This was a great series of posts and I am going to risk controversy by saying that the post Steve wrote was the easiest to relate to - probably because...

I’m not 100% sure what you mean by a “front end application that will accommodate the above”, but I think SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) will accomplish what you are...

If you're trying to create a result set from a single select then my suggestion won't work, but you could use a variable to achieve this:

declare @countOfAll decimal(5, 2)

select @countOfAll...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. I do use cursors when I get stuck and I'm anxious to see if I am able to pick up any new ticks.