The WebFocus Active Reports software lets users interactively analyze and report on BI data in an offline mode, while disconnected from the WebFocus server.
The new software launched this week goes under the name of Active Dashboards for WebFocus Active Reports and extends that interactive analysis and visualization capabilities beyond reports to dashboard components as well.
Information Builders said it has created a componentized API for its original Active Reports software that allows developers to create active dashboards that contain interactive tables and charts and access Active Reports on mobile devices like Blackberry that have the Opera Mini 4 browser installed.
We’ve taken Active Reports and turned it into a platform for delivering interactive analytic applications, with its own API, components, security, and analytic engine, said Gerald Cohen, CEO of New York-based Information Builders.
What Information Builders is trying to do with its Active Reports technology is very similar to Adobe’s Flex/Flash applications in terms of interactivity, but without any coding or Java browser plug-ins.
Information Builders said the new software will allow for more widescale distribution of BI dashboards which in the past has been hampered by set-up, user management, and training overheads.
The Active Dashboards technology changes this model as it is designed specifically to deploy and distribute dashboards to the masses without requiring specialized
Active Reports made its debut at the start of 2006. But last December Information Builders tweaked the portability capabilities to make them more mobile, taking advantage technological improvements in mobile data infrastructures to allow devices that use the Opera mobile browser to access and interact with Active Reports
Cohen said customers can expect further innovations based on the technology to creep into other areas of the BI and analytic applications portfolio.
