>> a pivot table that can work on a relational dataset in a SQL server, without downloading the whole table as a join as a first step.

You can do that with PowerPivot + SQL Server Analysis Services, no? Requires SQL Server and SSAS licenses, though.

>> SQL is useful to developers, but you can't expect business users to write complex queries.

True. I remember reading/hearing somewhere that it was originally designed to be used by business people as well, but it didn't really turn out that way.

I wanted to add that QueryStorm isn't just a pretty IDE:) It's a runtime as well. IT people can use it to prepare interactive reports that they can then share with business people.

E.g. you change the value of a cell in Excel, a query is triggered in the background that uses that cell's value as a parameter, and updates an Excel table with the results. The query can use Excel tables and cells as well as outside databases. The user is just interacting with the workbook, without typing any SQL.

I also added a QuickQueries dialog that can generate/run some useful queries. You can use it to do stuff without knowing SQL e.g. find outliers (people whose salary is > +2 stdevs for their jobtitle). The idea is to make it useful to non-techy people and to give techy people ideas of what it can do and a starting point for more complex queries.