WebFOCUS Program Update:
Continued Innovation &
Customer-Driven Advancements
Dan Ortolani
VP AdvancedTechnology Services
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 1
Core Mission & Philosophy
 Core Mission: Dedicated to provide the best platform
and tools for creating and delivering large enterprise
information systems
 Maintain and expand a wide range of capabilities –
from data access to application development
 Continuous improvements in development
efficiencies to reduce the cost and time to deliver
enterprise information systems
 Strategic Goals: Use the platform’s core strengths to
power an ecosystem BI related technologies to allow
customers to expand their information systems in new
areas such as predictive analytics, search, etc.
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 2
Development Areas Breakdown
 Core Product Enhancements:
 60% of development resources
 Hundreds of new features per release
 Example: Multi-Fact Support in Metadata
 Strategic Extensions to Core Product:
 15% of development resources
 Approximately 2-3 products per year
 Example: Hyperstage, ziip support
 New BI Extensions:
 25% of development resources
 2-3 new products or extensions to new products per year
 Example: RStat, Magnify, Data Migrator, Mobile
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 3
At IBI Innovation is an Institutionalized Process
Industry &
Technology
Conferences
Market
Perspective
WF
Advisory
Board
POCs
Plans &
Prototypes
Customer
Cross
Reference
Industry
Analysts
Executive
Team
Panels
Hands on
Ethical
Competitor
Research
Employee
Innovation
Council
Customer
Input
Strategic
Development
User
Croups
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 4
Core Philosophy: Continuous Innovation & Capability
Expansion to Support Business & People Growth Over Time
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 5
Innovative and Useful Technologies: Developed Here
 Why useful?
 Invention is the creation of new technology:
 we do a lot of this!
 Innovation is the proliferation of new technologies in the market:
 We aim for high adoption!
 So all of our inventions have to be useful!
 InfoAssist
 Big Data Adapters
 New Data Migrator
 Mobile
 508 Compliance
 New releases – Rstat, ESRI viewer, Enable
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 6
Release Snapshot
Release Schedule & Related Initiatives
 Release 7.7.03 – GA now!
 Release 8 – Beta now, Production release end of
December 2011
 WebFOCUS Enable, RStat, and Performance Management
Framework on flexible, independent release tracks
 New ATS Strategic Support Services team – 100%
focused on supporting Release 8 customer rollout
 Beyond Release 8 (2012-2013)
 Escalating investment across core and new BI
Extension areas
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 7
Industry Trends & WebFOCUS
Strategic Development Projects:
Release 7.7
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 8
Trend: Mobility
WebFOCUS Mobile
Enterprise Mobile Enablement
Any Device, Any Form Factor, Any OS Platform
 WebFOCUS Mobile Strategy:
 Offer device independent BI
solutions
 Offer develop once, deploy
anywhere environment
 Offer highly interactive, device
exploitive Web Apps with built in
analytic capabilities
 Make it easy to embed BI Web
Apps in custom applications

WebFOCUS MobileComponents:
 Active Technologies
 Mobile Favorites
 Mobile Faves
 WebFOCUS Maintain
 ..and forthcoming extensions
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 10
Active Technologies for Mobile Web Apps
 Ease of Use




Single-tap UI paradigm
Full gesture & screen rotation support
Embedded data analysis and visualization
Full offline data interactivity
 Ease of Development
 Dynamic device detection
 Build once, fit in any device
 Industry Standard
 Web Apps technology
 iPhone App-like UI
 Available in HTML or Flash
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 12
Mobile Faves App for iOS (iPad &iPhone)
 Native app for consumption of
WebFOCUS content
 Provides controlled access to
WebFOCUS content through:
 SSO security
 Mobile Favorites portal (normal
“pull”)
 Email attachments (“Open-in”)
 Subscribed documents
(automatic “push”)
 Access to any online WebFOCUS
application or content
 Allows saving, emailing and
cataloging of stand-alone content
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 1
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 13
Maintain for User Input Mobile Applications
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 14
Update Assist: Six Easy Steps
1. Launched Update Assist by
right-clicking on a Master File.
2. Select the fields to which you
want to Add, Update or Delete
data.
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 15
Update Assist: Six Easy Steps
3. Select the navigation option for the application.
4. Select skins.
5. Select name for the default files created by
Update Assist
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 16
Update Assist: Six Easy Steps
6. Launch the application
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 17
Trend: Big Data
Improve database performance for
WebFOCUS applications with less
hardware, no database tuning and easy
migration.
WebFOCUS Hyperstage
Enterprise Mobile Enablement
WebFOCUS Hyperstage
 No indexes
 No partitions
 No views
 No materialized aggregates
 Value proposition
Low IT overhead
Allows for autonomy from IT
Ease of implementation
Fast time to market
Less Hardware
Lower TCO
No DBA
Required!
WebFOCUS Hyperstage Engine
How does it work?
Column Orientation
Smarter
Architecture
Knowledge Grid – statistics
and metadata “describing” the
super-compressed data
 No maintenance
 No query planning
 No partition schemes
 No DBA
Data Packs – data
stored
in manageably sized,
highly compressed data
packs
Data compressed
using algorithms
tailored to
data type
Company A
Data Compression
SQL Server Database
418GB
Hyperstage Database
10GB
Company A
Query Results
•
•
Test 3 represented the most commons scenario for this customer with
Hyperstage running at close to 3X faster than SQL Server
Test 4 was a scenario where SQL Server (32 secs) was slightly faster than
Hyperstage (38 secs)
Company B
Data Compression
SQL Server Database
400GB
Hyperstage Database
37GB
Company B
Query Results
•
•
These queries were full table scans for SQL Server but were well suited to the
Hyperstage architecture
Case study to be documented
WebFOCUS Hyperstage Adapter
 Available with 7.7.03M and Release 8
 Will be included in future releases of the server
software
 Access to the Hyperstage data store will be enabled
via the adapter
 Enables tight integration and administration via the
WebFOCUS console
 HyperCopy – integrated ETL included
Industry Trends & WebFOCUS
Strategic Development Projects:
R e l e a s e 8 a n d B e yo n d
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 26
Trend: Self-Service BI
Enabling Self Service for Business Users:
BI Portal & InfoAssist
The Self Service Trend: Hype & Reality
 Self-Service is the new management fad: banking, retail, telecom, BI….
 Self-Service Myths: Valid across all industries

1. Self- Service is a foolproof way to reduce cost:
 Implement it right or not at all
2. Self-Service eliminates IT bottlenecks (customer interactions):
 Works only as part of a multi-channel service plan
3. Self-Service is a quick fix:
 It is often only a transfer of cost
 It frequently alienates users
4. One Self-Service method fits all customers and all their needs:
 Only some customers prefer self-service: Find out who
 Many BI customers do not know any better
For IBI Self-Service is one aspect of a much broader enterprise information
and decision support system
IB/WebFOCUS Differentiation
 In a mature industry everyone claims to have:
 A great BI portal
 A great Ad Hoc tool
 BI Portal: Focus on becoming a BI engagement platform
 Customizable: Let the users define how they consume content
 Collaborative: Let the users define how they want to publish and share

content
 Componentized: Let the users define what widgets they want to add
and from which permitted platforms to their content pages.
InfoAssist: Single tool and single workflow to make the tool as easy and
ubiquitous as Excel for the analytic BI user
 Enhanced analytic capabilities
 Enhanced interactive design capabilities
 Enhanced customization via function/feature shrink-wrap & plugins
BI Portal: New Features
 Portal Design: Targets the BI Developer:
 Key Differentiators:
 Same UI & Workflow as InfoAssist
 Standard Web Development UI and Workflow Paradigm
 Key Features:
 Live designer
 Robust layout options: Freeform & column based
 Content Panels: Tabbed, accordion, etc.
 Themes Support: Nine packaged CSS themes
 Dynamic Report Styling
 Chart AutoFit
 End User Customization:
 PowerPoint like workflow
 Familiar drag & drop experience
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 31
BI Portal:End User Portal Content Customization
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 32
BI Portal:Development of Portal Views
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 33
BI Portal: Development of Portal Views
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 34
BI Portal: Development of Portal Views
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 35
InfoAssist: New Features in 8 and Beyond

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


InfoMini for Mobile devices
Sub query Support (hold files)
New Visualization Engine
Design & Styling
 CSS3 support
 Relative Positioning
 Full Active Report Styling
 Multi-page layouts
 Conditional Styling
 Field to Field
 Drill Down
 Chart sizing options
More Analytic Functions
 Customized Subtotals
 Redesigned Calculations
508 Report Output
Key Focus: Simplicity
 Replace Compute/Define dialog with ribbon and canvas integrated
calculations
 WITHIN support so you can do PCT type calculations within a certain sort



level
Multi-fact support
New Visualization Engine
Hold files
Hold Files
Hold Files
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 38
Hold Files – Document Mode
Hold Files – Document Mode
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 39
Trend: Data Visualization
New Visualization Engine
The New Visualization Engine: Benefits
 An entirely new unified visualization technology that is now being


rolled out across our entire product line
The benefits:
 The exact same chart experience in all output formats: Active
Technologies, HTML5, Flex, PDF
 The same set of properties and syntax for all IBI products
 A high level of visual sophistication:
 Gradients
 Animations
 Works in all browsers including mobile
 Easily expandable and customizable:
 Allows IBI consultants and BI developers to quickly meet
customer requirements by adding custom properties and
features
Availability: Version 1.0 for regular and Active HTML output formats.
Active Technologies
Sample HTML5 output
Interactive Data Discovery
Trend 5: Social Networking & Collaboration
Social Networking and Collaboration
 BI Portal allows for easy integration/display of Facebook,
Twitter, other external widgets
 Facebook Adapter
 In development currently
 Users Facebook API to access data via WebFOCUS
 Information can be passed to specialized tools to
perform sentiment analysis
Trend: BI SaaS Deployments
WebFOCUS for SaaS Environments
SaaS Business Requirements
Tenant
Isolation
Tenant
Onboarding
Architecture
Tool
Deployment
SaaS
Deployment
Branding
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide
48
Increased Traction of SaaS BI Solutions
In WebFOCUS’ customer base, SaaS requirements are
influencing new feature development in these areas:
Granular security model
User Interface branding
Multi-tenancy features
Strong demand for web-based administration and
development model
Best Practices guide
Specialized adapters, e.g., WebFOCUS integration with
SalesForce
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 49
Trend: BI Tools Consolidation/Cost Savings
Tools for Converting to WebFOCUS
BI Tools Consolidation and Cost Savings
 Crystal Reports-to-WebFOCUS conversion tool
 RDL-to-WebFOCUS conversion tool
 Business Objects-to-WebFOCUS Metadata
adapter/conversion capability
 Convert Universe to WebFOCUS Cluster Join
 SAS-to-RStat Best Practices for conversion
BI Extensions: Enable, RStat, Mapping
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 52
Enable for Adobe Flex
Branded Customer Facing Applications
 Demand from strategic

customers for Flash-based,
specialized, highly visible
applications
Adobe’s Flash Builder
development environment:
 Strong industry adoption
with a huge development
community
 New version of Adobe’s
Flash Builder with built in
capbilities to compile on
any device
 Strong IDE for development
of custom components
Enable for Adobe Flex
Build In Enable, Customize in InfoAssist
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 54
What is the best that can happen?
Predictive Modeling
What will happen next?
Forecasting/Extrapolation
What of these trends continue?
Statistical Analysis
Why is this happening?
KPIs/Alerts
What actions are needed?
Query/Drill Down
Where exactly is the problem?
Ad Hoc Reports
How many, how often, where?
Standard Reports
What happened?
Rear View
Optimization
Forward View
RStat
Culture of Competing On Analytics
Degree of Intelligence
Note: Adapted from “Competing on Analytics”
RStat
Business Analytic Applications
Copyright 2007, Information Builders. Slide 56
RStat
Application Templates
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 57
Thank You!
Copyright 2010, Information Builders. Slide 58