Heterogeneous data at a plurality of remote nodes is accessed automatically in parallel at high speed from a user site using a simple script request containing a data source object name wherein the heterogeneous data is treated as a single data source object, the script further containing at least one method to be performed on the data source object and at least a second method to be automatically performed on the results of executing the first method. A user site agent breaks the user-generated script into new scripts appropriate for execution at the remote nodes and determines whether the second method should be executed at the remote nodes or at the user site. A messenger process transmits the new scripts to the appropriate remote nodes where respective agent processes respond to automatically access the appropriate data and to automatically execute the specified methods.