Information Builders Announces New Visual BI Capabilities

WebFOCUS New Report Enhancements Include Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and PowerPoint Output

NEW YORK, May 25, 2004 -- Information Builders, the leader in enterprise business intelligence (BI) and real-time Web reporting, today announced several new visual features to WebFOCUS, including new PowerPoint reporting integration and scalable vector graphics (SVG). Typically, business intelligence tools have represented information in a two-dimensional manner. WebFOCUS' visual business intelligence capabilities change this model by offering any level user the ability to see summary and detail data with an interactive and three-dimensional approach -- a complete paradigm shift for analysis and reporting.

The new release of WebFOCUS enables the creation of graphs in a SVG output format. Vector-based graphics are fundamentally different from image formats, such as GIF or JPEG because SVG is not pixel-based and therefore allow perfectly smooth curves and angular image elements. WebFOCUS SVG capabilities offer graphics of the highest quality for creating outward-facing materials, such as annual reports, brochures, invoices and billing statements. The result is clean, crisp illustrative charts and graphs for printing and distribution.

In addition to SVG, graphs in WebFOCUS can now be produced in Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format. This is a pixel-based format that supports much greater color depth than GIF.

WebFOCUS' visual business intelligence features now also include the capability to save an active dashboard as a PowerPoint slide. Business intelligence solutions typically offer the option to save data in different outputs for varying purposes, such as Excel for data manipulation and analysis, PDF for printing, or HTML for viewing. WebFOCUS scales to more types of users by offering the ability to export directly to PowerPoint.

"Organizations use business intelligence to illustrate how the business is meeting set goals and how to affect those goals," said Kevin Quinn, vice president for Information Builders' product marketing. "Often the most effective way to present this is through Microsoft PowerPoint. Exporting to PowerPoint as a means to display business intelligence findings in a slide presentation is a powerful but natural progression for WebFOCUS. Through this feature, WebFOCUS now offers more output options than any other business intelligence solution in the market."

These new enhancements to the way WebFOCUS can output reports complement the existing capabilities, which include Web service, Excel, PDF, HTML, e-mail, FTP, network printers, and fax.

About Summit

Summit is Information Builders' annual users conference. Established in 1985, it is the leading product education conference for Information Builders' WebFOCUS, FOCUS, and iWay Software. Summit provides an extensive educational forum on Information Builders' business intelligence and integration solutions, and is a showcase for Information Builders future products. For more information, go to http://www.informationbuilders.com/summit.

About Information Builders

Information Builders, a $300 million company, is the leader in enterprise business intelligence and real-time Web reporting. The company's WebFOCUS product -- the industry's most secure and flexible -- is able to meet all the reporting needs of the extended enterprise, ranging from analysts to power users to the widest deployments for hundreds of thousands of users. Additionally, WebFOCUS' empowerment of organizations seeking to leverage all their data by accessing it all -- from legacy to data warehouse -- is unmatched.

Information Builders' award-winning technology has successfully provided quality software and superior services for 29 years to more than 12,000 customers, including most of the Fortune 100 and U.S. federal government agencies. Headquartered in New York City with 90 offices worldwide, the company employs 1,750 people, and has over 350 business partners.

SOURCE Information Builders

Web Site: http://www.informationbuilders.com