WebFOCUS Roadmap
Jennifer Lalik, Systems Engineer
November 18, 2010
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 1
WebFOCUS Roadmap
WebFOCUS Program Priorities
Exploit latest
hardware
Core
Product
innovations
Enhancements
Innovation Initiatives
BI Extension
Offerings
• Customer-driven, incremental
enhancements
• Implemented across product line
• Major new development effort
• New product offering or significant
upgrade to existing capabilities
• New products that expand
WebFOCUS platform via singlevendor, cost-effective alternatives
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 2
WebFOCUS Roadmap
WebFOCUS Release Highlights & Timelines
Current Release
2Q2010
-Release 7.6.11
Incremental
-Release 7.7.01
Production Release
enhancements: strong Premium Support
focus on report
formatting
enhancements
WebFOCUS Magnify
evolves: Scalability &
Performance
PMF 5.2
New RStat
New Flex Enable
Customer outreach
End-User
Dashboards
Strong focus on
performance,
metadata & adaptor
areas
New Data Migrator
Release 8 beta
program
3Q2010-4Q2010
- Release 7.7.02 (Sept.)
Production availability
- Release 8 beta
continues; first
customer ship by yearend
Major upgrades
across the product line
New WebFOCUS BI
Portal initiative
Next generation of
InfoAssist , RStat, &
Magnify, Flex Enable
New security model
Real-time offerings
Ongoing innovation
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 3
WebFOCUS Release 7.6.11
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 4
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 7.6.11
Enhancements for BI Applications
 Incremental enhancements in Developer Studio based on field
and customer feedback
 Areas of Focus
 Speed guided ad-hoc forms development
 Provide significant upgrades in PDF formatting
 Drive toward more consistency in development across
most popular output types
 Incremental improvements in WYSIWYG report & forms
development
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 5
WebFOCUS Roadmap
Information Assurance: WebFOCUS Commitment
IBI Committed to Provide Industry Leadership
Many WebFOCUS deployments are customer-facing,
partner-facing public internet applications
Major priority in our development program
 Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)
Only member Business Intelligence company
Proactive Approach:
Use latest Scanning tools, hacker techniques, code
reviews as means to identify potential vulnerabilities
*before* releases are finalized
Periodic audits and health checks implemented in
partnership with industry specialists
Certified @ Level 3 Application Security Verification
Standards
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 6
WebFOCUS Release 7.7
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 7
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 7.7
End-User Dashboards
Innovation
Initiative
Build Active Reports Flex Dashboards from within Info
Assist
Import existing reports and charts or build from scratch
Global filtering and filtering on specific dashboard
components
Advanced chaining, other parametric capabilities
(dimensions, measures, etc.)
Add new RIA components to Active Dashboards, e.g.,
multiple combo boxes, tabs, etc.
Visualization
Implementation of new Flex-based charts in Active
Report chart menu
Upgraded chart aesthetics for Active HTML reports
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 8
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 7.7
Enhancements for BI Applications
 Developer Studio: Automatic Generation of Guided Ad-hoc
Applications
 Goal is to reduce development time and need for scripting
 HTML Composer is starting point
 Developers call Report Painter directly and choose report
components: fields, stylesheets, drill-downs, sorting, ON
TABLE SET options
 New “Guided Report” report parameterizes above options,
imports the report into HTML Composer, and automatically
generates the appropriate launch web
 Dialogue Manager script generated
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 9
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 7.7
Limits Lifted
 Total Length of all fields – 256K
 Maximum size of Master
 Maximum size of structure created via JOIN
 Total Number of Segments - 1024
 Maximum number of segments in report structure
 Maximum number of JOINS- 1023
 Total Number of Sort Fields - 128
 Combination of BY and ACROSS fields
 Includes hidden sorts list FOCLIST
 Maximum size of single XFOCUS partition – 32 GB
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 10
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 7.7
Report Caster Scalability
Distribute reports in any format
Workload Management & Fail-Over
Vertical & Horizontal scaling
Report Library: Reports are always
available
Cached reports shared within
workgroups
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 11
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 7.7
ESRI Integration
Innovation
Initiative
 ArcGIS Server Support:
Available in today’s 7.6.10
product release
 Based on customer and field
demand, new product strategy
is to integrate with ESRI’s
Flex-based map viewer
 IB to deliver value-add
components for bi-directional
integration with ArcGIS Server
 Current IB-developed viewer
will not be enhanced
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 12
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 7.7
Performance Enhancements for Data Visualization
 WebFOCUS Visual Discovery
 In-memory analytics
 New version exploits 64-bit architecture
 Tens-of-millions of records accessible in-memory
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 13
WebFOCUS Release 8 Highlights
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 14
WebFOCUS 8 Overview
Business Intelligence
 Make business intelligence Pervasive in organizations
 Drives user adoption
 Improve richness of UI for all users
 Reduce latency in decision making
 Embed intelligence into business processes
 Lead market in security and usability compliance standards
 Strongest security for outward facing applications
WebFOCUS 8
Four Critical Elements For Smarter Decisions
 Data Integrity
 WebFOCUS incorporates data integration for all information



latency requirements and unique data integrity solutions.
Performance Management
 The new PMF allows organizations to increase strategic use of
information and analytics to meet critical business objectives drive
all levels of performance and manage risk.
Business Intelligence
 The core feature enhancements expand our lead in enterprise user
adoption and large-scale customer-facing deployments.
Advanced Analytics
 The use of visualization and predictive
analytics to shorten and simplify
decision cycles.
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 8
WebFOCUS Upgrade Goals for Release 8
Provide support, services and product features to
minimize impact of upgrade costs
Existing applications must function as in previous
release: Report scripts, forms, metadata, etc. will
work w/o any changes
Installation will respect configuration settings
Change management facilities will automatically
move all application objects (including
dashboards) and user definitions (e.g., roles, etc.)
Prior to release: Proactive customer outreach
effort to identify and support any widely-used
customizations
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 17
Core Business Intelligence
Enhanced RIA Development
 Adding AJAX and Flex
controls to Developer Studio
 Implementation of RIA-based
widgets
 Create rich internet
application without the need
for 3rd party tools
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 18
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 8
Development Environment
 User Interface and workflow changes planned
 Build Rich Internet Guided Ad-hoc Applications via
Developer Studio
 Implementation of RIA-based widgets
 Customizable pre-built interactive components
that can be used inside HTML pages to manage
navigation, animation, etc. w/in BI applications
 Build highly customized dashboards
 WYSIWYG Capability in Report Painter environment
 Advanced Charting with much simplified UI
 Options available via ribbon-style navigation UI
 One charting tool for Developer Studio & InfoAssist
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 19
Core Business Intelligence
InfoAssist Enhancements
 UI Customization for InfoAssist
 Customizable Application


Ribbon (InfoMini)
 Select specific IA options
on a per report basis
Cube browsing within report
output
Tool & data in any language
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 20
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 21
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 22
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 23
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 8
Customizing User Interactivity
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 24
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 8
Customizing User Interactivity
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 25
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 8
Customizing User Interactivity
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 26
Browser
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 27
WebFOCUS 8 Overview
New BI Portal
 Highly flexible BI Portal
 User and Role based


deployment
Completely customizable by
end users
Consistent UI Ribbon “look
and feel” with InfoAssist
WebFOCUS BI Portal Overview
WebFOCUS BI Portal, the coming replacement to
WebFOCUS Dashboard, is a fully integrated reporting
environment. It is built using the same cutting edge AJAX
technology and user interface as WebFOCUS InfoAssist.
Building your own custom Views and Pages is as simple as a
few clicks.
Coming in WebFOCUS 8
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 29
WebFOCUS BI Portal is S.I.M.P.L.E.
STUNNING
INTUITIVE
MODERN
PROFESSIONAL
LIVE
EASY
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 30
Functional Objectives
Design Views (sites)
Design Pages
Customize
Navigation Layout
User Customization
Add/Remove Content
Add Content
Customize Banners
(0 – 4)
Drag Content
Collapse Content
Customize Menu Bar
Branding
Configure Content
Behavior
Change Colors
• Drag and Drop
• Collapsible
• Tabbed
Change Fonts
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 31
Web 2.0 Dashboard Trends
 Extensively reviewed Web 2.0 Personalized Homepages
http://mashable.com/2007/06/29/personalized-homepages/
 User Defined Content
 Drag and Drop Content
 Collapsible Content
 Tabbed Content
 Customized Layouts
 Themes
 Strong Corporate
Branding and Identity
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 32
View Design






Visual Interface
Customize Navigation Layout
Enable 0 – 4 banner areas
Customize the Domain Tree location
Choose from one of many included
themes
Personalize with Text, HTML, and
Images
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 33
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 8
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Default Tabs at
Login
Configuration
Menus
Report & Graph
View for “Today”
Dashboard
WebFOCUS Roadmap
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Click “Settings”
to Open
Navigation
Menu
Opens
Properties
Menu
WebFOCUS Roadmap
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Multiple layout
options
Move to Right
side
WebFOCUS Roadmap
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Click “Hide” to close configure mode
New Style Sheet changes background to Blue
WebFOCUS Roadmap
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Choose Page
Layout
New Page
append Tab list
Customize Dashboard at User Level
WebFOCUS Roadmap
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Choose
Page
Content
Objects to
setup
layout and
design
Layout #1
Accordion
Layout #2
Tabbed
WebFOCUS Roadmap
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Insert
Report &
Graph into
Layout
WebFOCUS Roadmap
BI Portal Personalization & Customization
Finalize Dashboard properties, save and share
WebFOCUS 8 Overview
Predictive Analytics - RStat



Based on R-System
 Open Source Predictive modeling
and statistics
Embed predictions into operational BI
applications
Provides..
 Data Preparation
 Data Exploration
 Hypothesis Testing
 Model Building
 Model Evaluation
 Model Deployment/ Application
Creation
WebFOCUS 8 Overview
Advanced Visualization – “In-memory Visual Analytics”
 New 64-bit visualization
components
 Tested with over 25 million
rows in-memory
 Easily find outliers and
relationships in large data sets
Core Business Intelligence Enhancements
Enhanced Security & Usability Compliance
Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)
Hacker-proofing software applications
Only Business Intelligence company
Level 3 Certification
Application Security Verification Standards
3rd party audit
508 Compliance for US federal government
Many WebFOCUS deployments are customerfacing, B2B, or public internet applications
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 44
WebFOCUS Roadmap: Release 8
Next Generation of Security Integration
Reporting Server Security
DBA: Data security (in addition to RDBMS)
Authentication, Single Sign-on
Based on Roles
Set of permissions mapped to which
objects and tools a user or group of users
can
access
Can be highly customized, flexible
List, Create, Delete an object
Read, Update
Execute (report, report template, etc.)
New model will be RDBMS-based and provide single
repository for the entire product (including Report Caster)
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 45
Update: BI Extension Offerings
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 46
WebFOCUS Roadmap
Key RStat Programs for 2010
Innovation
Initiative
 Free with Developer Studio
 Specialized services via Fractal
 Business Analytic Applications
BAA are based on industry
standard measurement
methodologies
Solve a particular business
problem, instead of being a
framework
Do not require data model –
most frequently built against existing
systems and flat files
Highly customizable on a case by
case basis
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 47
WebFOCUS Roadmap
Key Trend: Convergence of Search & BI
Unified Information Access
2006-2007
BI and Search will remain
separate technologies
convergence
2008-2009
search
Business
Intelligence
Search + BI = Unified
Information Access
Information Access
Technologies
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 48
WebFOCUS 8
Performance Management
 WebFOCUS 8 offers integrated performance management that



taps into every & any operational system
Helps align Strategic and Operational initiatives
It is one of the only solutions integrated directly in to a Business
Intelligence infrastructure
Promotes a culture of accountability
WebFOCUS 8 Overview
Performance Management




Compelling Dashboards/Scorecards
 Role personalization
 Dashboard animation
 Full analytics and social tools
Performance and Risk
 Aligns impact of performance
and associated risks
Broad and Open world view
 Web 2.0 mashups, Industry
Metrics Catalog
Vertical and Horizontal Starter Kits
 Commercial, Public, Finance
WebFOCUS Roadmap
WebFOCUS Magnify
 Provides real-time indexing of transactional information
 Searches, categorizes structured and unstructured information
 Easy access for any type of user
 New Initiatives:
 Scalability & performance enhancements driven by LEA




implementations
Support for Office 2007, many other file formats
Access to third-party and custom dictionaries
Synonym Searching
 Automatically broadens submitted searches by also
searching terms with meanings similar to the terms
submitted
Internationalization
WebFOCUS & iWay Blended Offerings
WebFOCUS 8
iWay Data Profiler
Gathers statistics about
enterprise data
Provides key reports and
analysis on general data
health
Helps Identify and prioritize
issues that need attention