Oakbridge Terrace, Illinois-based Platinum Technology Inc has released Version 4.0 of its Forest & Trees database access and analysis tool including a new dynamic query manager with auto-query updating and report templates, a new C++ meta layer for customized applications and dialog based environment for rapid application development. It comes with a new graph engine enabling interactive three-dimensional graphs and business graphics for depicting numerical data for analyzing trends and drill down for specific details. Cross tabulation tables let you slice and dice the data and analyze it for multiple dimensions. Automatic data monitoring comes with alarms and triggers for analysis, distribution such as electronic mail and Notes and prin t-outs. An inheritance facility automatically propagates changes to existing applications. A meta layer provides links to other Platinum products and includes a new interface to Platinum’s Repository through Platinum’s read-only graphical Windows tool, Data Shopper. Forest & Trees can be used with Platinum’s InfoHub to access data from mainframe sources. Platinum will include an Internet add-on pack by the year-end for enabling HyperText Mark-up Language generation from reports, views and grap hs, a net browser view type and database interface to return data from the Web. Typical applications include sales, inventory and stock depletion tracking: the effectiveness of promotional activities including the comparison of sales results and lin king results to the costs of promotions and monitoring retail store sales, revenue against expenses, analysis of department-specific budgeting information and the reviewing of historical figures. Forest & Trees goes from $800 per enterprise user an d $1,000 for the administrative version. Platinum claims Forest & Trees is licensed to more than 85,000 users. Meantime Platinum is climbing aboard the Year 2000 problem and integrating San Francisco, California-based Adpac Corp’s Year 2000 impact analysis technology with Platinum Repository and CCC/Life Cycle Manager change management system for MVS.
