In-Depth
Snapshot of BI tools supporting Web services
- By Lana Gates
- December 31, 2002
Actuate Corp.
San Francisco, Calif.,
www.actuate.com
Actuate 6 and Actuate Spreadsheet Option -- Web Services API, pure
SOAP, WSDL-certified API; integrates XML capabilities into generation, storage
and delivery of Actuate content.
Business Objects
San Jose, Calif.
www.businessobjects.com
BusinessObjects, WebIntelligence and BusinessObjects Developer Suite --
Cross-platform API; info can be accessed and formatted in XML for use in other
systems; XML can be used as info source for creating reports within
BusinessObjects. Pricing starts at $415 per user; Developer Suite is $15,000 per
user.
ClearForest Corp.
New York, N.Y.
www.clearforest.com
ClearResearch, ClearEvents and ClearSight -- Reads and processes any type of
unstructured textual data; produces richly tagged XML; can automatically
integrate tagged XML content from multiple sources. Pricing starts at
$50,000.
Cognos Inc.
Burlington, Mass.
www.cognos.com
Cognos Series 7 and Cognos Web Services SDK -- Builds connections between
Cognos software and multiple applications. Price is $10,000 per developer
seat
Crystal Decisions
Palo Alto, Calif.
www.crystaldecisions.com
Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Reports and Crystal Analysis Professional --
End-to-end support for XML; creates reports off and exports to XML documents;
turns Crystal reports into ''XML Report Web Services.'' Pricing starts at $195 for
Crystal Reports Standard.
Dimensional Insight Inc.
Burlington, Mass.
www.dimins.com
DI-Diver, DI-ProDiver, DI-WebDiver, DI-ReportDiver and DI-Broadcast -- Gives
users access to interactive data analysis and OLAP functionality as well as
access to published reports in XML, CSV, BBF, HTML, Tab Delimited and PDF.
Pricing ranges from $50,000-$120,000 (server-side components, up to 100 client
licenses).
Hummingbird Ltd.
Toronto, Ontario
www.hummingbird.com
Hummingbird BI -- Connectivity to XML data via ODBC drivers; ability to
integrate info from multiple sources via XML into reports, tables, charts and
maps. Pricing varies according to number of seats and functionality.
Informatica Corp.
Redwood City, Calif.
www.informatica.com
Informatica PowerAnalyzer -- Ability to import/export object definitions via
XML format. Pricing starts at $50,000
Information Builders Inc.
New York, N.Y.
www.informationbuilders.com
WebFocus -- Can read XML as input and generate output in XML format, which
can be sent to an end user or another app. Pricing starts at around $15,000.
Insightful Corp.
Seattle, Wash.
www.insightful.com
StatServer and Analytics Serve -- Web-based deployment of data analysis
and visualization. Pricing starts at $30,000 for single CPU, unlimited
clients.
MicroStrategy Inc.
McLean, Va.
www.microstrategy.com
MicroStrategy Web Universal and MicroStrategy SDK -- Uses XML natively for
all API communications, allowing all MicroStrategy BI functionality to be
exposed through Web services. Pricing forWeb Universal starts at $370 per user
or $30,000/CPU; SDK is $4,995/developer.
SQL Power Group Inc.
Toronto, Ontario
www.sqlpower.ca
Power*Dashboard -- Web-enables the process of management reporting and key
performance indicator tracking. Pricing starts at $39,000
Targit
Atlanta, Ga.
www.targit.com
Targit Analysis 2K2 -- Can pick up any XML file, put it into a SQL server and
then analyze/report off that. Price is $20,000.
See the related story ''XML meets the data
warehouse''
About the Author
Lana Gates is a freelance writer based in Mesa, Arizona. She can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].