Focus on BI

Information Builders has introduced Version 5 of its WebFocus software, which is said to offer more than 450 new features.

The new Java servlet-based implementation significantly minimizes hardware requirements while providing a completely "open" environment that allows WebFocus 5 to deliver content to any third-party portals.

Information Builders says key new features include:

Comprehensive information management and delivery. WebFocus 5 is said to streamline information distribution, storage and retrieval to individuals as well as to a library archiving in any relational database.

Closed-loop business intelligence. The company reports that though a single, integrated environment, BI systems can be enhanced with transactional forms and data maintenance capabilities, enabling users to update information displayed on their browsers from any data source.

Support for Web services. Any WebFocus report can be created and published as a Web service callable from J2EE or .Net environments.

Improved financial reporting capabilities. The new offering is said to simplify creation and maintenance of complex financial reports such as profit and loss statements and balance sheets by dynamically reading the chart of accounts.

User query and analysis. Power user improvements include pure thin-client tools that enable organizations to deploy ad hoc and OLAP capabilities on a broad scale to users through the extended enterprise. An enhanced intuitive interface empowers non-technical business users to quickly and easily generate all types of ad hoc reports and to conduct in-depth analysis using nothing more than a Web browser, with no plug-ins required.