WebFOCUS

WebFOCUS is a business intelligence (BI) platform and the flagship product of Information Builders. (Through their iWay Software subsidiary, this New York-based company also makes software for system integration and Service-oriented_architecture (SOA).) As a result of consolidation in the business intelligence industry, it is one of few remaining independent BI vendors.

Information Builders deployed WebFOCUS in 1996, making it the first major Web-based BI platform. (For example, Cognos Reportnet launched in the fall of 2003 [cite web | title=Cognos Strengthens ReportNet Integration | url=http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Database/Cognos-Strengthens-ReportNet-Integration/ | accessdate=September 26 | accessyear=2008 ] , and Business Objects [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Objects_(company) introduced WebIntelligence in 1997] .) From its first release, WebFOCUS used a purely Web-based architecture with no plug-ins.

Information Builders claims that WebFOCUS enables a different approach to BI, focusing on BI applications and embedded BI rather than tools. "BI tools – report design, ad hoc query, and OLAP tools – ...are not, however, what business users need.... BI applications...are much simpler to use than BI tools." [cite web | title=Worst Practices In Business Intelligence | url=http://www.informationbuilders.com/cgi-shell/products/whitepaper/whitepaper_form.pl?Whitepaper_Code=WHTWorst | accessdate=September 26 | accessyear=2008 ] This mentality is encapsulated in the slogan "Everyone Makes Decisions".

To further this message, Information Builders claims that WebFOCUS "empowers the largest business intelligence deployments in the world...with deployments to millions of users" [cite web | title=Information Builders Responds to IBM's Acquisition of Cognos | url=http://www.informationbuilders.com/cgi-shell/press/intpr/f_intpr.pl?intpr_code=11_14_07_ibmcognos | accessdate=September 26 | accessyear=2008 ] and is "the most widely utilized BI platform". [cite web | title=About Us | url=http://www.informationbuilders.com/about_us/index.html | accessdate=September 26 | accessyear=2008 ]

Gartner notes this difference in philosophy in its February 2008 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms [cite web | title=February 2008 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms | url=http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/vol7/article3/article3.html | accessdate=September 26 | accessyear=2008 ] , noting that Information Builders shows a consistent ability to execute "particularly in very large extranet applications, with a high number of 10,000-plus seat deployments" but cautioning that "Information Builders has been more successful at giving customers the ability to build analytic applications than it has at delivering end-user analysis tools."

In addition, WebFOCUS differs from its competitors through its use of iWay Software's integration middleware. The wholly owned subsidiary's technology "makes Information Builders' BI platform one of the best connected in the market, and much better suited to supporting operational reporting than most other vendors." [cite web | title=February 2008 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms | url=http://mediaproducts.gartner.com/reprints/microsoft/vol7/article3/article3.html | accessdate=September 26 | accessyear=2008 ]

See also

* iWay Software
* Information Builders

References