (complete with formulas and so on), analyzes it and generates PHP code ready for deployment on a web server.

Once the application is deployed, you can then hook it with basically any pesistent store that PHP supports, including LDAP, ODBC and OLAP (I guess the latter is something Jedox have developed themselves), allowing users to modify the data within the "PHP spreadsheet". On the site they talk about SAP integration as well, and have some very impressive demos. And naturally there's SOAP support (client and server)...

This can be a life-saver for anyone out there that has had to work with a tax department or anyone that's stuck in an Excel world. Just fire up the worksheet server, show your people where to put the files, and sit back and let the magic happen.

The downside? It's not something that just anyone can afford out there - the smallest license starts at about $2,900 USD (3.495 Euro).