Information Builders Inc’s Focus Release 5.7 has joined that rare breed – a third-party fourth generation language for the AS/400: hitherto Cognos Inc’s PowerHouse was the only offering that sprang to mind and both companies apparently spent many months closeted in IBM labs in Rochester to pull off the feat so we’ll brook no IBM crowing about the AS/400 being an open system; this new version of Focus offers decision support and analysis directly on the AS/400 native database enabling the user to have direct access, query and formatting facilities to all OS/400 data and applications as well as connectivity to PC Focus, the use of TableTalk and Dialogue Manager.
