We met as co-workers working together to build Essbase systems for the company we are employed by. Along the way we became more than co-workers, we became friends. Here we are today, co-workers, friends, and now co-authors.

Hi all, this is Sarma here, first I would like to thank my beloved Lord Sri Sathya Sai Baba for giving me an opportunity to write this book. Huge thanks to my wonderful wife Kalyani for being so patient with my late nights, and for her faithful support in writing this book, without her tremendous support this book would not be possible. Special thanks to my sweet kids Sai (8 years old) and Saranya (3 years old) for sacrificing their fun and playtime with me. Many thanks to my father and mother for giving me sincere encouragement while writing this book. Thanks to all my special friends who supported me while writing this book. Lastly my utmost thanks to my dearest friend Joe Gomez for his help and cooperation during this challenging period.

Hi everyone, Joe here. Boy, that’s a tough act to follow but I’ll try. First and foremost, I would like to thank my lovely wife Rita, my beautiful daughter Ashley and my son Joey for putting up with me (or avoiding me), encouraging me, and supporting me during my distracted state while I was involved in writing this book. I especially want to thank my true friend Sarma Anantapantula for asking me if I would like to join him on this venture because I certainly wouldn’t have thought of it on my own!

Collectively, we would like to thank James Lumsden, Acquisition Editor, without whom we would have never written this book or very likely, any other book! Our special thanks go to Bhupali Khule, Technical Editor, for seamlessly working with us to complete this book and Pallavi Kachare, Technical Editor, for performing the code reviews. Our special thanks also go to Ved Prakash Jha, Development Editor, and Rajashree Hamine, Project Coordinator, for making sure we are on target for the launch. We would also like to thank the entire Packt staff for all of their help and guidance throughout the completion of this book. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their reviews and suggestions.

Finally we really want to thank all of you who purchased this book. We have put every bit of our Essbase knowledge and experience into this book so you can avoid some of the inevitable pitfalls of learning a new piece of technology. We hope you feel that you made a worthwhile purchase. We certainly feel you did!