[snowfly]

I operate a SQL server database consisting of several tables of which some have between 3 and 4 million records. Reports from this database are available to users throughout the country through accessing a secure website. Currently, these reports are created as Crystal reports. However, I am looking at a solution whereby I can create the reports in Excel (I am more interested in functional reports than in 'pretty' reports) and embed these reports as pivot tables or other spreadsheets on the website.

I know I can save an excel spreadsheet as a web page and upload such spreadsheets on the website. However, I am being told that because of the underlying data of the spreadsheet being quite large, it will take the users ages to open the spreadsheets on the website.

Is this really the case? Are there some techniques that I can apply to reduce the opening time of these spreadsheet/pivot tables very significantly? Or are there any other solutions or software that will make it possible for me to add these spreadsheets/pivot tables to the web site effectively/efficiciently?

Thanks for any suggestions.