Revelation Plans to Unveil OpenInsight 9.0 in Fourth Quarter; New Release to be Featured in Fall 2008 Training
Revelation Software plans to introduce the next major release of its flagship product in the fourth quarter of this year. A key element of the new release will be Web OI, which has two important capabilities, Mike Ruane, president and CEO of Revelation, told 5 Minute Briefing. “It lets existing developers of OpenInsight applications take their existing forms and support routines and transfer them to the Web with a minimum amount of work,” he said. Additionally, he noted, “it lets them - from an entirely Web-based platform - design screens, tables, reports, etc., and build the Web-based application there that goes against the OpenInsight engine and database.” Other product features in OpenInsight 9.0 will include a new forms designer, as well as a new look and feel, said Bob Catalano, director of sales.
Revelation also announced its fall training class schedule, running from September through December. Courses range from Introduction to OpenInsight, to Advanced Topics in OpenInsight, as well as classes specifically focused on What's New in OpenInsight 9.0.
“In just counting programs that already exist in OpenInsight that we had to modify, we had over 3,600 different programs or entities that were changed,” noted Ruane. “In the Web OI product, because it is Web-based, we have a couple of hundred design templates, help screens, menus, examples, so it is an overwhelming amount of change. Unless someone actually spends time to show what is new, people will not know about it. And it is a lot more than we can show by doing an onsite road show or just a quick demonstration.” About two hours of the overview course on OpenInsight 9.0 will be devoted to Web OI, with more concentrated training classes to be held following the release, Catalano added.
Revelation also wrapped up its annual conference in Las Vegas in May. “We were a little concerned with the economy that the attendance would be down,” said Ruane. But attendance was “pretty much spot on” with last year, he said. And though some customers were not able to make the show because of scheduling conflicts, he said, “the amazing part is that probably a third of the attendees were people we had never seen before.” Next year's show is likely to be held in the spring or fall in Austin, TX, said Ruane. For more details on the Revelation's fall training schedule and a recap of the users' conference, go here.
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MITS and Asynchron Systems Announce Reseller Relationship
MITS, provider of online analytical processing (OLAP) business intelligence and operational reporting solutions, and Asynchron Systems, a technology solution provider specializing in development for PICK MultiValue databases, have announced a new reseller agreement aimed at providing business intelligence capabilities to the markets served by Asynchron Systems.
MITS products include MITS Discover OLAP Business Intelligence System for MultiValue platforms. Its newer product, MITS Report, which enables enterprises using a wide range of technology platform, including MultiValue and relational systems, to quickly launch complete operational reporting environments.
MITS will provide product support primarily to Asynchron Systems, which prefers to service its own clients directly, according to MITS president Fred Owen. “Part of our go-to-market strategy at MITS includes customers like Asynchron Systems - companies who want to use our products to meet their customers’ needs, and as a means to stay in front of those customers, providing opportunities for additional services.”
Asynchron Systems, which serves the large PICK installed base in greater Toronto, specializes in helping customers renew their legacy systems. Part of that modernization - and an important component in many newly developed systems - focuses on decision support, analytics, and business intelligence. Seth Blumenstein, president of Asynchron, noted at the time of the announcement that he expects MITS Discover to become an important tool in meeting his customers’ needs in this area. “The Toronto area has a huge installed base of PICK users, and I think there’s a good opportunity here,” he said.
“With business intelligence,” he added, “rather than reinvent it, we believe in finding the best tools out there to add value to our client relationships. This kind of tool serves as an introduction into some potential new clients, and lets me deliver quickly when my existing clients have the need.”
For more details on MITS software solutions, contact a MITS representative at info@mits.com or visit the MITS Web site. For more details on Asynchron Systems’s full-service technology solutions, go here.
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Entrinsik and Campana Systems Partner to Offer Real-Time Reporting to AAA/CAA Auto Club Customers
Campana Systems, a provider of integrated information solutions for the AAA/CAA auto club industry, and Entrinsik, an industry leader in providing reporting systems for the IBM U2 family of database products, have announced a partnership to provide Campana's AXIS customers with Informer, a feature-rich reporting tool for extracting data and generating reports in real time via the Web.
Campana's AXIS
product suite, which includes member relationship management, emergency
road service, membership, travel, point of sale and financial toolkits
are used by auto clubs through to deliver improved service, build
stronger member relationships and increase member retention.
The decision to offer Informer as an optional add-on module to the AXIS suite was made following a Webinar earlier this year. The Webinar, which was co-produced by Campana and Entrinsik, showcased the reporting tool to 41 of Campana's customers, Doug Leupen, president of Entrinsik, told 5 Minute Briefing. “They responded very favorably, with lots of pent-up demand, so that was the deciding point,” he said.
“By partnering with Entrinsik, our AXIS customers will benefit from enhanced reporting capabilities, including the ability to quickly and securely retrieve real time data using Informer's easy to use and intuitive platform and view the information in familiar desktop formats like PDF, Microsoft Excel and HTML,” said Pierre Lapalme, director of sales and marketing, Capana Systems, in making the announcement.
For more on AXIS, go here. For more on Entrinsik, go here.
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Phase One of SB/XA and UniData 7.2 Soon Generally Available; Registration Now Open for U2 University 2008
The IBM U2 group will release phase one of SystemBuilder Extensible Architecture (SB/XA) on June 30. It combines SB+ with a totally new Client, based on Windows Vista technology, Susie Siegesmund, director, U2 Data Services IBM Information Management, told 5 Minute Briefing. Utilizing XAML, WPF, and WCF, the product will provide customers with state-of-the-art display capabilities for their applications.
Additionally, according to Siegesmund, UniData 7.2, planned for a July 31 release, features many enhancements, including dictionary-controlled automated encryption of data at rest, an important enhancement for customers facing regulatory compliance in the area of security. “There are also two new Eclipse-based tools: the U2 BASIC Development Toolkit, which is more than simply a code editor, and the Extensible GUI UniAdmin Tool, called XAdmin,“ Siegesmund noted.
Registration is now open for the U2 University conferences to be held August 5-7 in Sydney, Australia; September 16-18 in San Diego, CA; and October 7-9 in Atlanta, GA. The fourth U2 University conference of the year will be held October 28-30 in Telford, U.K. Registration will be open soon for the that event, as well.
Conference highlights are expected to include a keynote address by Siegesmund, plus 37 unique technical sessions with a focus on information to advance attendees' U2 expertise, more repeating sessions to ensure multiple opportunities to attend popular sessions, opportunities to meet face-to-face with leading U2 experts, complimentary certification exams, networking lunches, in-depth product roadmaps, birds-of-a-feather sessions and pre-conference tutorial sessions.
For more on the U2 family of products and for details on the upcoming U2 University conferences, go here.
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Ashwood Offers Disk to Disk Backup Solution for IBM Users
Ashwood Computer is providing FastBac, a customized Backup Configuration Solution, designed specifically for IBM UniData or UniVerse database users. FastBac is intended to provide U2 user sites with a low overhead method of acquiring fast and accurate data backups and restores, regardless of the time of day.
With FastBac, Rod Owens, president of Ashwood, told 5 Minute Briefing, periodically during the day a snapshot which takes less than a second is taken of the database “without shutting the system off and taking people off of it.” This is particularly valuable to those people who run 24x7 and can't shut down for several hours to do a backup, he explained.
“A lot of the sites that we work with have little or no window for backup. This is the main reason we do FastBac,” said Doug Owens, vice president. “Users can be on accessing records and reports,” he said. “They won't even notice the backups taking place.”
According to Doug Owens, “We can back up to disk or tape libraries or local or remote servers. Fastbak is really a product for addition - it is a utility for addition to a company's overall backup or business continuity plan. You still continue to do your tape backups but Fastbak being disk-based allows for a lot faster recovery of information.”
The FastBac solution includes: comprehensive review of the user's current backup procedures; update of the user's operating system to a recommended level; update of the user's disk configuration; update of the user's U2 to a recommended revision level; customized shell scripts for backups. With FastBac, backups and restores are network-accessible, reducing the time it takes to perform either process.
“We have got ports to Windows and HP-UX, Solaris and Linux coming soon,” said Doug Owens, “but right now it is just U2 and AIX.” For more information send an email to dougo@ashwoodcomputer.com or visit here.
Sierra Bravo Opens Chicago Office
Bloomington, MN-based Sierra Bravo has opened an office in Chicago to further its Partner Program initiatives with advertising and marketing agencies - and their end-clients. “Our Chicago office is really a sales office to let us work in the Partner Program in that market and also work with existing customers, a lot of which are MultiValue,” Mark Hurlburt, director of marketing, Sierra Bravo, told 5 Minute Briefing. “We are growing fast and we are trying to find ways to support that growth.”
According to Hurlburt, “this is part of an ongoing strategy for us, the first of our regional sales offices. We have designs on opening another two or three sales offices within the next year. We are looking at a lot of different markets, including Los Angles, New York and Dallas.” The new offices will help the company provide “some boots-on-the-ground, front-line support for our end-clients that are in those areas and also continue to work on this partner approach that we have.”
Through its Partner Program, the Web programmers, interface designers
and database engineers of Sierra Bravo add online functionality
to the creative concepts of design and communications professionals
at large ad agencies and boutique marketing shops.
“Our company is very much a big room full of nerds and we are trying to find additional groups who can use that expertise that we have been able to gather here,” said Hurlburt, explaining that in addition to Sierra Bravo's direct clients which include a lot of MultiValue users who require technical help, “we have found that there is a lot of need in the advertising and marketing agencies.” The company's new Chicago offices are at 300 S. Wacker Drive, Suite 2300, Chicago, IL, 60606. For more on Sierra Bravo, go here.
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