Hummingbird Enhances OLAP Functionality of BI/Suite
BI/Analyze 5.0, a New Version of Company's OLAP Application, offers
Unique Offline Analysis Capability and Support for Microsoft OLE DB for OLAP
TORONTO, Nov. 3 /CNW-PRN/ - Hummingbird Communications Ltd. (TSE: ''HUM'' and NASDAQ: ''HUMCF''), a world leading enterprise software company, today begins shipping BI/Analyze 5.0, the latest release of the company's enterprise OLAP client. BI/Analyze (formerly
known as Hummingbird PaBLO) will be offered as a standalone OLAP client and as a component of Hummingbird's BI/Suite.
BI/Analyze's support for Microsoft's OLE DB for OLAP API will enable connectivity to multidimensional databases such as Microsoft SQL Server 7's OLAP Services, as well as to other OLE DB for OLAP-compliant sources such as SAP Business Warehouse, NCR TeraCube and WhiteLight. These new connectivities add to the support in previous versions for Hyperion (formerly Arbor) Essbase, Informix MetaCube and IBM's DB2 OLAP Server. BI/Analyze's wide range of
connectivity options gives customers maximum flexibility when developing a data warehouse or data mart solution.
BI/Analyze is unique among OLAP applications in that it offers Mobile OLAP functionality that lets users analyze cubes offline and refresh their data when they reconnect to the data source. In addition, administrators can use BI/Analyze's powerful cube-building engine to slice off portions of server-side cubes and store them as departmental cubes.
''BI/Analyze goes beyond basic OLE DB for OLAP access to the multidimensional information managed by Microsoft SQL Server OLAP Services and other OLAP products,'' says Steve Murchie, Microsoft's data warehousing product manager. ''BI/Analyze will now allow customers to perform analysis while disconnected using the application's offline OLAP capability, thereby enabling
rich capabilities for the mobile user.''
''Our customers use MetaCube to get at vast amounts of mission-critical data, so speed of access is crucial,'' says Frank McGuff, Informix's director of product planning and development, MetaCube ROLAP Option. ''BI/Analyze's performance and scalability enhancements enable a fast, flexible OLAP-centric view of the MetaCube-powered warehouse.''
''More than 2,000 companies worldwide have deployed Hyperion Essbase OLAP Server for scalable, cross-platform, enterprise OLAP applications,'' said Daniel Druker, vice president of
marketing for Hyperion Solutions. ''BI/Analyze has offered high performance, native integration with Hyperion Essbase for more than two years. The new mobile OLAP features of BI/Analyze 5.0
extend the power of Hyperion Essbase for a wide range of mobile analytic applications, delivering compelling solutions for companies with large communities of connected and nomadic users.''
Ron Spencer, Hummingbird's Vice President of Research & Development, Business Intelligence Group, says that BI/Analyze allows users to examine their business data from multiple perspectives
and quickly identify areas that require attention. ''Unlike competing OLAP tools, BI/Analyze users can do this without being connected to a live database,'' adds Spencer. ''That makes it perfect for
executives on the road.''
BI/Analyze is part of BI/Suite, the Hummingbird business intelligence solution that allows end users to access and analyze information stored in transactional databases, data marts and data warehouses
both on the desktop and over the Web. In addition to BI/Analyze, BI/Suite includes BI/Query, an enterprise query and reporting application, BI/Web, a true thin-client solution for performing query
and reporting tasks on the Web, and BI/Broker, an enterprise application server designed to provide scheduling, security, distribution, notification and centralized administration services to all of Hummingbird's business intelligence applications. BI/Suite offers organizations a complete, integrated enterprise business intelligence solution with the lowest cost of ownership.
Availability and Pricing
BI/Analyze is expected to be available in, November, 1998, at a standalone price of US $695 per seat.
About Hummingbird
Hummingbird Communications Ltd. specializes in the development of enterprise software solutions, including network connectivity and business intelligence products that provide high performance
access to internetwork-based information and applications. Hummingbird products are sold and supported internationally by authorized resellers in more than 40 countries. The Company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with offices strategically located throughout Canada and the United States, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and South Africa.
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