Information Builders (IBI) has unveiled an enhanced version of its Active Reports portable business intelligence (BI) tool, with upgrades to the speed and quality of the tool's report-generation capabilities.
The company's WebFOCUS Active Reports tool now includes the ability to export charts and graphs from the original HTML file into Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, and Word, the company said. In addition, the time it takes for the tool to deliver reports to users has dropped to three seconds, from its previous average of 18 seconds.
In response to customer requests to have access to their BI data whether or not they are connected to the Internet, IBI designed the new version of Active Reports to deliver self-contained HTML files, which, after their initial download, reside wholly on a user's hard drive or network. IBI also added to Active Reports 95% of the most commonly used functions in Excel. This means users aren't required to have the deep knowledge often associated with configuring these functions in Excel, Rado Kotorov, IBI's director of strategic product management, told Managing Automation in an interview.
Kotorov said one major difference between the Active Reports product and other mobile BI tools is the fact that each Active Reports HTML page contains both the data and an accompanying analytic engine based on JavaScript technology. Competing tools, he suggested, might require a FLASH plug-in.
To get the original report file, users can click on a link provided by IBI or open an HTML attachment in an e-mail. Since the analytic engine is contained in the coding of the HTML file, once that file is downloaded, Active Reports requires users only to have access to a Web browser, which need not be connected to the Internet.
IBI estimates that users can generate an Active Reports file in 25% of the time it takes in Excel, based upon a click-by-click comparison study conducted by the company. It is not necessary to pre-configure parameters for functions such as pivot tables and rollup charting, as is necessary in Excel. Major analytic functions are accessible directly from a right-click menu, with no training required, company officials said.
For example, a factory manager monitoring output from 20 different machines can receive data in a single report containing information such as output volume, total volume, and total defects for any or all machines, or sort data from individual machines by volume, defects, or other specified filters directly from a right-click menu, without having to configure each function separately.
The resulting HTML file can then be e-mailed to other users within an organization featuring the same interactivity as the original report generator. There are no limits on distribution, Kotorov said.
Data can also be exported to other programs in their native formats, including PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. Data from a report can be posted to a Web site, for example, for performance management purposes, and accessed within an interactive dashboard.
WebFOCUS Active Reports was launched in March. The product's next point release, expected in November, will include further enhancements of its pivoting application. IBI declined to name specific customers of the latest version of Active Reports, but manufacturers using previous iterations of WebFOCUS include Buckman Labs, Ford Motor Co., Lockheed Martin, and Texas Instruments.
Active Reports has been well received by both existing IBI customers and new users, according to the company. Kotorov said there are currently more new users than existing customers using the product because of the nature of existing customers' upgrade cycles. Current WebFOCUS users can convert existing reports to the new Active Reports format, simply by saving the file in .htm format.
IBI has also added to its BI arsenal by recently bringing out an enterprise search capability based on Google's Search Appliance. IBI's iWay Enterprise Index marries the iWay product's application integration technology and the Google Search Appliance to enable quick access to information residing within various systems throughout an enterprise, the company said. The technology enables data capture without having to "crawl" databases, a process that Kotorov said can take days. The product works by indexing an incoming message's metadata separately from its text, making relevant data available for search within minutes.
In addition, IBI officials said WebFOCUS Power Painter, which produces reporting and analytics in a thin-client environment, is the first such product on the market using AJAX technology, which enables the production of compound data (multiple tables and graphs) in one report. Reports generated by Power Painter also can be custom styled and rearranged by a user based on his individual needs, Kotorov said.