Information Builders Intros Quick Set-Up BI For VARsInformation Builders Intros Quick Set-Up BI For VARs

Information Builders and its subsidiary iWay Software introduced a quick set-up business-intelligence package for VARs and Web services software for IT managers during the company's Summit 2004 users conference this week.

Information Builders, New York, based its new offerings on its WebFOCUS business-intelligence software. A development environment and business-intelligence suite, WebFOCUS includes enterprise reporting, query and analysis tools, an integrated portal, extract-transform-load (ETL) data capabilities as well as the ability to distribute and manage information among corporate users.

One new offering, WebFOCUS Express, was created specifically for ISVs and VARs. "With few clicks, ISVs and VARs can install and configure WebFOCUS Express, including online tutorials," said Chris Banks, technical director of WebFOCUS product marketing. "The point is to assist partners in any engagement, for any system."

The entire Express package runs on a single Windows machine, so using default settings, VARs can quickly create and distribute Web-based information, the company said. With WebFOCUS Express, customers can access and process data in any format, from any platform--and present that information through a Web browser or in HTML, PDF and Microsoft Excel formats.

Also new from Information Builders is the WebFOCUS Performance Management Framework, a full set of tools and templates for helping IT organizations run their departments as a business. The framework enables IT managers to access budgetary, human resource and capacity planning data, for example, from any source. The software includes financial reporting, management methodologies, balanced scorecards, dashboards and performance metrics--enabling companies to monitor, analyze and manage their data centers.

New York-based iWay Software used the Summit 2004 conference to announce SOAPswitch 5.5, its version of Web services-creation software acquired last year from Actional Software. The iWay Web services engine now features tight integration with iWay's Universal Adapter Framework. As a result, all iWay adapters can now be invoked as a service, said Jake Frievald, director of product marketing at iWay software. "This makes it easy to turn anything that exists into a service," he said.

SOAPswitch uses a nine-step wizard to create and publish Web services, so users don't have to know or use custom code. SOAPswitch provides native support of both Java and Microsoft .Net.

Finally, iWay unveiled its Data Migrator RT (realtime) and Data Migrator data transformation software. As the names suggest, Data Migrator RT is aimed at transaction systems, while Data Migrator targets batch applications.

All products are available now.