DTS - wasn't sold, but use it more and more. I like the chaining features of different tasks, though it's mainly for simple tasks, like auto generating excel, my push ftp, doing filesystemobject type tasks, etc. It's quick and dirty, and in 2000, very reliable, imho. Of course, for mission critical stuff, I'd agree with Andy and probabl write code. Not sure if I'd use VB/DTS or .NET, probably depend on what it was.
OLAP - Took an online course (interesting) and learned quite a bit, but working for a strtup, there isn't enough data to use it for. I think it really would help in places where there is lots of data and you are looking for patterns. I started a project here, but it's an on my time deal, so not much support. Two places where I think it would have worked:
1. two jobs ago I worked for an importer. They sold hundreds of different items (raw materials) each day and had shipping considerations all over the US as well as planning for the imports from all over the world. I think OLAP would have helped the purchasing people as well as the shipping people in avraging the load they needed and smoothing out the bumps in the supply chain. When I left, they were still "winging" it.
2. Last job - Financial company that managed assets for different people. There was lots of data on trading activity and the "types" of things people did with their accounts (look up balances, check prices, etc.) We could have used this to "push" products (marketing) as well as anticipate better the load for different areas of the system.
Just my 2 cents. I think there are places it will work, but most of us are still learning and aren't sure where it helps.
Steve Jones